Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Literature Explains The Attraction Of Public Shaming
This spectacle raises a deeper question: why does infidelity, especially among the powerful, provoke such public outcry. Literary tradition offers some insight: intimate betrayal...
What Powers (Almost) Everything We Do
North America’s electric system is a miracle, but also kind of a mess. - The New Atlantis
French Government Creating a Digital Twin Of Notre Dame
The French government has teamed up with tech giant Microsoft to create a “digital twin” of the 862-year-old treasure. This virtual version will be...
Artist Cancels Smithsonian Show Over Censorship Fears
Amy Sherald, the celebrated painter best known for her official portrait of Michelle Obama, has canceled an upcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, citing...
Trump Dismisses Concerns Over Copyright And AI
“You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're...
Publishers Worry Trump Will Gut Copyright For AI
"You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you’ve read or studied, you’re...
How AI Is Changing The Art (And Business) Of Acting
“Plenty of actors I’ve worked with have had that moment where they see what’s possible and realize, ‘Oh my God, this is so much...
Will A Wave Of New Online Age-Restriction Laws Chill Free Speech?
Around the world, a new wave of child protection laws are forcing a profound shift that could normalize rigorous age checks broadly across the...
Paramount’s Big “South Park” Problem After The Trump Penis Episode
The episode did not hold back on crass jokes aimed at Trump, showing him with a “teeny tiny” penis both in animation and as...
The Essentialness Of The Traditional Arts Review
Reviews are rooted in the most fundamental unit of the art business—the personal encounter with individual works (or exhibits of many works)—and in the...
France’s Culture Minister To Go On Trial For Corruption
Rachida Dati, 59, who has publicly outlined her ambition to become mayor of Paris in 2026, was charged in 2019 on suspicions she lobbied...
US Senator Proposes Anti Money-Laundering Bill For Art
The bill—titled the Art Market Integrity Act—would amend the Bank Secrecy Act to require art dealers and auction houses to comply with anti-money-laundering (AML) and...
Benedict Cumberbatch: Hollywood’s Epic Waste Problem
“It’s a grossly wasteful industry. Think about set builds that aren’t recycled, think about transport, think about food, think about housing, but also light...
Arvo Part At 90
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pärt has found a way to speak across boundaries of culture, creed and generation. In the world of contemporary...
Are We Now Defining Ourselves By Who/What We Hate?
Descartes had a famous dictum about the constitutive powers of the thinking self: I think therefore I am. Could it be that, today, I...
New AI Tool Helps Researchers Fill In Missing Letters And Words In Ancient Roman...
Named Aeneas after the mythical Trojan hero, the program predicts where and when inscriptions were made and makes suggestions where words are missing. -...
Can Burning Man Survive Financial Hardship?
Despite its explosive popularity over the years, in 2024 Burning Man fell short of its fundraising goals and saw a reduction in ticket sales....
Maybe AI Slop Will Cure Us Of Our Internet Addiction?
Where going online once evoked a wide-eyed sense that the world was at our fingertips, now it requires wading into the slop like weary,...
Understanding Popularity Through Taylor Swift’s Song Construction
Swift is increasingly taken seriously in the halls of academia. A number of universities offer courses dedicated to Swift, but typically not to her...
Why, After Years Of Progress, Have Women Playwrights Lost The Spotlight?
The low representational numbers for women are difficult to square. By various measures (including the numbers of women graduating from degree programs in the...
In The Age Of Facial Recognition, What Does Privacy Even Mean?
No one knows exactly how the system obtains its matches. There is an entire field in AI known as “mechanistic interpretability” that is attempting...
American Library Association’s New Plan: Focus On Advocacy And Activism
The plan addresses national policy, library legislation, and local connections. “While libraries serve as a cornerstone of democracy the world over, we operate within...
The Enduring Allure Of Puzzles
The problem with a competitive approach to puzzles is that you take what is intended as a soothing and distracting pastime and quietly hitch...
The Prolific Writer Phenomenon
Prolific writers are simultaneously envied and dismissed, admired and snarked about. There is the sense that a writer can write too much, that whatever...
Idea: Replace NEA, NEH With A National $5 Campaign?
Through small contributions from Americans who care about their museums, arts organizations, and libraries, a national fund could be built that provides steady, apolitical...
