Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
SAG-AFTRA Actors Vote To Strike
With the Writers Guild strike now in its 73rd day, this will be the first time that actors and writers have been on strike at the...
Boring No More: Belgium’s Architecture Boom
The contemporary Flemish architecture is an enjoyably polyphonic architecture, that enjoys all kinds of complexities and contradictions. It’s boom is even more surprising as...
Misbehaving Audiences, A History
"As far back as the ancient Greeks people like Plato were complaining about what he called a vicious theatrocracy, where audiences who were previously happy...
First Pictures: Giant Oak Trusses For Notre Dame Hoisted Into Place
With trusses weighing 7 to 7.5 tons, the delicate operation drew crowds along a bridge over the Seine River and on its banks. -...
Chicago Versus Pittsburgh: Jeremy Reynolds Compares Orchestras
If anything, Chicago’s precision and balance may give it an edge. However, there’s a raw enthusiasm and vim to Pittsburgh’s performances that I rarely hear...
The Five Most Common Delusions Worldwide
One possibility is that “they reflect the common existential issues or dilemmas of living which preoccupy all human beings,” they write. “Another is that...
70 Years Ago Today: Canada’s Stratford Festival Began
The Stratford Festival has come a long way in 70 years but the story of how racialized artists began to get a foothold and...
Appreciating Peter Schjeldahl
Schjeldahl’s best stuff, to borrow something he said about Clement Greenberg, is always “in command of what it omits.” One conspicuous omission is any...
The Reigning Guru Of Pop Music
Some claim that he has “revolutionized pop,” while others argue that he has, as the clickbait-y title of one video essay puts it,...
Eastern Europe Debates The Fate Of Soviet-Era Monuments
Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 once again fueled the debate in different Eastern European countries, including in Latvia and Poland, where imposing Soviet monuments,...
Facing The Truth: The Edinburgh Fringe Is Broken
We’d all known the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been broken for a while now, with prices running out of control. But it’s been difficult to focus...
I’ve Been Using AI To Automate My Writing
I have been experimenting with my literary automaton to see how well it accomplishes this task. Or, as Robot Kyle put it when I...
Study: We Hear Silence As A “Sound”
In a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used a series of sonic illusions to show that people...
The Idea Of A Global Town Square Is Dead
The dream of the internet’s bipartisan “town square” is ending, transforming into many town squares tucked in alleys and behind buildings, because the actors...
The New Feminist Dance Novels
Two recent novels put romantic longing and steamy couplings alongside discussion of body politics, feminism and #MeToo in ballet. First Position, written by ex-American...
This Year’s Emmy Nominations
The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held Sept. 18 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. - Variety
What You Need To Know Abut An Impending Actors’ Strike
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed that SAG-AFTRA was much closer to reaching a deal with Hollywood studios than the union’s counterpart, the...
Why It Might Not Be Good Strategy To “Expect The Worst”
Folk wisdom suggests that if you expect the worst, then you won’t be disappointed. This advice is pervasive; it can drive meteorologists to over-promise rain...
Why So Few Older Actors Leading Movies?
On the other hand, you don't see many eighty-year-olds leading mainstream movies—especially big-budget blockbusters for revenue-starved conglomerates. - Statsignificant
An Arts Funding Crisis In The UK
As it stands, organisations across the regions are facing critical decisions—or, worse, closure. Levelling up is widely considered to have failed. - The Art Newspaper
UK Study: An Artist Income Crisis
Notably, the surveyed artists' professional practice represented just 33% of their overall income, with many having to rely on additional ways to bring in...
Authors Sue For Copyright After AI “Ingests” Their Work
This case will “likely rest on whether courts view the use of copyright material in this way as ‘fair use’”, said Lilian Edwards, professor...
Frustration As Italy Starts Charging For Entrance To The Pantheon
The equivalent of about $5.50 might be a small price to pay to see one of the world’s most iconic monuments — where the...
The Artist Who’s Dominating AI-Generated Art (And Not Happy About It)
According to the website Lexica, which tracks over 10 million images and prompts generated by Stable Diffusion, Greg Rutkowski’s name has been used as a...
Haruki Murakami On Running Your Life
I didn’t have any ambition to be a “novelist.” I just had the strong desire to write a novel. I had no concrete image...
