Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Have We Misunderstood Originality In Art?
It might just be inevitable to conclude that, as Shakespeare himself wrote, ‘there be nothing new, but that which is hath been before’ –...
Mind-To-Mind Connection
‘Good old-fashioned telepathy’ (GOFT) involves a direct transfer of thoughts from one mind to another. It has captivated people for a few reasons. - Aeon
UK Gets Another New Culture Minister (12th In 13 Years)
Frazer has expressed little or no interest in the UK’s creative industries publicly. One of her few interventions came in 2021 when, as Financial...
Houston Grand Opera Gets $22 Million Gift
HGO announced a gift of $22 million, the largest in the organization’s 68-year history. The benefactors: Sarah and Ernest Butler, two Austin-based opera fans...
In Which We Try To Convince You Of Similarities Between Classical Music And Heavy...
There are many technical similarities between classical music, especially music from the baroque period, and metal, which others more versed in music theory are...
A New Database Shows American Museums And Universities That Still Hold Native American Artifacts...
33 years after the law’s passage, at least half of the remains of more than 210,000 Native Americans have yet to be returned. Tribes...
The Right’s Attack On African-American Studies And What’s At Stake
In the so-called concern about the left ruling the campuses, what we actually have is an onslaught by the right wing to control what...
X-Rays Reveal Portrait Under Cezanne Masterpiece
The X-ray, oriented on its side, has the original Still Life composition occupying two quadrants on the right. But the left side—the black backdrop of the...
Portrait Of The Next-Generation Art Collector
Owning around 150 artworks, the Paris-based art collector actively shares his latest art acquisitions and stylish home interiors on his Instagram profile. Many of the...
How “Yellowstone” Became An Epic TV Franchise
What distinguishes the show—what makes it good, or at least enticing—lies instead in the workings of genre. In “Yellowstone,” Sheridan has corralled the ranging...
Distracted? As Long As There Have Been Books, We’ve Worried About It
For as long as technologies of writing and reading have been extending the mind, writers have offered strategies for managing that interaction and given...
Education Is A Huge Investment. Does It Pay Off?
In the context of social struggles, an education is more like a bonfire on a winter night than a table lamp in a hallway. ...
Generative AI Art Is Just Theft, Say Some Artists
Critics of these systems include artists, coders, legal experts, and even some of the engineers who build them. They argue that the systems that...
Florida Governor Files Complaint Against Orlando Philharmonic
The complaint, which the Florida-based news outlet The Floridian published a copy of online, said that the foundation used “Christmas-themed promotional materials” that did...
How ChatGPT Set Off An AI Arms War
In the months since its debut, ChatGPT has become a global phenomenon. Millions of people have used it to write poetry, build apps and...
Want To Buy Joan Didion’s Apartment?
About a week ago, on January 27, the spacious four-bedroom co-op was quietly listed for sale. The home—located in one of the “most prestigious residential...
Why Everyone Is Piling On The Met Opera
Since the Metropolitan Opera announced its plans to change the policy towards the repertory and schedules to remedy a difficult financial situation the institution...
Why It’s Long Past Times To Get Rid Of Orientalism
My point is, we’re moving away from Eurocentric to multiracial, so art needs to reflect that. And we need stories. Stories are a structure...
Claim: Russian Curators Are Helping Loot Ukrainian Art
“It’s a deliberate policy to destroy the historical memory of the Ukrainian people,” said Alexsandr Symonenko, a Ukrainian archaeologist and Scythian specialist at Ukraine’s...
How Different Cultures Process Grief
Studies of grieving brains – be it scans of the brain regions which process grief, or measures of the stress hormone cortisol that is released in...
How Thelonius Monk Changed Music
Like his hero Duke Ellington, he had a gift for reconciling musical experiment with the immediacy of pop, finding freedom in the constraints of...
What Literary Criticism Is (And Isn’t) For
What is literary criticism — specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics — really for? - The New...
Our Need For Constant Entertainment Has Ruined Everything
We have surrendered ourselves to our entertainment. We will become so distracted and dazed by our fictions that we’ll lose our sense of what...
Ukraine Ballet Comes To US
Some 60 dancers who fled the war make up The United Ukrainian Ballet. With help from local dance professionals and city officials, the company is...
UK Playwrights Protest Low Pay, Working Conditions
“Theatre is in danger of just being a museum piece – not current and not tackling the things that are going on right now...
