Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Canadian Actors Union Calls For Boycotts
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists has turned to shaming brands including Rogers and Walmart as it seeks higher pay, protections...
Shape-Shifting Genre-Busting Stories
The question of where a story should begin and end is one that recurs throughout “White Cat, Black Dog,” and is part of what...
Why We’re Fascinated By Fortunetellers
These accusations of harmful magic were often combined with the suspicion that fortunetellers were frauds taking advantage of popular credulity. In the 17th and...
Why I Want To Believe In Coincidences
There is a part of me that, despite myself, wants to entertain the possibility that the world really does have supernatural dimensions. I don’t believe the Universe contains...
Agatha Christie Is The Latest Target Of Sensitivity Readers
Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries written between 1920 and 1976 have had passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins to strip...
The Weird Way Rare Books Are Catalogued
Learning how to catalogue properly is an essential part of bookselling, though exactly what constitutes “properly” will change depending on who you ask. - LitHub
We Worked On “Phantom” For 35 Years
For a lot of us, we started out doing this young. And our lives have changed. It’s like watching a child grow up. I...
The Art Of Remaking (Reimagining?) A Classic Video Game
Several developers behind horror games described their task like choreography, requiring precise timing and deft choices to deliver the terrifying experiences that players crave. -...
Thinking About Machines Being Self-Aware
Theory of mind helps us communicate with and understand one another; it allows us to enjoy literature and movies, play games and make sense...
Why Our Handwriting Is Getting Worse
“The bad handwriting specifically comes from I’m thinking too fast for my hand. I feel like being able to type as quickly as I’m...
Global Museum Attendance: Which Museums Have Recovered (And Those That Haven’t)
That 141 million is double the number we recorded last year, and nearly three times that of 2020. But there is still some way...
What Elephants Are Teaching A Neuroscientist About Music
Elephants tend to keep a steadier beat than humans do, a study by the neuroscientist Aniruddh Patel later found, and Luk Kop’s sense of...
How Public Radio Could Fill Gaps In Local News
With more staff, local public radio stations could help fill the information gap created by the decline of local newspapers. They could afford to...
Something’s Terribly Awry With The “Creator” Economy
For the past few years, social-media platforms have used creator funds to lure content creators from their rivals with the promise of money to...
Sorry, The Problem Isn’t Misinformation, It’s “Knowingness”
In 21st-century culture, knowingness is rampant. You see it in the conspiracy theorist who dismisses contrary evidence as a ‘false flag’ and in the...
Ibrahim X. Kendi: Changing The Definition Of An Intellectual
The traditional construct of the intellectual has produced and reinforced bigoted ideas of group hierarchy—the most anti-intellectual constructs existing. But this framing is crumbling,...
Met Museum Attendance Down By 1.7 Million In 2022
The Met was not alone among New York’s major institutions in experiencing a drop in attendance compared to 2019, with the Solomon R. Guggenheim...
Hong Kong’s New M+ Becomes One Of The Most Popular Museums In Asia
M+ reported 2,034,331 visitors for the whole of 2022, placing it 18th on our table of the world’s most visited art museums. If visitors...
Family Discovers Hidden Brueghel “Masterpiece” Behind Door In Their House
The family, who wishes to remain unknown, had asked Malo de Lussac of auctioneers Daguerre Val de Loire to estimate the value of their...
How Artists Are Fighting Back To Protect Their Work In The World Of AI
Artists are fighting back, using a range of tactics from legal action to IT hacks, in order to protect their creative output and secure...
AI’s Challenge To Traditional Education
For all the opportunities ChatGPT might bring, its greatest threat right now is to the teaching of writing. There are other ways to assess...
Burnout Afflicts Toronto’s Theatre Community
Even without hard numbers, many of the designers, technicians and stage managers who are still around agree: there are more job contracts available in...
How Professional Wrestling Explains American Culture
Millions of people love wrestling; millions more loathe it. Many people simply don’t know what to do with it. Although the symbiotic relationship between...
Neil Young: Tickemaster Has Ruined Touring
"It’s over. The old days are gone. I get letters blaming me for $3,000 tickets for a benefit I am doing. That money does...
ChatGPT Suggests A New Way To Search. But Will Microsoft Ruin It?
Microsoft’s rollout of a Bing search chatbot based on technology underlying OpenAI’s ChatGPT has prompted concerns that Microsoft is unfairly squeezing out its search data customers as...
