Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
What Happens When You Spend Three Hours Staring At A Painting
This exercise in what she calls immersive attention has remained a core element of Jennifer Roberts’s art history teaching for more than a decade, despite the...
Are We At A Turning Point For Museums?
“The general tone is concern and uncertainty. I’m not sure anyone feels like they have a clear road map to sustainability.” - Artnet
Federal Court Slaps Down New NEA Prohibitions Against Funding “Gender Ideology”
The lawsuit was filed in March by several arts organizations, including Rhode Island Latino Arts, which promotes art made by Latinos, and National Queer Theater, a...
Jimmy Kimmel Returns — On His Own Terms
Kimmel’s strident stance last night made clear that he had prevailed in his weeklong power struggle with Disney; he was addressing the controversy on...
Minnesota Art Groups See Some Glimmers Through The Challenges
“In a time of storm, cows run and take cover, which prolongs the experience. But buffalo run to the storm to get through it...
Rethinking The Choreography Of Gerald Arpino
Popular and productive, Arpino, who was 85 when he died in 2008, didn’t get much respect from influential critics. At various times they called...
Is Licensing A Better Solution Than Suing For AI Copyright?
One method some people are starting to explore is licensed use. So what exactly does that mean – and is it really a solution...
The College Admissions Game Is Rigged
We trade admissions tips in Reddit threads, spend our vacations squeezing in yet another campus tour and treat every rejection as proof that the...
Recording Companies Adopt Book Publishers’ Tactics To Sue Suno Over Copyright Theft
The complaint suggests that Suno may have ‘stream-ripped’ millions of copyrighted sound recordings to train its model. The timing of the new allegations appears directly connected to Anthropic’s recent USD...
First There Was Clickbait. Now There’s AI Chatbait
Lately, chatbots seem to be using more sophisticated tactics to keep people talking. In some cases, like my request for headache tips, bots end...
How Art Has Historically Depicted Aging
Physical signs of aging — baldness, wrinkles, stooped postures — first figured prominently in Roman portraiture in the 4th century BCE, but old age...
Can AI Help With Promoting Literacy? (Or Hurt…)
Across the US, parents, educators, and community groups are trying AI-powered tutors that listen as children read, correct mistakes in real time and adapt...
Citizen Historians Are Documenting The Smithsonian Before It Changes
"We came up with this idea to call for volunteers to go out and, in a systematic way, go exhibit by exhibit, room by...
Big Shift: Human Evolution Through Culture Rather Than Genes
Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes,...
Trump’s Chilling Effect On Hollywood
Trump’s pressure campaign has had its intended effect: Hollywood is paralyzed creatively. In meetings, studio executives say they don’t want projects that are political...
Will The Magicians Of LA’s Iconic Magic Castle Let Their Landlord Take Over?
For decades, visitors have been drawn by the idea of dressing to the nines and roaming room to room, sipping cocktails as conjurers and...
The Latest Micro-Genre: Books With AI
The major imprints have been churning out a robust collection of books (more than 20 this year, by my count) that explain, extol, deride,...
College Is Not Just About Acquiring Information
Higher education is not merely the transfer of knowledge. We live in an age of informational opulence; we are awash in readily available data...
A Fake Review Plague Is Threatening Businesses
Fraudsters are extorting businesses for hundreds of dollars each by threatening to post fake negative reviews on Google Maps — or posting fake negative...
Internet Archive Settles Suit With Recording Companies Over ’78 Recordings Archive
For IA—which strove to digitize 3 million recordings to help historians document recording history—the lawsuit from music publishers could have meant financial ruin. Initially, record...
The Jimmy Kimmel Suspension Is a Crisis For Free Speech
The right-wing cancellation campaign that has come to encompass all individuals and institutions that have expressed anything less than cloying adulation of Kirk is ongoing, with...
Broadway Musicals Are In Trouble
None of the 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last season have made a profit yet. Some still could, but several have been...
YouTube Is Going All In On AI
Its anniversary product announcements this week touted AI features that will let creators use AI to enhance or produce videos. After all, Google Deepmind’s Veo 3 technology was YouTube’s for...
The Lucas Museum — So What, Exactly Is Narrative Art?
What is narrative art? Or, to be more precise, what is visual narrative art, since stories without pictures—as in novels, plays, and operas—don’t fit the museum’s...
Free Speech’s Corporate Media Problem
Paramount isn’t the only media company that needs FCC approval for something — and thus finds itself needing to kiss Carr’s ring. Nexstar, which...
