Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
OpenAI Says It Now Has An AI That Is “Really Good” At Creative Writing
That it’s experimenting with writing could suggest OpenAI feels its latest generation of models vastly improve on the wordsmithing front. Historically, AI hasn’t proven to...
What If We Just Got Rid Of Art?
If the world was wretched, shouldn’t we be transforming it, not distracting ourselves from it?... What would happen if we didn’t soothe ourselves...
FCC Investigating Public Radio Sponsorships
The request is a next step in FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s investigation into whether public TV and radio stations are airing advertisements in violation of federal...
The Power Of Nothing (It’s A Mental Construct)
Our mental worlds are lively with such experiences of absence, yet it’s a mystery how the mind performs the trick of seeing nothing. How...
Who’s Choreographing What Where (A Leadership Thing)
Women choreographed 17.8% of the 891 total programs identified in the study, and 35.9% of these programs included choreographers of mixed genders. A breakdown...
How Satellite Radio Predicted The Streaming Subscription Model
Well before subscriptions became the norm for streaming media, satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Radio convinced radio listeners to become radio...
The Enduring Allure Of Greece In Literature
For hundreds of years, we—broadly speaking, these books’ Anglophone-ish audience—have been reading too much into Greece. There were the philhellenes, like Nietzsche, who believed the ancients...
Bill Bryson: There Are Too Many Books (Blame Self-Publishing)
It is thought that about 90 per cent of self-published books sell fewer than 100 copies, although some self-publishing writers have become successful, notably Colleen Hoover....
Stage Crews Reach Union Agreement With Atlantic Theatre
The agreement will be closely scrutinized by New York’s other Off Broadway theaters because the union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has...
Why So Many Musicians Don’t Have Health Insurance
Unlike in the film and television industry, where workers who jump from set to set on major projects tend to flock to health plans...
Remembering Playwright Athol Fugard
Citizenship had supplied Fugard with his mission as a writer. But he understood the difference between art and politics and resisted anyone dictating his...
The Underrated Role Of Intuition In Accomplishment
One day I was perfectly fine, and now, after just a few weeks away, confidence and sureness were gone. Simply put, I had lost...
The Tiresome Literalism Plaguing Today’s Movies
When I say literalism, I don’t mean realistic or plainly literal. I mean literalist, as when we say something is on the nose or...
David Sellars, 86, Father Of The Design-Build Movement
In 1965, Mr. Sellers and William Reineke, graduates of the Yale School of Architecture, had the radical idea that structures turned out better if...
Orange County’s South Coast Rep Theatre On Meeting Challenges
“People are much more selective now. In general, they see fewer productions each year and are more picky about what they’re seeing. And that’s...
The Aesthetics Of Art In A Fascist Mindset
In her landmark 1975 essay in The New York Review of Books, Susan Sontag explains how fascism isn’t just an ideology, but an aestheticized politics that emphasizes...
Two Projects Aim To Check Academic Papers With AI for Mistakes
“I thought, why don’t we go through, like, all of the papers?” The AI tool has analysed more than 37,000 papers in two months....
Signs Of Renewed Interest In Historial American Art?
Once a key collecting category, with robust auction departments, hungry collectors, and record sales, historical American art was hit hard by the 2008 financial...
Small Non-Profit Arts Organizations Fear The Worst In The New Political Climate
“That has been the biggest surprise, just how fast corporate and foundation America has closed its doors and is reducing the size and scope...
San Francisco Is Slashing Budgets For The City’s Museums, Maybe Endangering Collections
The proposal also calls for the elimination of positions in security management, human resources and museum operations. - San Francisco Chronicle
Music Labels Are Trying To Sue The Internet Archive Out Of Existence. They May...
"They're going to regret it," Seubert predicted. "Not financially or anything, but just from a historical perspective, the Internet Archive is valuable for all...
America’s Oldest Performing Arts Organization Is Losing Its Longtime Director
Under David Snead’s leadership, the 210-year-old period instrument orchestra’s annual revenue grew by 45 percent. Its endowment has expanded from $13 million to more...
Brick Is Making A Comeback In Urban Architecture
Brick, stone, and terra-cotta, products that have the solidity and hue of earth, have timidly but perceptibly snuck back into New York’s repertoire of...
An AI Researcher Rails Against Big Tech’s Cultural Theft
Perhaps the most beautiful part of this digital heist is that all of this knowledge is being stolen in broad daylight. Napster was a...
Why YouTube Got Out Of Making Premium Content
Big creators on YouTube “are the new Hollywood in that sense because they are producing the content that people want to watch. And so...
