Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Hollywood — Creator Of Worlds (And Explanations)
We live in the era of the “explainer movie” — a creation like those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dune ecosystem, Star Wars constellation...
How To Find New Music In The Age Of The Algorithm
Some tastemakers say today’s music scene is a soulless algorithmic wasteland — others say it’s more vibrant than ever. However you find it, don’t...
Artists Struggle In Absence of Rules Of The Road For AI
“We see these celebrity replicas happening all the time, but our own data – us, the small people of the world – is being...
Academic Publishers Protest New Rule That Federally-Funded Research Must Be Freely Available
Although open-access advocates and library groups support the move, opponents argue the new policy will limit researchers’ ability to maintain control of their published...
Police Bust World’s Largest Pirate Movie Site
Fmovies launched in 2016 and racked up 374 million monthly visits more than 6.7 billion visits from January 2023-June 2024. Data from SimilarWeb ranked...
How Democrats And Republicans Are Using Music In This Campaign
In 2024, both main parties recognise the positive power of music. While campaign songs and rally playlists encourage a sense of unity, they also...
The Latest Takedown: ABBA Asks Trump Not To Play Their Music At Rallies
"Together with the members of Abba, we have discovered that videos have been released where Abba's music has been used at Trump events, and...
Is The Traditional Summer Vacation Bad For Education? (And Students)
Some education advocates tout the benefits of what’s called a “balanced calendar,” which spreads vacation time equally across the seasons—a reimagining of what school can be,...
Why Did Canada’s Top Museum Push Out A Visionary Curator?
For many, Nanibush’s departure was a catastrophe. Prior to her arrival, the AGO, like many museums, tended to treat Indigenous culture as something ossified...
What Netflix Standup Specials Say About The State Of Today’s Comedy
Like other performers in our Balkanized, make-your-own-prime-time-entertainment landscape, many comedians act less like artists or court jesters than like notionally humorous leaders of affinity...
How Policing Audience Phones Changes Meaning In The Theatre
The “Starbucks!” sticker is an effort to physically prevent photography and videos circulating online. But this seemingly innocuous action creates a ripple effect about...
How We Communicate: Everything Is Story
Even the driest academic monograph or most threadbare opinion piece usually begins with some act of storytelling, whether we hear how a previous generation...
Hollywood’s Shifting Portrayal Of Asian Actors
Since the 2018 blockbuster “Crazy Rich Asians” became a box office hit, Asian and Asian American stories and characters have proliferated in American pop culture. And after...
What Happens When You Put Contemporary Art In A Small Conservative Austrian Village
The contemporary art influx is a colour blast of creativity in an area that usually attracts tourists interested in historic villas, mountains and high-end...
Our Vanishing Culture: 78 Records
78rpm discs were the way we learned about each other and entertained the world. It was a time when the world became a much...
Edinburgh Themes This Year: Theatre Of Wellness
A conspicuous number of shows were themed around psychological maladies. These included plays about grief, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and...
“Emily In Paris” And The Decline Of Streaming
No show charts the streaming industry’s decline in inspiration quite like “Emily in Paris,” or the rush to capture the maximum amount of attention...
AI Open Competition “Reads” Long-Baffling Scrolls From Pompeii
Since March 2023, more than 1,000 teams have entered this competition. In October 2023, the first letters and lines of Greek text were detected,...
Canada’s CBC Expands Its Coverage Of Books
CBCbooks, the division behind Canada Reads, is readying a new consumer-facing one-hour national literary program, Bookends With Mattea Roach. - Publishing Perspectives
Evergreen Question: Just What, Exactly, Is Poetry?
Poetry has drastically changed after World War Ⅱ; it’s parted from art—including poems, waka, haiku, and novels written until around the end of the...
Scholarship That Reinvigorates 20th Century Dance
When you peel away layers of cliché and coarseness accrued over the course of the twentieth century, you often find works that are full...
London’s National Portrait Gallery Appoints Its First Woman Director
In 2012, Victoria Siddall rose to prominence after launching Frieze Masters, going on to become global director of the contemporary art fair, which takes place...
Music As Protest: Louisville Kids Make Music Video To Protest School Bus Cuts
“Where My Bus At” highlights the budget cuts made to school bus routes. In April 2024, the county board of education voted to remove...
We Use Visualizations To Understand Data. But We Can Use Music Too
“Vision is one of the most obvious and direct ways to process input, but when you think about it, you use your ears a...
Showings Of Anti-Putin Film At Venice Film Festival Abruptly Canceled
Georgian anti-Putin drama The Antique, which was due to premiere in Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori (GdA), has had its screenings suspended following the issuing of an emergency...
