"When the European Union put out a call to researchers to help museums enhance the impact of their digital collections, 'We immediately thought: smell,' says Inger Leemans, ... the principal investigator for Odeuropa, an E.U.-funded research project aimed at showcasing the significance of olfactory heritage in European culture." - Smithsonian Magazine
"Just one day after his December 10 swearing-in, Javier Milei, … a hard-right libertarian economist and former tantric-sex coach who beat out center-left former economic minister Sergio Massa thanks largely to the votes of young jobless men, … signed a decree slashing the number of Argentinian ministries from nineteen to nine." - Artforum
The portrait of a cowed institution has little in common with the reality of campus politics. The truth is that a university, like any other institution, chooses which complaints it will hear, whom it does and does not want to protect. - The New Yorker
"The conflict is forcing leaders to navigate larger existential questions about the power and limits of arts institutions at this moment, including whether museums should try to stay neutral or whether they should take an active role in responding to political and social issues." - Vox
The real problem was that none of these university leaders made a clear, coherent case for their institutions’ values. So when they did invoke academic freedom, they came across as insincere or hypocritical. - The Atlantic
Ariel Dorfman: "The smiling, friendly form of capitalism now presents — the very fact that it doesn’t wish to shock or alienate its customers — may, in the end, prove even more dangerous to our ultimate well-being than was true half a century ago." - Salon
The problem isn't Apple vs. Android, say the Wired folks. It's that we're addicted to our phones - and missing chats, aka discussions, with humans in our non-phone lives. - Wired
"It includes bans on biometric systems that identify people using sensitive characteristics such as sexual orientation and race, and the indiscriminate scraping of faces from the internet," plus some copyright protections as well. - Wired
The question of the relation between one’s life and one’s taste has become a fraught one, and is still more troubled when the taste in question has a kind of public authority—as Sasha Frere-Jones came to have for readers of the New Yorker, the LA Times, and the Village Voice. - BookForum
There are still plenty of creative people in Portland, of course, but many left during the pandemic, and no doubt many potential newcomers have been priced out. When money is tight, artists do not make things just to make them, things that might bring joy to those around them but will not put money in their pocket. - Portland Monthly
"It’s not art-at-the-service-of-science. … It’s a collaboration of the two that can generate a vision for the future, to explain complex information, both theoretical and hard big data. And all in a way that’s accessible to scientists and the wider community. … But the road to this future isn't clearly paved. Yet." - Nature
During the past weeks, I’ve been casting about to see what ideas are already out there. Suggestions I’ve found include the Terrible Twenties, the Long 2016, the Age of Emergency, Cold War II, the Omnishambles, the Great Burning, and the Assholocene. - The New Yorker
The current board — installed following Disney's public criticism of DeSantis's "don't say gay" law — described the previous one as "the most egregious exhibition of corporate cronyism in modern American history." Disney responded that the new board's report is "neither objective nor credible." - AP
"(Members) unanimously voted to recommend the city use nearly 10% of its annual Transient Occupancy Tax revenue to fund arts and culture, nearly double the current amount. Tuesday's action doesn't immediately allocate the funds, but does send a message to Mayor Todd Gloria for next year's budget process." - KPBS (San Diego)
Amid all the destruction, residents have barely had the opportunity to grapple with the loss of the densely populated enclave’s few cultural institutions that locals recall as refuges and rare beacons of culture. - Washington Post
