ISSUES

Bringing Indigenous Culture To The Billboards Of Times Square

By bringing this ancestral dance to Times Square’s glowing billboards, Jeffrey Gibson turns a space of mass consumption into one of visibility and spiritual invocation – what he describes as ‘an ancestral call for strength and healing for all Indigenous people’. - Aeon

The Oscar-Winning Documentary Has Been Banned In Russia

To no one’s surprise, A Russian court banned the Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin from several streaming platforms .., alleging it promoted ‘negative attitudes’ about the Russian government.” - The Guardian UK (Agence France-Presse)

The AI-Based ‘Recommendation’ Issue That’s Going To Destroy Trust In The Internet

Should that trust still exist, which is questionable. “With the rise of large language models, the problem of not-quite-right advice will only get worse. The quickly written, often shoddily verified content is going to become what the LLMs take as the truth.” - Slate

TikTok Has A Policy On Labeling AI-Generated Advertising, But Those Labels Are Really Not Working

The problem is caused, but not solved, by technology: “There is currently no trusted technological solution for reliably identifying AI-generated content, or even human-made content, at scale.” Not great for this political moment! - The Verge

What We All Miss When We Second-Screen

“Short-form video habituates the brain to rapid stimuli, reducing its capacity to stay focused on the slower and more demanding. There’s a popular term for it that’s pretty self-explanatory: ‘brainrot.’” - Boston Globe

Iran Is Winning The AI Slop Propaganda War

An AI-generated LEGO movie mocking Trump as a pedophile “is the work of Iran-based propagandists called the ‘Explosive News Team’ and is just the latest in a long line of AI-generated LEGO videos aimed at mocking Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.” - 404 Media

Why Did OpenAI Kill Sora?

Maybe it was this: “The platform’s operational costs proved unsustainable, with each 10-second video costing OpenAI approximately $130 in compute expenses. With millions of users creating content daily, these costs escalated to $15 million per day.” - Geeky Gadgets

Why Destroying Cultural Sites In War Is Bad Strategy

Ignoring cultural property protections runs counter to a lesson many military forces, including the United States, have come to recognize: that safeguarding cultural heritage is not only a legal obligation, but also strategically smart. - The Conversation

Why Trump Is Going After Cultural Institutions

One thing that has really struck me is that ordinary Americans are far less interested in fighting about history than it might seem. - The New York Times

New School Plans To Cut 15 Percent Of Its Faculty

Amid a projected $48 million deficit largely attributed to enrollment decline, the New School’s upcoming layoffs come as the newest development in the university’s sprawling workforce reduction saga, which the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) called the “largest attempted firing of faculty currently taking place in the nation.” - Hyperallergic

What Has Surprised The New York Times’ Lead Reporter On Trump’s Culture Wars

Jennifer Schuessler: “Ordinary Americans are far less interested in fighting about history than it might seem. People who work at historical sites, whether government-run or private, report that most visitors, whatever their politics, show up open-minded and curious and hungry for fact-based, nonpartisan history.” - The New York Times

Kennedy Center Started Laying Off Staff Today

Multiple departments were affected — including programming, development, advertising, marketing and the office of the president — according to multiple people at the center. - Washington Post

I Wanted To Be A Critic. It Doesn’t Exist Anymore

This is how I came to understand that the relationship between what we see and what we know—the art of noticing— is a sophisticated act of interpretation, not just passive observation... “By the time you get to New York, this won’t be a thing,” he hissed, and I withered. He wasn't wrong.  - Talk Scratch

Arts Funding By Local Governments In Britain Has Fallen By Half Since 2010

“Analysis by the Autonomy Institute shows spending has dropped from £1.19 billion in 2010 to £539 million in 2024 to 25. The data covers local authority budgets for arts and entertainment, including theatres, live performance, museums and galleries.” - WhatsOnStage (UK)

Foundation Stops Supporting Toronto Arts Foundation After Protests

The Azrieli Foundation, a charitable organisation with ties to Israel’s largest real estate company, will cease its support of the Toronto Arts Foundation following a protest campaign by Canadian artists and arts workers. - The Art Newspaper

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