Stories

It’s a common topic of conversation among creatives of color: Can we afford to make mediocre art? Black, brown, Indigenous, East Asian and South Asian — all of us carry a burden of representation that renders our individual failures representative of the group. - The New York Times

She tried to defend herself by saying that she was “creating art,” and insisting that her daughter was “simply taking beautiful sporty poses in the pictures.” But, critics charge, “the only goal the mother had was to sell the photographs to sexually obsessed people.” - The Daily Beast

Now the Islamists are back in power, and Afghan artists and filmmakers — many who flourished during the past two decades — are scrambling to hide, protect or even destroy books, paintings and other works of art. - Washington Post

Ari Benjamin Meyers explains that part of his inspiration for the public orchestra came from the lesser-known Fellini film Orchestra Rehearsal, in which the orchestra and conductor are used as metaphors for radical political change. - Philadelphia Magazine

I'm increasingly uncomfortable with attending concerts "interpreted by these internationally-touring orchestras when I realize that at least 80 people took a plane for a single concert; particularly when I know that I can listen to a similar interpretation of the same piece by a more local orchestra. - Van

Print books are in trouble: "Trucks are more expensive, containers are more expensive, labor is more expensive. ... It used to be that you would place a purchase order, and it would just arrive two weeks later. Now, it’s 10 touches and 15 emails." - The New York Times

A science fiction trope becoming real, "It doesn’t necessarily exist . It’s partly a dream for the future of the internet and partly a neat way to encapsulate some current trends in online infrastructure, including the growth of real-time 3D worlds." - The Verge

"There are eerie similarities between pre-1948 Hollywood and today’s streaming market. ... The top five streaming companies dominate." And Amazon would like to be more dominant. - The New York Times

The interconnected world can be a real pain when TV subtitles and audio transcriptions just disappear into the smoke - and Deaf and blind audience members aren't happy. - BBC

The hip, fannish crowd is almost the same as it was at shutdown, with a large fillip of relief joining the giddy thrills. "The color pours down your eye holes right into your serotonin receptors — all that warmth without heat triggers something deep in your lizard brain." - Vulture

"Welcome to the life of a 21st-century activist artist, whose work is as likely to be exhibited at an international human rights tribunal as it is a museum, and in which death threats and cyberattacks are all in a day’s work." - The New York Times

The sketches below the surface show all the ways it could have gone wrong. - The Observer (UK)

Serious choreographers, pandemic, cruise ship? Yes: "The creative team has plunged into the challenges of making a work at sea as part of a large corporate enterprise." - The New York Times

And cultural workers need the money, and purpose: "Creative jobs dropped 53% between late 2019 and mid 2020, recovering only halfway since then, and the prolonged pandemic continues to threaten re-openings of art spaces." - Hyperallergic

Six point one million dollars says he did not (and a company that owns the rights to his likeness also did not). - The New York Times