The team used pictures of verified Raphael paintings to "train the computer to recognize his style to a very detailed degree, from the brushstrokes, the color palette and the shading and every aspect of the work." - CNET
These are desperate times for art organizations and music venues in Berkeley, pummeled by rising labor and production costs and lower theater attendances. - BerkeleySide
"A dapper, soft-spoken architect who spent much of his career in academia, (he) was in some ways an unlikely architect of the World War II Memorial, a classically inspired plaza home to granite columns, bronze sculptures and a fountain, just east of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool." - The Washington Post (MSN)
The Bristol Old Vic — which counts among its alumni Patrick Stewart, Olivia Colman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons, Miranda Richardson, and Gene Wilder — is continuing its two MFA and four MA programs but says its undergraduate-level training has become "financially unsustainable." - The Guardian
Just in the past year, two of the metro's major companies closed, as did the area's keystone performance space for dance. The dance scene is precarious and the current situation seems grim, but some see signs of hope. - The Minnesota Star Tribune
"The data shows that from 2023 to 2024, overall artistic director appointments decreased. However, female artistic director appointments decreased by 36%, compared to a 7% decrease for male appointments." - Dance Data Project
"Cave’s kinetic sculpture The Air Up There … consists of 2,800 colorful spinners that dangled from the ceiling of the check-in hall at Kansas City International Airport. But it was removed in October after the part of one spinner fell to the floor below." - The Kansas City Star (Yahoo!)
"(He was) best known for his Booker Prize-nominated comic campus novels Small World and Nice Work. … His other celebrated works included Changing Places and The British Museum is Falling Down, about a poor student who is distracted while attempting to write a thesis." - BBC
"The attendants working in the Academy of Music, Kimmel Center (Marian Anderson Hall, Perelman Theater, and other venues in the complex), and the Miller Theater voted down a Dec. 30 contract offer." The previous contract expired last July. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Sara Mearns, who dances with startling presence and in-the-moment authority, has been open about her struggles with mental health, but her public posts about her hearing — and how long it has been an issue — were a surprise. - The New York Times
Expanding AI beyond its digital boundary demands reworking how machines think, fusing the digital intelligence of AI with the mechanical prowess of robotics. This is what I call “physical intelligence”, a new form of intelligent machine that can understand dynamic environments, cope with unpredictability, and make decisions in real time. - Wired
On the face of it, “The Golden Key” is a digital toy you can interact with to generate wild yarns. But on a deeper level it offers “an encounter with a future in which machines are telling us stories” — in this case, faux folk tales. - The New York Times
The things I wrote down so urgently were not fixed thoughts projected from my brain onto the page. What I considered thought was a kind of seeking, a mission. But it was very difficult. This was not writing as rhetoric or catharsis. This was writing as transformation. - The New Yorker
Over the years, Gottfried Leibniz’s reputation continued to grow as more unpublished work came to light, some of which would make him the godfather of the digital age. But he will never quite live down Voltaire’s ridicule. - The New Yorker
According to studies by the Pew Research Center spanning 2011 to 2021, Americans read an average of 14 books per year — likely pulled up by the number of rare super-readers taking down dozens of books — but a median of just five books per year. - Vox
