ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

Dame Edna (Barry Humphries), 89

A stiletto-heeled, stiletto-tongued persona who might well have been the spawn of a ménage à quatre involving Oscar Wilde, Salvador Dalí, Auntie Mame and Miss Piggy, Dame Edna was not so much a character as a cultural phenomenon. - The New York Times

Damien Hirst’s AI-Generated Art Project Earns $20 Million

In a nine-day sale that ended on April 10, Hirst sold 5,508 paintings (5,109 physical artworks and 399 NFTs) and generated $20.9 million in revenue. - Artnet

How Streaming Algorithms Turned My Music-Listening To Sludge

My sludge addiction sprang from Spotify’s algorithmically curated playlists, which promised to help me focus or find music tailored to my tastes. But at a tap, these playlists drip-fed me endless pap that dissolved into the background. - Wired

Big Ears’ Ashley Capps And The Art Of Curating Music

Big Ears started very small in 2009, and very organically. It had been discussed for a number of years and was rooted in a passion for music that wasn’t always on people’s radar screens, that had much more niche audiences. - The Fader

Apple’s New Classical Music App Understands Classical

As long as we’re living in a streaming world, we might as well have technology that reflects the specific contours of the classical repertoire. Now, at last, we do. - San Francisco Chronicle

AI Trains On Banality. So An Opportunity For Human Creativity

As AI proliferates, this lack of originality in our daily language is what will render so many of our jobs irrelevant... It’s clear that one of our best defenses against the rise of the writing machines might be to learn how to think like a poet. - Washington Post

How Can A Judge Decide If Ed Sheeran Copied From Marvin Gaye?

"The music industry is keenly interested in the outcome. Over the last decade, the business has been rocked by a series of infringement suits that have involved questions of just how much or how little of the work of pop songwriters can be protected by copyright." - The New York Times

In The Heart Of Paris, Archaeologists Uncover 2000-Year-Old Graves

The Gallo-Roman graves "will offer further insight into the funeral practices of the Parisii, the Gallic tribe that inhabited Lutetia. In the process, we will also get to know a little bit more about how they lived." - El País

The Leonardo Ferry Is Left High And Dry By Bureaucracy And Climate Change

"Since the last ferry operators left to run a more lucrative water taxi in Lake Como, no one has bid to take over the 4,500-euro-a-year concession, even though the town has thrown in a mountain bike rental as a deal sweetener." - The New York Times

When Hilary Mantel Died, She Left Behind A Jane Austen-Inspired Manuscript

The book world is salivating. "Imagine the post-modernist-Austenite novel that would have been! Imagine the Mantel treatment being given to poor Charlotte Lucas, not-quite-good-enough-and-not-rich-enough and doomed to serve as vessel for the world’s most boring man." - LitHub

Why Do Apps Love The Color Blue So Darn Much?

"It’s a very distinct color, it’s a distinct design. Paramount and Prime are a little bit on the lighter side, Disney+ has more of a gradient. But Max has a little bit more of a dark richness into the blue, which was deliberate." Sure, OK. - Vulture

This Is How The Universe Ends

Not with a bang, but a black hole (or a few). - Wired

NBCUniversal CEO Ousted For Inappropriate Relationship

The news "sent shockwaves through the Burbank-based company, is unfolding days ahead of Comcast reporting its first quarter results on Thursday, including a conference call with Wall Street analysts. It’s also shaking out weeks before the TV industry’s annual upfront ad sales season." - Variety

The New Canon Of Julius Eastman

"We’re firmly enjoying some new period of appreciation for the pioneering but once-overlooked work of this Black queer composer and multi-instrumentalist; archival recordings and new interpretations are widely available, and the art world more broadly has taken an enthusiastic interest in him." - The New York Times

Putin’s War On Ukrainian Cultural Memory

It's always the libraries. "Three national and state libraries, including the National Scientific Medical Library of Ukraine, as well as some 25 university libraries, have been severely damaged or destroyed, the most shocking statistics relate to public libraries."- The Atlantic

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