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Archives for 2022

Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale

November 25, 2022 by Douglas McLennan 2 Comments

It might seem like our current information glut is without parallel, but throughout history observers have worried about the impact of too much information on our ability to rationally process and make sense of it. When we moved from an oral storytelling culture to print with the invention of the printing press. Or with the invention of the telegraph, which allowed our thoughts to be transmitted … [Read more...]

The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World

June 26, 2022 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the world's largest arts festivals, with over 3 million visitors each August. Last week it announced a series of major reforms to the ways it does business and treats employees and artists. It pledged to work towards lessening its environmental impact, and instituted new rules to "manage the scale" of the festival over the coming years.  It's both a recognition … [Read more...]

The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?

June 7, 2022 by Douglas McLennan 3 Comments

Oil prices are at a record high. And profits are rolling in. But there's an intriguing phenomenon in the oil industry called "demand destruction." It means when prices get too high for too long, consumers invest in alternatives and don't return. The arts have faced their own version of demand destruction when COVID shut down live performances. Is there anything to be learned from how the oil … [Read more...]

The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?

May 23, 2022 by Douglas McLennan 8 Comments

Many of the world’s largest companies have opted out of traditional retail transactions in favor of subscription models. Whether it’s software, newspapers, movies, TV, or even food, fashion or cars, subscription schemes are becoming a go-to model. And headlines the past few weeks have been full of stories about what’s happening to subscriber-driven companies – Netflix most of all. So perhaps a … [Read more...]

This Week’s UnderTow: Why are Police Playing Disney Songs? And Why did this Orchestra Fire its Conductor for… Conducting?

April 23, 2022 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

This week's podcast of The UnderTow, ArtsJournal's new weekly podcast, features three stories from the past week. Sometimes stories are not exactly about the things they seem to be about at first look. Our first story is one such. You might have seen the headline in ArtsJournal about police in California playing Disney songs while investigating calls and thought "that's odd" and passed it by. And … [Read more...]

Introducing our New Podcast: The UnderTow

April 14, 2022 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

We look at a lot of stories at ArtsJournal. And we pick the 20 or so every day we think say something about where the culture is going or how it works. If you're a regular reader of ArtsJournal, you know that our interests range across the arts and the world of creativity, exploring ideas in science, technology and the world around us. One of the reasons ArtsJournal is valuable is that we … [Read more...]

Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, which was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. I’m a … [Read More...]

About diacritical

Our culture is undergoing profound changes. Our expectations for what culture can (or should) do for us are changing. Relationships between those who make and distribute culture and those who consume it are changing. And our definitions of what artists are, how they work, and how we access them and their work are changing. So... [Read more]

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Recent Comments

  • Douglas McLennan on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “True – but the Swiftie phenomenon demonstrates how deeply people want to engage and that they’re willing to pay dearly…” Jul 24, 21:25
  • Tom Corddry on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “An additional data point: Taylor Swift drew 144,000+ to her two Seattle concerts, at an average ticket price of $123.…” Jul 24, 15:34
  • Steven Lavine on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “Terrific account. Like so many of our social media Augmented crises, it’s hard to see a way forward.” Jul 24, 13:52
  • Howard Mandel on Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance: “At least it’s clear the “ long-tail” argument was a canard.” Jul 24, 06:10
  • Sam Hodak on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “So what you’re telling me is… make a VR experience” May 12, 00:03
  • Mark on What If Disruption Was Just A Tech Con Game?: “Thank you” Mar 19, 13:15
  • Douglas McLennan on Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale: “Hi John: Yes – remember over the last decade how Big Data was going to change everything and drive every…” Nov 26, 07:46
  • John McCann on Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale: “I haven’t read this book, yet your review triggered an insight about information shared within organizations and how so much…” Nov 26, 03:57
  • Richard Voorhaar on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “We have reached the point where the average American has no attention span. A 3-4 minute pop tune is all…” Jun 10, 11:22
  • Alan Harrison on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “Brilliant piece, Doug. It’s why, in my own columns on LinkedIn and Medium, I may have become more strident recently…” Jun 8, 15:46

Top Posts

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  • American Orchestras Could Learn Something from South Dakota
  • The New York Philharmonic's New Hall Is An Opportunity To Rethink The Orchestra Experience (And Amplify It)
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World

Recent Posts

  • American Orchestras Could Learn Something from South Dakota November 22, 2023
  • Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance July 23, 2023
  • Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale November 25, 2022
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World June 26, 2022
  • The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts? June 7, 2022
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An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • American Orchestras Could Learn Something from South Dakota
  • Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance
  • Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World
  • The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?

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