AJ Chronicles: This Week in the Great Culture Shift

It’s probably a hazard of the job, but I tend to look at culture systemically. It’s not just the algorithms that steer our attention, but the often-unseen infrastructure we constructed that determines a large part of our culture diet: the systems that shape orchestras, theatres, dance companies, museums, the practical nuts-and-bolts and often mundane practicalities that determine what’s possible and what isn’t. The media landscape (or lack thereof), and the contracts and copyrights and rules that make some sort of order out of it. That make some things possible. And some things not.

So while this week’s story about artists having difficulties getting visas (NYT) to come to the US might seem like a story of bureaucracy, it’s actually a signal about how our culture in America is increasingly being narrowed. Just as DEI policies aren’t just a social justice issue but also an attempt to more broadly represent cultures and voices, and humanities programs are a structure to help us look outside our own experiences, when these structures and institutions are weakened, our abilities to “see” the culture that shapes us as communities is eroded.

Another fight over cultural infrastructure is playing out over AI. AI isn’t just a set of tools, it’s a systemic disruption of our infrastructure that will ripple across the entire creative world, forcing us to become crisper in our understanding of what we think art is, our cultural values and how it is exchanged. The backlash to AI is exploding with each passing week. Among the ubiquitous AI hype, there’s a hardening against the encroachment of algorithmic efficiency (which, let’s be honest, has been with us for a long time now in other forms).

This week San Diego Comic Con (Artnet) declared itself sole arbiter of what constitutes “human creation,” banning AI-generated art from its show. This isn’t Luddism, it’s a defense of the “artistic ego“ (LitHub) and creative neurosis that audiences reportedly miss in the deluge of machine-generated work. We are, it seems, hungry for the human insecurity that Amazon’s flood of AI authors simply cannot replicate.

The AI-still-can’t-do-this meme as a critique of what is happening is a tired cliche, but it can still be amusing, as this discovery that AI currently “sucks at dancing” (CalMatters) shows in failing to replicate the convincingly messy physicality of human movement. We are, for now, safe in our clumsiness. But let’s not forget the now-armies of artists who are now using AI in their work and making amazing things.

Probably the bombshell news of the week was the Metropolitan Opera’s announcement of layoffs and a financial crisis. The Met (ArtNews) is in a state of financial meltdown, (The Guardian) and is even considering the sale of its two prized Marc Chagall murals for $55 million just to keep the lights on—all while stripping props from Carmen (AP) to save $300,000. The biggest revelation though, was the extent to which the Met has plundered its endowment in the past few years. The cruise ship is taking on water.

The ideological tectonic plates are also shifting. The federal arts sector—the NEA, NEH, and Kennedy Center—feels as though it has been “invaded by aliens“ (Joe Horowitz) as new political priorities reshape the national narrative. This isn’t just a change in administration; it’s a fundamental re-evaluation of what “American” culture is allowed to mean. Hollywood (NYT) is feeling the same “vibe shift,” as the industry’s era of “progressive sincerity” reportedly evaporates in favor of more conservative-coded content. The Washington Post and CBS News are undergoing significant culture shifts that will impact us all. The Smithsonian (The Atlantic) has become a battleground for how museums of record tell the national story, proving that the past is as volatile as the future. And this as we go into the 250th Birthday celebrations of the country.

If it all feels like creative turmoil mired in stagnation, perhaps we should look back 67,000 years to a hand stencil (The Conversation) recently identified in an Indonesian cave. That hand—the world’s oldest known art—didn’t have a business model, a “woke” agenda, or an algorithm. As we argue over whether a ballet shoe (NYT) should incorporate sneaker technology or whether obituaries (University of Missouri) are the only thing keeping small-market newspapers alive, that ancient hand reminds us that culture usually has a way of enduring the structures of its time. Maybe those structures are only the temporary scaffolding; it’s the creative bits that endure.