{"id":1169,"date":"2016-09-25T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T21:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2016-09-26T07:34:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T14:34:24","slug":"five-storiestrends-from-this-weeks-artsjournal-how-the-arts-speak-to-real-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/09\/five-storiestrends-from-this-weeks-artsjournal-how-the-arts-speak-to-real-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Five Stories\/Trends From This Week’s ArtsJournal: How The Arts Speak To Real Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThis Week: <\/strong>Why is it so hard to tell\u00a0if American theatre is thriving or not?… Have art and technology had a falling out?… Perhaps TV is the solution to our political polarization… The music industry seems to be finally getting it together… A cautionary tale about getting swallowed up by the online world.<\/p>\n

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  1. Theatre: The Best of Times or the Worst?<\/strong>\u00a0Why is it so difficult to judge the state of American theatre right now? Looked at one way, things have never looked brighter. Yet in another way there are problems and challenges everywhere.\u00a0Helen Shaw has spent the last 12 years as a theatre critic in New York. She says <\/a>the state of the field is mixed. \u201cAs recently as 2007, critic Robert Brustein could say on a panel that we had 35 \u2018really fine\u2019 playwrights; even the hardest-to-please observer would say now that the number has more than quadrupled. Some theatre lovers don\u2019t like to categorize the flood because of the canon\u2019s long history of exclusion.\u201d Even if you look just at play writing, it’s impossible to tell<\/a> whether this is a Golden Age or really a bear market.<\/li>\n
  2. Are Art And Technology Friends Or Enemies?<\/strong>\u00a0Everywhere we look people are talking about the convergence of the arts and technology. Creativity as broadly defined is found across science and technology and that’s where some of today’s most interesting ideas are to be found<\/a>. There is a historical precedent. \u201cIt was the assertion of the Romantic movement that art makes us appreciate the beauty, richness and sheer size of the world. And technology, used appropriately, brings us closer to that sublime.” But more and more technology is bumping up against that idea. “Even if that was true in 1939, it\u2019s not true now: not now our drones do our flying for us; not now our technology has got away from us to the point where large portions of nature are being erased; not now we live mired in media and, indeed, have to make special efforts to escape it.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. How Are We Going To Have Our Toughest Political Debates If We’re So Divided? The Answer: TV <\/strong>TV critic Emily Nussbaum says<\/a> our politics are so charged that as soon as an issue is brought up it is so polarized that it’s impossible to hear the arguments. But there are TV shows that have fans across the political spectrum and talking about the politics in these shows can be an interesting stand-in for the arguments we can’t have directly. This is an updated take on what art has often been able to do – stand in as a translator when the world seemingly can’t agree.<\/li>\n
  4. You Mean The Music Business Isn’t Dying Anymore?<\/strong>\u00a0The recording business has been mired in a slump as long as digital distribution started to crater old business models. Suddenly though, things are looking up. There’s been a big surge this year<\/a>, following on a strong 2015. \u201cU.S. streaming revenue grew 57 percent to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2016 and accounted for almost half of industry sales, more than countering shrinking purchases of albums and singles. Subscriptions totaled $1.01 billion, according to the RIAA data.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Is Real Life a Casualty of Our Online Obsessions?<\/strong> Ex-blogger Andrew Sullivan holds himself up as a cautionary tale and in a thoughtful essay<\/a> explains why he had to largely quit his digital life. \u00a0\u201cBy the last few months, I realized I had been engaging \u2014 like most addicts \u2014 in a form of denial. I\u2019d long treated my online life as a supplement to my real life, an add-on, as it were. Yes, I spent many hours communicating with others as a disembodied voice, but my real life and body were still here. But then I began to realize, as my health and happiness deteriorated, that this was not a both-and kind of situation. It was either-or. \u201c I respond by suggesting technology is about choices about how and whether to use it<\/a>. “We can be unconscious of a choice when it\u2019s not yet a choice. When technology extends our grasp however, we then have to choose it or not. Having chosen it, we can be consumed if we\u2019re not also conscious of learning when not to use it.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Image: Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n

    [This is my weekly roundup of stories from ArtsJournal that fit longer term trends in the arts]<\/p>\n

    You can follow me on Twitter at @AJDoug<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This Week: Why is it so hard to tell\u00a0if American theatre is thriving or not?… Have art and technology had a falling out?… Perhaps TV is the solution to our political polarization… The music industry seems to be finally getting it together… A cautionary tale about getting swallowed up by the online world. Theatre: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-weekly-aj-top-stories","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/free-1641264_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C832&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-iR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/theatre_celeb_journalism_and_j.html","url_meta":{"origin":1169,"position":0},"title":"Theatre, Celeb Journalism, And Journalism","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Two articles over on the ARTicles blog at the National Arts Journalism Program. First, Laura Collins-Hughes has a take on this year's Pulitzer for theatre and why it's important that the finalists are all women:...women playwrights are vastly underrepresented on our stages. Because \"diversity\" isn't just a buzzword. The Pulitzer\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":864,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/05\/five-stories-from-last-weeks-aj-likes-and-dislikes-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":1169,"position":1},"title":"Five Stories From Last Week’s AJ: Likes And Dislikes Edition","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Why aren't the arts something we can all get behind? Maybe it's somewhere in the psychology of how we like what we like? Revealed: nobody reads arts reviews anymore (says an editor who hates to run them but wants to \"support\" the arts). Where the money is in music (hint:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weekly AJ Top Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/theatre.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/theatre.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/theatre.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/theatre.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/theatre.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/11\/this-weeks-aj-highlights-ominous-orchestra-results-new-arts-journalism-accountable-algorithms.html","url_meta":{"origin":1169,"position":2},"title":"This Week’s AJ Highlights: Ominous Orchestra Results? New Arts Journalism? Accountable Algorithms?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"November 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Week: Record ticket sales at the Chicago Symphony but still a budget problem...Wall Street Journal cuts arts coverage and Boston Globe gets a subsidized critic...Why did Shakespeare's Globe fire its director?...Two cities on opposite sides of a border, share common arts culture... Who will hold intelligent machines accountable? An\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weekly AJ Top Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/thompson.jpg?fit=500%2C271&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":825,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/03\/the-existential-arts-this-weeks-best-reads-on-artsjournal-03-27-16.html","url_meta":{"origin":1169,"position":3},"title":"The Existential Arts – This Week’s Best Reads On ArtsJournal (03.27.16)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's best reads hover around existential questions. What arts organizations should exist? Does truth exist? Can theatre really change anything, and should it even try? Canada's new government makes an existential bet on culture. And do our tools define art? Arts Organizations At The Existential Crossroads: Some have argued\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weekly AJ Top Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/519048855_1280x720.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/519048855_1280x720.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/519048855_1280x720.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/519048855_1280x720.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/519048855_1280x720.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2490,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2021\/09\/artsjournal-turned-22-today-chronicle-of-a-remarkable-cultural-era.html","url_meta":{"origin":1169,"position":4},"title":"ArtsJournal Turned 22 Today: A Chronicle of a Remarkable Cultural Era","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"September 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past year, while compiling 150,000 stories in the AJ archives, I realized that this is a unique record of an extraordinary period in our cultural history. 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