The Future Library is part working library, part conceptual art project, part investment in unborn generations of readers. Starting with Margaret Atwood, a different author will contribute a work to the vault each year, with none to be opened until 2114.
Archives for October 2016
Report Urges UK Artists To Continue To Be Part Of Creative Europe After Brexit (Good Luck With That)
“A new report summarising the sector’s views on the challenges posed by Brexit is calling for the UK Government to quantify the benefits that the creative industries currently receive from EU funding sources and ensure these are maintained. The report, published yesterday, presents the views of around 500 contributors at 11 meetings held by the Creative Industries Federation (CIF) across the country, as well as a survey of its members. It also calls on the UK Government to retain tariff-free access to the EU market for goods and services, and ensure ease of movement between the UK and EU countries for time-limited work, such as concert and theatre tours.”
Big Powerful Hollywood… But Perhaps It’s All An Illusion?
“Titles are a case in point. Once upon a time, there were merely presidents and vps; now there are senior vps and executive vps and senior executive vps and chairmen and co-chairmen and co-CEOs. Each of these ranks is minutely graded, there to remind us of the place we hold in the Hollywood constellation. Fixed in our orbit, we’re so obsessed with moving closer to the sun, we blinker ourselves to what might happen when there’s another Big Bang.”
The Opera Fan Who Spread His Friend’s Ashes And Shut Down The Met Opera
“It was just part of our deal that I would leave bits of him in all the houses I visit,” reads a message attributed to Mr. Kaiser in a Facebook post last month about a trip he had taken during the summer to a Colorado opera house. “The MET is next, late next month.”
Bob Dylan Finally Reacts To His Nobel Prize Win
For his part, Dylan sounds genuinely bemused by the whole ruckus. It is as if he can’t quite fathom where all the headlines have come from, that others have somehow been over-reacting.
How A Scandal (And A University’s Handling Of It) Has Devasted One Of Canada’s Most Prestigious Writing Programs
“The scandal – with gaping holes in official information and the resulting speculation and innuendo – has devastated the vaunted writing program, which was established more than 50 years ago by Canadian poet Earle Birney and whose graduates include award-winning authors Lynn Coady, Charlotte Gill and Lee Henderson, as well as Madeleine Thien. It has also inflamed Canada’s tight-knit literary community and irrevocably altered many lives. Steven Galloway, who was never charged with a crime, lost not just his job, but his reputation – and all that implies for his publishing career.”
Boston Globe Critic Goes On Sabbatical, Foundation Funds His Ten-Month Replacement
With funding provided by San Francisco-based organizations, Zoë Madonna, who won the 2014 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism at the Institute, starts a 10-month post as classical music critic at the Globe on Monday, corresponding with a temporary leave by Globe critic Jeremy Eichler, who is now a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.
London Now Has Audiophile Clubs Where You Can Hear Recordings At The Highest Quality Possible
“These speakers were built totally without compromise. When you have equipment this good, it can deliver such high quality that it emotionally connects you to the music. We’re not afraid to say that listening to music is a very magical thing.”
For The Seventh Year, National Ballet Of Canada Posts Surplus
The company had 2,277 performances and outreach events in the 2015/16 season with a total attendance of 918,131. There were77 performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with 141,146 in attendance and 2,190 community events reaching 760,413 young people and their families.
It’s Canada’s Richest Prize, And This Outside-The-Mainstream Director Just Won It
The Siminovitch, the richest prize in Canadian theatre, is awarded on a three-year cycle to directors, playwrights and designers – and Nadia Ross’s win in a year dedicated to direction is certainly an encouraging one for Canadian theatre artists whose practice doesn’t neatly fall into those categories, or, indeed, the mainstream definition of “theatre.”
Elizabeth Bishop’s Last Love Affair
In 1971, three years after the suicide of her Brazilian partner, the still-grieving poet came to Harvard to fill in for the on-sabbatical Robert Lowell. There she fell for the 27-year-old house secretary – with her “blue blue blue” eyes – of the dorm where Bishop was staying.
Meeting The Enemy In Virtual Reality – Art And VR As An Affecting Means Of Communicating
It holds the promise of opening up new frontiers for the integration of journalism and art in a socially oriented 21st-century performance piece poised at technology’s cutting edge.
Another Strong Earthquake In Italy Brings Down A Historic Church
“The earthquake, the most powerful to hit the country since 1980, has brought devastation to areas that were already damaged by the 6.2-magnitude earthquake of 24 August, which killed almost 300 people. No further deaths have been reported in the recent wave of seismic activity. The latest disaster follows a pair of tremors (5.4- and 5.9-magnitude) in quick succession on 26 October.”
Atlanta Symphony Raises $25M Two Years Ahead Of Schedule, Expands Orchestra To 88 Players
The endowment fund had a four-year goal to reach $25 million, the life of the current labor agreement with the musicians. Instead, the endowment goal was reached in two years. Over the past year, nine new musicians have joined the orchestra.
The Power Of “Showing Off” (And What It Means)
“Consider then what is meant by ‘showing off’. We use this phrase to designate behaving in a way intended to attract admiration. Showing off is not just doing something well before an audience. Jacqueline du Pré doing Elgar is not showing off. She is performing, playing cello before an audience. What distinguishes showing off is the intention behind the deed. When I show off, I do something for the reason that I want to attract your admiration. When we deem others to be showing off we make those judgments within a context of intricate sets of meanings. These are at best provisional and changing, and so too are the possible meanings we live out in our daily lives.”
A Rare Cultural Glimpse Inside North Korea
The Munich Chamber Orchestra visits North Korea and makes a film about the experience. Life in the North is regimented and looks, in this video – a bit grim. But then, maybe that’s one reason the North Korean musicians seen here seem so passionate about the music they make.
So What Does It Mean To Be A Public Intellectual? It’s A Very Difficult Road To Walk
“A social category so pure and idealized will be both immensely irritating and fatally ineffective. All intellectuals will appear tainted as soon as one pauses to examine how they put bread on their table, with whom they play golf, and how they fund their projects. No critic can be truly independent of his or her society, and in pretending that one can, we set ourselves up for disillusionment.”
Snobs, Snobs, Everywhere. And Here’s What It Means To Be A Snob Today
“The essence of all snobbery, DJ Taylor says, is the making of arbitrary distinctions. It consists of “imposing yourself on a social situation, pulling rank, indicating, with varying degrees of subtlety, your own detachment from the people in whose presence you find yourself”. As such, it is both an unlikable characteristic and a very human one.”
The Small Town Orchestra Manager That Could
Jane Hill runs the small Eureka Symphony in California. She’s pragmatic, creative, and has strong ideas about what her orchestra’s role in her community is. “Hill’s notion is that a programming strategy must be flexible and relevant but also ambitious. “Any small town orchestra having to focus on Pops concerts, film music, and country and western music to stay alive — I shouldn’t be critical but I really believe this — to me that means they’ve chosen to limit what they think the audience will buy, with the result that no one is paying close attention to broadening the classical-music taste and interests of the audience. Or the potential audience.”
No Instruments? These People In Paraguay Formed An Orchestra Using Objects From A Landfill
Recycled Orchestra and the focus of the documentary Landfill Harmonic. Founded by environmental consultant and guitarist Favio Chávez, the orchestra plays on instruments made from trash. Over the course of 10 years, the orchestra has grown from just a few musicians to over 35. The students have even performed with heavy metal band Megadeth and with Metallica.
John Killacky’s Pocket Guide To The Culture Wars Of The 1990s And What We Did/n’t Learn
John was one of the most important defenders of freedom of expression, and here he recounts the history and reflects on what we learned or didn’t learn. “The art world got tripped up and confused, supporting only work we liked, but “like” should be criteria at home for above the couch. Freedom of expression is a more precious commodity than taste. Conservative critics were very clear about their moral imperative as they vilified artists and terrorized institutions. No one won the culture war; we lost it.”
Just To Make You Feel Inadequate On Halloween: NASA’s High-Tech Pumpkin Art
“You can holler with delight here on Earth, especially if you were at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory last Thursday for its annual pumpkin carving contest. Although calling it a ‘carving competition’ seems off: It’s more like a science fair on steroids.”
The Director Of Half Of The Harry Potter Movies Says Just Leave The Play As Theatre
“There’s something unique and special keeping it as a play. … It’s a shame to then say ‘Let’s turn it into a movie.'”
A Meal, A Talk, Some Workshops – And Now A Year-Long Residency For Portland Dance Stars
“What began as four friends getting together for a meal evolved into a published reading list, open meetups, and performances. gaskin says the controlling idea was to ‘keep that feeling we had when we started. We want to make it accessible and something people can engage in no matter what level they’re at.'”