Social psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists would not be baffled by this apparent contradiction. Many have long believed that morality is essentially a system of social regulation. As such it is in no more need of a divine foundation or a philosophical justification than folk dancing or tribal loyalty. Indeed, if ethics is just the management of the social sphere, it should not be surprising that as we live in a more globalized world, ethics becomes enlarged to encompass not only how we treat kith and kin but our distant neighbours too.
Dance Critic Judith Mackrell Is Leaving The Guardian; Lyndsey Winship Steps In
Mackrell: “Dance has been so very generous to me as a writer, and The Guardian such a fantastic platform, that I feel I’m walking away from my own dream job. But I’ve been doing it for 32 years (nine of them at The Independent before I joined The Guardian) and if it’s time for me to focus on other projects it’s also time to hand the mic to another voice.”
Magazine Puff Pieces Aren’t ‘Puff’ Anymore – Now They’re ‘Power Pieces’
“One hundred years after the puff piece floated into our consciousness, it is being swept aside by a new kind of celebrity profile, developed within a newly engaged culture. It may be no less calculating than its predecessor, but its purpose is the opposite. Rather than meaning nothing, it means everything. The power piece positions itself as the celebrity profile as activism, and sometimes it even succeeds.”
Tom Wolfe’s Notorious Critique Of The Architecture Profession Still Has A Point
“Wolfe was wrong to mock Modernism as purely utilitarian, and to let its worst abuses speak for the entire genre. … What Wolfe got right — and it’s a criticism that still rings true today — is his skewering of what can be an insular, snotty, tone-deaf culture, from the almost religious zealotry of the early days of Modernism to now.”
We Take Fonts For Granted. They’re A Whole Different Proposition In Chinese
The default set for English-language fonts contains about 230 glyphs. A font that covers all of the Latin scripts—over 100 languages plus extra symbols—contains 840. The simplified version of Chinese, used primarily in mainland China, requires nearly 7,000. For traditional Chinese, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the number is over 13,000.
Marcel Proust’s Love Letters To The Composer Who Was His Secret Paramour
“The pair were the cultural beacons of their generation, but their relationship, known in their refined circle, was to remain secret from the public throughout their lives. In his missive, in scrawled and often barely legible handwriting, Proust, then 24, writes: ‘I want you to be here all the time but as a god in disguise, whom no mortal would recognise.'”
Art Community Complains That Nominees For Prize Are All Straight White Males – So All The Nominees Withdraw
“Earlier this month, members of the Belgian art community signed an open letter objecting to the exclusionary selection of artists for [the 2019 BelgianArtPrize] shortlist. … {Now those five artists] contend that the shift in public attention away from ‘artistic discourse or content’ and towards ‘white male privilege’ has undermined the prize and made it impossible for their work to be taken seriously. The withdrawal, they say, is a necessary step ‘in order that the question of art and merit can plausibly be rethought, restored and put back into the equation.'”
Fluxus Artist Geoffrey Hendricks Dead At 86
“The Flux Divorce” – a famous public ceremony he staged with his wife, artist Nye Ffarrabas, to mark their split – “was just one of many adventurous artworks and art events he created or participated in during a career that also included teaching art at Rutgers University for 47 years. Mr. Hendricks literally looked to the heavens for inspiration for some of his art; he was known for paintings of the sky, which he would render on traditional canvases and assorted other surfaces. (A fellow artist, Dick Higgins, gave him the nickname Cloudsmith.) But, like other Fluxus artists, he went far beyond the boundaries of painting.”
How Doctors Learn To Be Doctors… In Humanities
“As a philosophy major in college before medical school, I believe I learned what it means to be a good doctor equally from my humanities classes as from my science classes. Studying the humanities helps students develop critical-thinking skills, understand the viewpoints of others and different cultures, foster a just conscience, build a capacity for empathy, and become wise about emotions such as grief and loss. These are all characteristics that define a good doctor.”
Rambert Premieres Its First Full-Length Story Ballet In Nearly 40 Years
“Choreographer Kim Brandstrup’s new work was inspired by Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 17th-century play [Life is a Dream] about a prince imprisoned in a tower by his father. … Inspired by the play’s themes of ‘the longing for authentic experience, and the need to dream’, the Olivier-winning choreographer has transposed the action to a rundown 1959 rehearsal room.” (photo journal)
How Did Performance Art Get Into Pop Music?
In the past several decades, performance art—or at least the evocation of “performance art”—has somewhat unexpectedly wormed its way into popular music. The union began, perhaps, in the nineteen-sixties and seventies, with Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s bed-ins for peace, and reached a sort of apex with Lady Gaga arriving at the 2011 Grammy Awards inside a giant egg.
Three Thoughts About The Publishing Business
The publishing business, like all businesses, can be summed up in the words of William Munny, life coach: “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” People “succeed” in publishing based on whether their books sell, and whether their books sell really has nothing to do with their character or their intellect or whether the actual book is any good or not.
This Is America: Donald Glover Fans Take Over Pro-Donald Trump Reddit Group
“The takeover began on Monday when fans began posting photos and memes of the acclaimed actor and recording artist. ‘The One True Donald,’ one user posted on Monday, along with a black-and-white head shot of Glover. … ‘Not a racist. Not a rapist. Can read. Was never bankrupt. Likes Mexicans. Talented. Pays his taxes. Handsome. Loves immigrants. Not a puppet for Russia. Doesn’t want to [redacted] his daughter. Must be the real one true Donald,’ another posted above a picture of Donald Glover. Others posted artwork of Glover and calls to vote for Donald Glover for president.”
Another Advantage Of The Conductorless-Chamber-Orchestra Model: No Lecherous Maestros
“In his classic book, The Maestro Myth, Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power, first published in 1991, Norman Lebrecht described how ‘sexual rapacity’ added to the mystique of many conductors. … As though the touchy-feely nature of the performing arts, with that odd sense of a creative imperative for artists, is actually an entitlement, especially for those who are socially inept or nerdfully ignorant. … Moreover, the hierarchical nature of symphony structures insures that, even with a code, the allocation of power remains unchanged. And so this all becomes another argument for the kind of horizontal structures that you find with the likes of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.”
Why Is The Taj Mahal Deteriorating? Smog, A Filthy River, And Massive Amounts Of Bug Poop
“Insect slime is only one of the problems facing the monument … The once mighty Yamuna — after being dammed upstream to provide electricity for the region surrounding India’s capital, New Delhi — now runs low and thick with trash and untreated waste, and blooms with insect-attracting algae. Auto emissions, deforestation and crop burning have contributed to heavy smog that experts say has dimmed the tomb’s pearly exterior to a jaundiced yellow.” Says one environmental activist, “The Taj Mahal has never looked as fatigued, pale and sick as it does now.”
It’s So Disgusting Backstage At British Regional Theatres That It’s Become Dangerous, Say Actors
“Mould, loose tiles, leaking drains, hanging wires, rats and a lack of disabled access are just some of the issues cited by performers and creatives. Actor Daniel Page, proposing the motion on behalf of the West and South West London Branch [of Equity], said: ‘I’ve seen gaffer tape holding up wires, gaffer tape holding up dressing-room mirrors, and I fear that we will lose these palaces that are our working environment if we don’t do something about it soon.'”
Man Booker International Prize Goes To Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘Flights’
“More than 100 novels were submitted for the 2018 award, and Tokarczuk’s Flights saw off work by two former winners – South Korea’s Han Kang and Hungary’s László Krasznahorkai – to secure the £50,000 prize, which is shared equally with her English translator Jennifer Croft.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.22.18
From the Q & A
In March I participated in the Intersections Summit hosted by Milwaukee Repertory Theater. It was a gathering of community engagement practitioners from theaters (mostly) across the U.S. Prompted by the event, … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-05-22
At Cannes: Big Movies Do Fine, But Indie Film Market Declines
Whichever way the 2018 Cannes Film Market is taken, heartening signs of continued market traction have to be placed in a context of a longer-term attrition in the independent theatrical market affecting both many mid-sized English-language movies and arthouse titles alike. The bottom hasn’t fallen out of either market. But their theatrical space, in domestic and international, looks decidedly smaller.
Why Is “Design Thinking” Taking Over Education?
If design thinking (for short, let’s call it the DTs) merely involved bilking some deluded would-be entrepreneurs, well — no harm no foul. The problem is that faddists and cult-followers are pushing the DTs as a reform for all of higher education.
Robert Indiana, Pop Artist Who Created ‘LOVE’ Sculpture, Dead At 85
“Robert Indiana stands as one of the very few artists in history to make a work of art that got away from its maker and took on an incredible, even improbable, life of its own. His iconic presentation of the word ‘LOVE,’ which he created in 1964, ranks as one of the most popular artworks of the 20th-century — an utter crowd-pleaser that is instantly recognizable to millions, whether rendered as a giant metal sculpture or emblazoned across a T-shirt. Such omnipresence could be the signal achievement for any artist, but Indiana was also one of the cornerstones of the Pop art movement of the 1960s.”
Zhao Kangmin, Who Restored Xi’an’s Ancient Terra-Cotta Warriors, Dead At 81
The long-serving archaeologist “was not the first person to see the pottery fragments, nor did he order the partial excavation of the complex, which became a national treasure.” But he was the first one to reassemble the statues from the broken fragments that were first discovered. “Decades later he was still signing his name with a grand title: ‘Zhao Kangmin, the first discoverer, restorer, appreciator, name-giver and excavator of the terra-cotta warriors.'”