Teaching autonomous cars to spot which objects are important and which aren’t, and then know what to do about it, is a difficult thing. – Aeon
Is This A Moment African-American Art Has Been Waiting For?
“Indications are everywhere that this is a turning point for black artists. Collectors and museums are taking note, and prices are up. Every week brings news of black scholars being appointed to curatorial and academic positions in art. … [And] the reasons are as varied as the art itself.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Toward a More Inclusive Theatre Curriculum
“At the Latino Theater Company’s landmark ‘Encuentro 2014: A National Latina/o Theatre Festival’ — the largest of the sort in over twenty-five years — theatremakers, scholars, and advocates convened in Los Angeles from across the United States to celebrate the rich diversity and beauty of contemporary Latinx theatre. … [This year’s] publication of Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater by Northwestern University Press is one example of the success of Encuentro 2014 and the new movement.” – HowlRound
How Social Media Is Distorting The Value Hierarchy Of Higher Education
“The tools and rules of social media are increasingly swallowing up scholarly work, whether we join the new platforms or not. Where once discernment, hard-won expertise, and glacial, scrupulous scholarship read by only a small cabal of peers carried real weight, the research agenda is now driven by an economy of clicks, likes, follows, and retweets.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Protests Over Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company Response To Systemic Abuse
Protesters said the sexual abuse 35 to 45 years ago was far more widespread than the number of current suits would indicate. They described a culture within the theater in which sex between adult staff and teenage students was an “open secret.” – The Star-Tribune (MPLS)
Dear Kids, In The Late 20th Century, We Were Into This Thing Called ‘Human Rights’
The entire concept – and certainly the promise of human rights as a way out of suffering for millions, if not billions – appears to be disappearing. “The human rights idealism of the late 20th century has itself become historical. It is time to review and count our losses, to admit that, in light of the outsized expectations, human rights will always fall short.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Suddenly, This Young Actor Is On 5,000 Screens
She’s in Booksmart as a mean but sexy love interest, and now she’s got top billing with Octavia Spencer in a new horror movie. That’s a lot in a short time for an actor who has had three movie roles – and she’s refreshingly excited that Taylor Swift told her fans to see Booksmart. “I can’t even. She means more to me than she will probably ever know. Taylor Swift has seen my face. Cool! Sick!” – The New York Times
Chinese Artists Who Address Tiananmen Square Live In The Shadows
Or they’re put there by Chinese authorities: “It has been three months since Chinese rock musician Li Zhi disappeared from public view. First, an upcoming tour was canceled and his social media accounts were taken down. Then his music was removed from all of China’s major streaming sites — as if his career had never existed at all. Li is an outspoken artist who performs folk rock. … ‘Now this square is my grave,’ Li sang [about Tiananmen]. ‘Everything is just a dream.'” – The Washington Post (AP)
BBC Dramas Get Remade All Over The World, Which Is Frankly A Little Weird
What’s up with all of the remakes, which shows get remade the most, and why is the BBC so good at writing about itself? No, but really: “Shows like Criminal Justice, The Office and Luther have stories that are universal. … Characters, situations, predicaments – they travel very well. When cast with powerful local actors, set in domestic milieus and written in the spoken dialect of the region, these shows become our own.” – BBC
The Radical Vision And Joy Of Keith Haring
Haring died almost 30 years ago, but his art remains as fresh, and as relevant, as ever. “Haring did much more than provide cute cartoons. He was publicly minded. His art faced outwards. He wanted to inform, to start a conversation, to question authority and convention, to represent the oppressed. Those cute figures are political.” – The Observer (UK)
Fox Petitions To Be In Emmy Consideration For Its Live-ish Version Of ‘Rent’
So here’s how Fox (successfully!) argued for putting the show in the variety special (live) category, after the broadcast turned out to be somewhat previously taped due to injury: “Although an unforeseen injury dictated that only a portion of Rent was broadcast live, the entire program was performed in front of live audience without edit or interruption. The TV audience was able to experience the production as intended by our extraordinary cast and crew.” – Variety
Leah Chase, Creole Chef Who Fed Freedom Riders And Presidents, Has Died At 95
Chase wasn’t just a chef, thought “she would argue that there is no greater calling than feeding people. She spread her message through cookbooks, countless media interviews and television shows. Princess Tiana, the waitress who wanted to own a restaurant in the animated Disney feature The Princess and the Frog, was based on Mrs. Chase. [Tiana] was the first African-American princess in a Disney movie.” – The New York Times
Leonardo Expert Will Not Certify ‘Salvator Mundi’ As His Work
Carmen Bambach, a curator at the Met, says no. “In her forthcoming four-volume study of the polymath – a vast project spanning more than 1m words and 1,500 images – Bambach attributes most of the picture to Leonardo’s assistant, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, with only ‘small retouchings’ by the master himself.” – The Guardian (UK)
One Place The Print Newspaper Is Still Relevant: Deadwood
The paper that plays a major role in the series and new movie, The Black Hills Pioneer, is real, and it’s still around … and you can read the archives. “The editorial voice of the paper stayed constant. It reads more like a blog than a modern newspaper: There’s no faux-disinterested ‘view from above’; the Pioneer is clearly the product of specific people with a specific point of view.” – Slate
Turkish Novelist Elif Shafak Calls For Support For Writers As The Country’s Prosecutors Examine Her Novels
The Erdogan government has become a nastily anti-art authoritarian regime, Shafak says. “‘Turkey today is the world’s leading jailer of journalists,’ she told the Hay Festival. ‘It’s also very tough for academics. Thousands of people have lost their jobs just for signing a peace petition.'” – The Observer (UK)