The tiny editions are the size of a cellphone and no thicker than your thumb, with paper as thin as onion skin. They can be read with one hand — the text flows horizontally, and you can flip the pages upward, like swiping a smartphone.
‘We Were Promised Better Worlds, And All We Got Was This Lousy Headset’ – Consumers Cool On Virtual Reality Games
“VR was supposed to be a revolution, with companies like Oculus pioneering a whole new way for gamers and non-gamers alike to be immersed in digital environments … But for all the hype we have very little consumer interest to show for it.”
Galleries Pile On The Amenities As They Compete For An Audience
For large and now even midsize galleries, custom architecture has become as important as it has long been for museums, with all-new or re-engineered spaces to add restaurants, kitchens, gift shops, bookstores, and black box spaces and auditoriums for performance, film screenings and staged events.
After 200 Years, ‘Frankenstein’ Has Suffused The Culture
“While Frankenstein may have thwarted his creature’s desire to procreate, [Mary] Shelley’s novel has birthed a seemingly endless stream of adaptations and riffs … There have been camp Frankensteins, feminist Frankensteins, queer Frankensteins, and political Frankensteins of all stripes, which have taken the monster’s murderous revolt against its maker as allegory of everything from scientific overreach to capitalism to racism to war.”
Yayoi Kusama And Takashi Murakami Go After Chinese Company Exhibiting Counterfeits Of Their Work
“The shows allegedly began in April and have been held in the Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Shanghai … [and] were allegedly organized by a Chinese company that approached the individual venues.” Attorneys for both artists say they intend to pursue civil and possibly criminal charges as soon as they firmly identify the parties responsible. (Both artists have legitimate shows opening in Shanghai in November.)
We’re Obsessed With Genealogy. But Our Genes Tell Us Mixed Messages
In a sense, we are all royals, even if we don’t all have royal DNA in our genomes. And yet, we are obsessed with genealogies. ‘By one estimate,’ Carl Zimmer writes, ‘genealogy has now become the second most popular search topic on the internet. It is outranked only by porn.’
A Competition For Contemporary Concert Dance? How Does That Work?
“So how do you compete in this kind of vocabulary? According to the rules, judges are looking for performers who are ‘fluent in contemporary concert dance vernacular.’ Dancers are given separate scores for their artistry, technique and future potential, with particular attention paid to physical expression, response to the music, use of space and technical skill as well as strong choreography and movement invention.”
Visual Artist Wins One Step Of Court Case Against Kendrick Lamar For ‘Black Panther’ Video
The singer wanted a summary judgement on artist Lina Iris Viktor’s lawsuit against him for copying visuals from her paintings, but the judge wouldn’t grant it. “When the creators of the blockbuster film Black Panther approached her about using imagery from her “Constellations” series in the movie, she said no. She also rebuffed members of Marvel’s PR team when they came back with a similar request.” And yet … well, compare her paintings and the “All the Stars” video.
New Thinking On The Cerebellum: There’s A Lot There
An ancient part of the brain long ignored by the scientific world appears to play a critical role in everything from language and emotions to daily planning.
France’s Latest Social Justice Battle Is Over Accents
It’s called glottophobie: “Derived from the Greek words for tongue and fear, it refers to discrimination against those who speak the language of Molière and Proust with non-standard pronunciation. Regional accents are hardly unique to France. But a history of imposing homogeneity means that, even today, those whose French does not sound Parisian face derision.”
Why Creating Monsters Is Useful
From the point of view of evolution, casting others as monsters would have been extremely adaptive and helpful to your own survival as a group. Nature was not a warm and fuzzy place. Some of these horror stories were helpful in getting you to be nervous about real predators—both non-human animals and human predators.
Remembering New York City Ballet’s Original Home, City Center
“Jacques d’Amboise, Patricia Wilde, Allegra Kent and Edward Villella talk about the roles they danced at the theater, which is celebrating George Balanchine and its 75th anniversary as a palace of the arts.”
Portrait Created By AI Sells For $432K At Auction
A member of the art collective (called Obvious) behind this project explained, “On one side is the Generator, on the other the Discriminator. We fed the system with a data set of 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th century to the 20th. The Generator makes a new image based on the set, then the Discriminator tries to spot the difference between a human-made image and one created by the Generator. The aim is to fool the Discriminator into thinking that the new images are real-life portraits. Then [when the Discriminator can no longer tell the difference,] we have a result.”
Museums Are Now Using AI To Engage And Manage Visitors
“Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used today by museums of all sizes worldwide, which employ it to develop everything from robots, chatbots and websites, to tools that help them analyze visitor data and their collections, and determine admission policies and exhibition content.” One notable example, a fleet of robots, called Pepper, used by five Smithsonian museums to interact with visitors.
New Fellowship Program In L.A. To Train Young Musicians Of Color For Orchestral Careers
“Three of the city’s powerhouse musical institutions — the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, [the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles], and USC’s Thornton School of Music — have come together to create the Los Angeles Orchestra Fellowship. Launched in August, the program selected four fellows who, over the course of two years, will be trained by LACO musicians, perform in concerts throughout the city, instruct aspiring young students at ICYOLA, and pursue a music certificate at USC.”
Artwork Worth $1 Million Sets Itself On Fire (No, This Is Not Banksy’s Doing)
A blaze broke out last Saturday at the Dia:Beacon museum in upstate New York. The cause: overheating of an electrical element in a newly-acquired work by artist Mary Corse, reportedly worth $1 million. (The artwork was unnamed but was likely Untitled (Electric Light).)
Cincinnati Ballet Is Shaking Us Down For $1 Million, Says CEO Of City’s Pro Soccer Team
“The Cincinnati Ballet is pressuring FC Cincinnati to pay it $1 million for land it doesn’t own, knowing the team needs at least some of the land it uses for a Major League Soccer stadium, the team president says. … ‘This sure feels like a shakedown to me.'” Responds the CEO of the ballet company, “This is patently false.”
What Will Brexit Do To British Arts And Culture? (Not Much Good)
Reporter Olivia Bridge gives an overview of what we know and don’t know about the effects that the UK’s departure from the EU will have on the arts sector. The biggest problem? Personnel.
The New Big Thing On Israeli TV These Days? Ultra-Orthodox Jews
“The hottest TV shows in Israel right now are not about sex, drugs or violence. Instead, they are about the insular Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, whose everyday dramas — albeit fictionalized — are Israeli TV’s latest obsession.”
Study: More Than Twice As Many Students Are Paying Attention To Political News Than In 2014
Students felt, even in their short lives, news had changed. Part of it’s the Trump effect, but I think it’s really that the Parkland generation is paying attention. They have an issue. I can’t tell you how many times school shootings came up. It’s definitely on their minds. They’re going to hear about it on their phones. The 24-hour news cycle has spun out of control to this hyper-velocity model that’s coming at them. The technology feeds them these stories in a way that news always has urgency. So much of news is treated like breaking news, whether it is or not. Kate Spade, she made nice purses, and her suicide is a tragedy. But is it breaking news? It’s confusing to students.
The Battle For LA’s Intellectual Life At LA Public Library
“We have so few great public spaces in our sprawling metropolis. And Ken Brecher has, in one quick stroke, changed the library from a sacred site of learning to a battleground, threatening its support from the literary, intellectual and civic-minded community here in Los Angeles.”
Unsold on ‘The Price of Everything’: HBO’s Art-Market Epic
I recently sat disconsolately through a screener of director Nathaniel Kahn’s new artworld documentary, The Price of Everything. Its dyspeptic take on the art world turned my stomach
Rachael Worby and MUSE/IQUE
Over the years I’ve attended several musical events put on by Rachael Worby, a human dynamo who has operated several series in and around Pasadena. Worby — who was once, I think, the First Lady of West Virginia — seems interested in something both populist and unorthodox.
Recent Listening In Brief: Annie Chen, Woody Shaw And Dexter Gordon
Annie Chen Octet, Secret Treetop (Shanghai Audio&Video Ltd)
Woody Shaw, Tokyo 1981 (Elemental Music)
Dexter Gordon Quartet, Tokyo 1975 (Elemental Music)
What’s Killing Classical Music? Music-As-Church
“As a person whose primary beat is writing about religion, I can’t help but notice the parallels between classical music and religion in America today. As an aging Christian population watches its congregations shrink, younger seekers who don’t feel welcomed give up on church. Americans still discover classical music in their youth, but even those who play enthusiastically in school often can’t afford to go to the symphony, or if they do, they’re asked to treat it like a religious space, which it isn’t. Classical music isn’t dying, but our ways of experiencing it are becoming ossified.”