“Kenya’s literary dwarfism is partly a result of the virulent anti-intellectualism of the longest running regime in the country, the period from 1978 and 2002 when Daniel arap Moi was President. Those years were characterized by arbitrary arrests, detention, and the exile of scholars including world-renowned author Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo, both former professors of literature at the University of Nairobi.” – Guernica
What Happened To Americans’ Inherent Belief In Goodness?
Wallace Shawn: “America’s addiction to believing in its own goodness was quietly fading away, and the old words that President Kennedy used had become increasingly nauseating to a lot of people. People were not inspired, people were not breathing in self-esteem, when they heard the old phrases. And then Donald Trump came along and was elected, and he left that rhetoric far behind. He said goodbye to it.” – New York Review of Books
Reimagining The Art Of Fluxus In 2020
“Fluxus artists looked for value in the commonplace, believing that art can be anywhere and belong to anyone. Rather than eliminating art, they sought to dissolve its boundaries in order to infuse everyday life with heightened aesthetic awareness and appreciation.” – NewMusicBox
Old Recordings Of Classical Masters Are Sounding Better Than Ever
“The most dramatic evolution in the classical recording industry has also been the quietest — partly because the most glamorous figures involved are long deceased.” David Patrick Stearns looks at labels specializing in historic recordings: the use of advanced technology on crackly old source material means that, for instance, “you [can even] hear what sounds like Furtwängler turning his score pages in the 1949 Ring Cycle at La Scala.” – WQXR (New York City)
1,300-Year-Old Temple Drawings Discovered In Japan
“Researchers surveying a temple in Japan’s Shiga Prefecture … used infrared photography to identify soot-obscured paintings [of eight Buddhist saints] on two pillars in the Saimyoji temple in Kora, about 40 miles northeast of Kyoto.” – Smithsonian Magazine
Utah Is Actually A Dance Hotbed. How’d That Happen?
“We’re relatively small, yet boast a top-tier ballet company, the nation’s first repertory dance company, the first school of ballet at an American University, the world’s largest ballroom dance program and multiple powerhouse studios.” How did that happen? “Utah has a unique history that nourished dance,” says one local insider, and that history very much includes the Mormon settlers. – Salt Lake Magazine
Where Music Comes From, According To Anthropologists
In warfare, rhythm and melody allow tribal groups to signal their strength, numbers, and coordination across far distances, to both allies and foes. This is not unlike how animals commonly use vocalizations to signal their territory or scare off others. “If we study music in traditional societies, we see it used consistently to form political alliances.” – Fast Company
How Crisis Leadership Works
Swarm intelligence in people occurs when all the members of a group come together to create a synergy that magnifies their individual capabilities. It’s the kind of unselfish behavior that one sees on the battlefield, when soldiers know that they depend on one another for their lives. Swarm intelligence is more instinctual than coöperation, in which people work deliberately together to achieve a common goal; it’s an emotional and reactive behavior, not a plan that can be written out on a flowchart. – The New Yorker
Who Gets Credit For Art Created By AI?
Researchers at MIT Media Lab and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development are wondering how people decide who gets credit for art that was created using artifical intelligence. After all, there would have been many different people involved in producing and selecting the original art used as the AI’s training data, in creating the program, and in curating the final output. In a recently published paper they showed that who gets credit for AI-generated art all depends on how we think and talk about the role of AI. – Forbes
Brussels Re-Closes Its Museums As COVID Cases Surge; Other European Museums To Follow
Museums and galleries around Europe are bracing for further restrictions as the infection rates rise to their highest levels yet. Institutions in Wales have been closed as the country implemented a two-week national “firebreak” lockdown that began October 24. Meanwhile, museums and galleries in Northern Ireland were asked to close on October 16 for four weeks. – Artnet
How One Artistic Director Came To Grips With Equity
In 2012 after the murder of Trayvon Martin my only employee at the time, a Black male, called to tell me that he was scared to leave his home, but didn’t want to let me down by not showing up to work. I told him to please take care of himself and to not worry then hung up. That conversation was a turning point for me. – WESTAF
What Carlos Acosta Wants For Birmingham Royal Ballet
Well, besides getting through COVID (and he has things to say on that, too). “I want to challenge the perception that ballet is for white people, this is for old people. … We are in Birmingham, with its own demographic, and we have to keep that in mind when commissioning. I want to highlight how important the city has been to the U.K. Heavy-metal music was born here, Led Zeppelin came from here — we’ll do those ballets! But this art form was born centuries ago, and we have a responsibility to cultivate that side, too.” – The New York Times
The World’s Whitest White Is Here, And It Can Help Fight Climate Change
In the past few years we’ve seen the debuts of the world’s blackest black (several times) and pinkest pink. Now comes a white acrylic paint, developed by engineers at Purdue, that reflects 99.5% of light and stays cooler than the ambient temperature even in the brightest sunshine. Meanwhile, artist Stuart Semple (who created that super-hot pink) has developed his own Whitest White, which (he says) reflects 99.6% of light. – Artnet
Jon Stewart Is Returning To Television
“As part of an expansive, multiyear deal with Apple, the Emmy-drenched former writer, producer and host of The Daily Show is set to front an all-new current affairs series for the streaming service. The show, which will run for multiple seasons, puts Stewart back in the anchor’s chair as he explores a host of topics at the center of both the national conversation and his own advocacy work.” – The Hollywood Reporter
COVID Roars Through The Ranks At La Scala And San Carlo
In Milan, 18 choristers and three woodwind players have come down with the coronavirus, even as La Scala has shut down again. At the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, 12 employees, among them management, chorus singers, orchestral players and ballet dancers, have tested positive for COVID so far. – AP
AAMD’s Failed Oversight: Murky “Clarification” of Its “Financial Flexibility” Resolutions
Better late than never (but not soon enough), the Association of Art Museum Directors is attempting to backpedal from its decision, six months ago, to temporarily loosen its tight strictures against the use of proceeds from art sales for anything other than acquisitions. – Lee Rosenbaum
Five Years After Aneurysm, Joni Mitchell Still Struggling To Walk
In a Q&A with Cameron Crowe about a new disc of unreleased recordings, Mitchell said, “Polio didn’t grab me like that, but the aneurysm took away a lot more, really. Took away my speech and my ability to walk. And, you know, I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I’m still struggling with. But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood!” – BBC