Now worth £91.8 billion in terms of gross value added to the UK, the sector grew by 7.6% over the year, while the economy as a whole grew by 3.5% in the same period.
What Virtual Reality Might Do To Our Nervous Systems
Vision has a general advantage, in humans, over touch, so the virtual reality environment should be OK. And yet! “Touch is the fact-checking sense. … Touching is more psychologically reassuring than seeing. Touch does not always make us experience things better, but it certainly makes us feel better about what we experience. Even when we can see that the keys are in our bags, we are much more certain that they are once we’ve touched them.”
Perhaps Humans Aren’t ‘Naturally Good’ At All
To Philippa Foot, one of the marvelous generation of British philosophers that also included Iris Murdoch, that seemed almost clear after WWII. “What would a moral philosophy look like if it started from a darker picture of human beings as not, basically, ‘decent chaps’? Part of what animated Foot and her allies was a conviction that the answer to such a question would not be easy or self-contained, would not be the sort of logical proof one could polish off in a few weeks.”
Cured, Hung And Strung: Check Out How Catgut Strings Are Made
“The video above traces the strings’ journey from the butcher to the sound bridge. Fair warning: if you’re not a fan of watching the proverbial sausage get made, maybe give this one a pass – or at least skip the front end, which deals with a lot of raw intestines.”
Audience Member Screams During Stravinsky, And Of Course It Goes Viral
The North State Symphony was performing Firebird in Redding, California, and at one point where there’s a big, sudden crescendo, one Stephanie Evans screamed. Alas for her, the moment was caught on video. Here’s how the conductor and orchestra handled it, and how Evans explains it.
Sydney Morning Herald Theatre Critic Fired After Launching New Arts Website
Jason Blake, chief theatre critic for the Herald since 2010, and his wife Elissa, a freelance arts journalist for that paper and its Sunday tabloid, The Sun-Herald, opened the Sydney-focused website Audrey Journal in November to help make up for reduced arts coverage in the print newspapers. Now the SMH has told the Blakes that their new venture, which is supported financially by several Sydney arts institutions, is a conflict of interest.
Brazil’s Famous Hotbed Of Countercultural Theatre Now Under Threat By Real Estate Development
Teatro Oficina, part of the tropicalismo movement of the 1960s and ’70s and notorious for performances filled with nudity and onstage drug consumption, is headquartered in a unique, landmarked São Paulo building by architect Lina Bo Bardi with a huge window and retractable ceiling. Mogul and TV personality Silvio Santos owns the land around Teatro Oficina and wants to build three skyscrapers which would block the theatre’s light, and the country’s artistic community is rallying to fight Santos’s plan.
Study: Tech Addiction Might Be Caused By Brain Chemical Imbalance
A study of teenagers who are “addicted” to their smartphones or the internet has found that people who struggle with so-called tech addiction seem to have more of a chemical that slows down brain signals, and less of a chemical that makes neurons more active.
Study: Teenage Brains Can’t Distinguish What’s Important (And What’s Not)
“Adults are generally pretty good at being able to tell when a situation is worthy of extra time or concentration. Research has found that, when potential rewards or losses are higher, for example, adults will perform better on tasks. But this doesn’t seem to be the case for adolescents.”
This Year’s Sundance Festival Sits At A Cultural Crossroads
“If the festival’s organizers have found themselves unexpectedly responding to cultural shifts, filmmakers too have seen their work take on new and expanded meaning in the face of the current political environment.”
How Superstar Mentality Is Endangering The Art World
“The superstar phenomenon is pervasive in the art market. My research of the last few years has documented the increasing dominance of the top end of the market. A very small number of artists, and the galleries representing them, drive the bulk of sales value, while others struggle to survive.
While this top-heavy bias has increased over the last 10 years, the superstar effect has been observed for at least a century.”
James Salter: Why I Became A Writer
“Why was I writing? It was not for glory; I had seen what I took to be real glory. It was not for acclaim. I knew that if the book was published, it would have to be under a pseudonym; I did not want to jeopardize a career by becoming known as a writer. I had heard the derisive references to “God-Is-My-Copilot” Scott. The ethic of fighter squadrons was drink and daring; anything else was suspect. Still, I thought of myself as more than just a pilot and imagined a book that would be in every way admirable.”
‘The Music Of The Plants’ Is A Real Thing (Meaning Plants Are Really Playing Music)
“During a small lecture at a private residence in Delray Beach earlier this month, I watched a houseplant play music, unabashedly and beautifully. Potted and still, it was hooked up to a MIDI machine via electrodes, its bio-emissions creating twinkling melodies. Attached to the same machine, an orchid and rosemary plant played nothing, but this one was active and virtuosic, as though it enjoyed playing.” A reporter talks to a leader of the Music of the Plants project about how all this works.
This New Concert Hall Really Is Pulling In A New Audience
Before the Philharmonie de Paris opened in early 2015, many observers fretted that the mostly older, well-heeled classical music fans in the city would not travel out to a big, modernist venue on the northern edge of the city. Nearly three years later, concerts are selling better than they used to at the (older and smaller) Salle Pleyel, and the crowds are younger and more diverse.
MPR Cuts All Ties With Garrison Keillor Over ‘Inappropriate Behavior’; Keillor Responds With His Version
In response to the accusation from an unnamed former co-worker, Minnesota Public Radio will cease distributing reruns of old Prairie Home Companion shows and merchandise as well as Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac; the current PHC with Chris Thile will be renamed. Keillor himself has given responses to The Star Tribune and on Facebook.
El Sistema Comes To Kenya
“Though Faith Syovata had almost lost her voice because of a cold, the students still hung on her every whispered word. With violins tucked under their chins, the 14-year-olds at Kawangware Primary School here had their bows at the ready as she pointed out notes for the song on the blackboard.” A reporter visits a Sistema classroom in a Nairobi slum.
The News Media Business Is In Complete Collapse. What To Do?
“There are at least three major trends contributing to this dismal media moment. They all point to the same solution, and it’s something everyone in journalism should know by now: News publishers have to get better at making money outside of advertising.”
The Digital World Isn’t Subverting Democracy, It’s Helping It (Really?)
“Digital technologies are changing politics as we know it, but not because of some inherent or immutable characteristic that stands apart from the world in which they were created. Instead, these technologies have helped an underlying condition, namely growing discontent at marketisation – the privatising of ever more goods, services and social interactions, and the ideologies that justify that process – to find meaningful expression in the formal political arena.”
Holland Cotter: Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Rewrite Of Art History
“The Louvre Abu Dhabi is banking on the theory that pointing out links among a wide variety of cultures will make all art feel more approachable to the global audience it hopes to attract. Once viewers gain the habit of spotting connections, they may come to accept that all cultures are equally valuable and personally relevant. That, at least, seems to be the thinking, and it makes sense.”