Structural Holes and the Origins of Ideas So you've got a great idea. Where did it come from? Did you come up with it all on your own, right out of thin air? Probably not, says sociologist Ronald Burt. In fact, most ideas are not entirely original, but are merely examples of people finding a use for thoughts and facts, the significance of which may have eluded other individuals. In other words, a mundane fact which has no real use to one set of people may spark great creativity in another social or professional setting. According to Burt, this is all evidence that social structure can stifle creative thinking, and has become known as the study of "structural holes." The New York Times 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:41 am
Hoping For A Building That Lets Its Contents Shine Italian architect Renzo Piano will shortly be bringing his subtle, understated style to Chicago, as designer of the Art Institute of Chicago's planned expansion. Critic Blair Kamen has visited Piano's latest triumph - Dallas's $70 million Nasher Sculpture Center - and says that, if the Nasher is any indication, Chicago can look forward to a classic building which actually seeks to serve the art it houses, rather than overwhelm it. Chicago Tribune 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 10:57 am
What Really Happened To The Amber Room "For two centuries, the Amber Room - a chamber entirely panelled in amber - adorned the summer palace of the tsars near St Petersburg until in 1941, when the Germans invaded, it was stolen. Since the war, thousands of treasure hunters have pursued ever wilder theories in search of 'the eighth wonder of the world'. Yet it is still missing." Now, an exhaustive three-year investigation into the fate of the Amber Room has revealed the truth: the room was indeed taken by the Nazis and stored in Germany for a time. But a fire at the castle being used for the storage destroyed the room completely in 1945. The Guardian (UK) 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:14 am
Cubism's Enduring Legacy "Many of the assumptions of the world a century ago have been so overturned that you would think the paintings Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, produced between 1907 and the first world war, would make perfect sense today, and even appear a little naive. Yet their difficulty is not of a type that recedes with familiarity. Cubism is like a maths exam at the gateway to modern art. The paintings are uniquely unyielding... Art today is made from the building blocks of ordinary life. Cubism took these building blocks, or working premises, apart. Most art confirms our sense of who we are and how we live. Cubism suggests that our real existence eludes the images and stories we constantly make of it." The Guardian (UK) 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:12 am
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The Return of the Protest Song? "Is folk music getting its political hackles up? It has often been the soundtrack of American protest, from the labor movement of the early 20th century through the civil rights and antiwar movements of the '50s and '60s. Now, in the midst of our longest and most controversial war since Vietnam, is history repeating itself? There are definite signs that this summer's folk-festival crowds may hear more political songs than they have in many years." Boston Globe 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 10:25 am
Jansons Exits Pittsburgh America is a tough place to be a music director, and even some of the world's greatest conductors eventually decide that the constant strain is just more work than it's worth. Case in point: Mariss Jansons, who this weekend conducted his final performances at the helm of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. "Many things didn't work out the way he would have liked or else Jansons wouldn't be leaving so soon -- after only seven years. But he is a class act, a committed servant of the music and above all a good person." Jansons leaves the PSO an ensemble transformed, but with an uncertain artistic future. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:49 am
Is Acoustic Science Killing the Concert Hall Acoustical engineering is an especially tricky business. Just ask anyone who has been in charge of designing the sound of a major concert hall over the last half-century. "Over the last 50 years, more computing power has been applied to acoustic data than ever before, but most big halls have turned out to be dry and pale frames for music." In fact, as acoustic science has advanced, concert halls have arguably regressed, sounding more like glorified loudspeakers or hi-fi sets than chambers of orchestral sound. Perhaps the problem is the desire to build a hall that can be all things to all people, or the corruption of our ears and minds by recorded sound. But whatever the problem, one thing seems clear: they just don't build 'em like they used to. The New York Times 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:28 am
Reinventing the Wheel in St. Paul One year ago, the musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra agreed to a new contract which would fundamentally change the way the ensemble operates. The position of music director will soon be eliminated in favor of a network of "artistic partners" who the SPCO hopes will bring star power and musical expertise to the organization. "Perhaps even more significantly, decision-making, formerly the responsibility of top management and the music director, would now be the work of two committees, each composed of three musicians and two management personnel, a ratio that puts musicians in the driver's seat." The rest of the American orchestra industry is watching St. Paul closely, if skeptically. Minneapolis Star Tribune 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:22 am
Concern For The Future Down Under The Australian government is undertaking a national study of the country's orchestras and opera companies, to determine whether the current funding formula is capable of supporting struggling arts scenes in cities and states across the continent. Of particular concern is the Melbourne music scene, where Opera Australia has steadily reduced the number of annual productions from 11 to 6 in the last decade. The last time such a review was conducted, the review team recommended that Melbourne's two orchestras be merged, and only an outcry from the local arts community prevented the merger. The Age (Melbourne) 05/21/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 8:37 am
- Previously: Opera Australia Funding Crippling Company's Activities Opera Australia posts its second annual deficit. The company's chief executive says Victorians were "not getting the opera they deserved. He said the company could not afford to service Melbourne as it would like unless the Victorian Government increased its contribution. 'The funding level of the company is too little to do all the activities that are asked of the company and the cost of staging opera in Melbourne had been seriously underestimated when the formula was drawn up in 2000. As a result, Victorians were now seeing fewer productions." The Age (Melbourne) 05/20/04
What Are They Paying For, Anyway? Another art sales record was broken this month when a Picasso sold for over $100 million. But do such absurd sale prices actually tell us anything about the quality of art? "Such news always engenders in hearers the notion that something about the art has to justify the price in the way that the number of carats determines the value of diamonds. But it's much more complicated than that, as the appeal of art objects depends on many factors apart from aesthetics." Chicago Tribune 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 11:04 am
Whatever Happened To Funding The Arts Just Because We Should? Economic impact studies are becoming the preferred method of convincing the citizenry to support public subsidies for arts and culture. But not everyone is buying the message: "The arts folks are trying to sell their idea... by using the vehicle the public seems eager to buy these days: It will help the economy. The arts’ pitch is smaller but not dissimilar to the pitch made by the biotech people. We can not only cure diseases, we were told, we can cure downturns in the business cycle... When we make these arguments long enough, other economists will come up with research that shows these are not such good investments. This will lead to more resistance to funding projects we probably ought to fund for the civic good." East Valley Tribune (AZ) 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 10:09 am
What Does Muti Have Against Philadelphia? This week, the Philadelphia Orchestra played Vienna's famed Musikverein, and by coincidence, the ensemble's old music director, Riccardo Muti, just happened to be staying at a hotel right across the street from the concert hall. Yet strangely, Muti didn't attend either of the Philadelphians' concerts, and other than a quick dinner with a violinist and a hastily scheduled meeting with orchestra president Joe Kluger, no one in the orchestra even caught a glimpse of him. In fact, since leaving Philadelphia in 1992, Muti has declined multiple invitations to return to the podium there. Orchestra officials insist that the maestro has a standing invitation. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 11:49 am
The BBC's New Head Man The BBC hopes to heal the rifts caused by the scandal surrounding the Hutton report and the suicide of Dr. David Kelley with the appointment of Mark Thompson as the corporation's new director general. Thompson, who worked at the BBC for 23 years before leaving to head up the UK's Channel 4 two years ago, succeeds the popular Greg Dyke, who was forced out of the top BBC post following the scandal over journalist Andrew Gilligan's report claiming that the government had "sexed up" a dossier concerning intelligence information on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The Guardian (UK) 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:03 am
Why The Tonys Are Guaranteed To Suck The fact that the Tony Awards exist to memorialize the best productions of the year of around a dozen New York theaters and absolutely no one else has always limited the appeal of the ceremony. But this year, the Broadway-only restriction could also prove embarrassing, after a season in which nearly every new production on the Great White Way was a disappointment, and the most innovative and engaging theatrical events in New York were occurring off-Broadway. The New York Times 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 11:29 am
- Do The Tonys Even Matter? "Of the many odd aspects of the Tony Awards, one of the oddest is that the prizes rarely have any effect on a show's box office. Of course, this is related to another Tony quirk: many of the nominated shows have closed by the time the awards come around (this year, two of the four nominees for best play are already gone). But even winners that are still being performed may not benefit much from their prizes." The New York Times 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 11:25 am
Is The Saudi Royal Family Exploiting UK Libel Law? "House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties, Craig Unger's book about the tangled connections between President Bush and his circle and Saudi Arabia's royal family, became a best seller in the United States this spring, and is now being published in Germany, Spain and Brazil, among other places. But it is not for sale in Britain... British publishing has long been notoriously hamstrung by the country's libel laws, which place the burden of proof on the defendant... But what is causing particular consternation in publishing and legal circles now is that Mr. Unger's case may be yet another example of how wealthy Saudis are increasingly using British laws to intimidate critics." The New York Times 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 9:37 am
8,323rd Verse, Same as the First The major American TV networks released their new fall schedules this week, and from all outward appearances, it's business as usual. But the fact is, business as usual has been a disaster lately, and the networks are scrambling for viewership in a TV landscape now focused on cable networks and niche programming. So why do all the new programs look the same as the old ones that haven't been working? Chicago Tribune 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 10:43 am
Will Hollywood Junk Science Help Or Hurt The Real Thing? This summer's big Hollywood disaster flick is The Day After Tomorrow, in which all the dire predictions scientists have been making about the consequences of global warming come true - over the course of about three days. Environmental groups have been latching on to the film in the hope that the sight of New York City encased permanently in ice will spark the public's interest in the real-life issue of climate change, but some observers point out that a film clearly based on junk science is more likely to spark a backlash against the global warming alarmists than to cause the public to rally to their side. Boston Globe 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 10:28 am
Fahrenheit 9/11 Wins Palme d'Or Michael Moore's incendiary documentary trashing the politics and policy of the Bush administration has captured the top prize at Cannes. It was the first documentary to be awarded the Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World took the prize nearly 50 years ago. Moore was the darling of Cannes this year, though some observers noted that, if his film won, it would be more an expression of European outrage with current American foreign policy than a true reflection of the quality of the picture. Still, in a year when no one film blew away the competition, Fahrenheit 9/11 stood out from the pack. Los Angeles Times 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 8:13 am
- Who Is This Guy, Anyway? Michael Moore has crafted a well-constructed image as a man of the people, a spokesman for the downtrodden, and a lone voice howling against the American corporate, political, and economic elite. But those who have worked with Moore tell a different story, of a money-obsessed power broker who exaggerates his supposedly working-class roots and hides his own excesses behind his populist bluster. The Observer (UK) 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 8:12 am
- Michael Moore's America It seems almost absurd now to recall that, only a few years back, documentary films were considered box office poison, and were treated like the bastard stepchild of the industry. Then came Michael Moore, whose Bowling for Columbine "turned the tables on the conventional wisdom that America was full of Bible-thumping, gun-toting conservatives: in fact, it was full of people who wanted to see their private stirrings of dissent put out there by someone who had a few facts at his disposal and dared to poke fun at the powerful." Moore's humorous but stinging criticism of conservative America, and of its current president in particular, is defining a new generation of documentary film, and helping to throw the polarization of the U.S. into stark relief. The Age (Melbourne) 05/22/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 8:07 am
Trying Anything To Get 'Em In The Seats Call it selling out an art form, giving the people what they want, or simply adapting to a changing world. But whatever you call the new strategy being employed by the Columbus, Ohio-based BalletMet, which includes joint appearances with the Ohio State marching band and dances choreographed to the music of techno icon Moby, the company insists that the steps are necessary for them to stay solvent in a world that seems increasingly resistant to traditional dance. The New York Times 05/23/04
Posted: 05/23/2004 11:38 am
