The Customer As Inventor "How does innovation happen? The familiar story involves boffins in academic institutes and R&D labs. But lately, corporate practice has begun to challenge this old-fashioned notion. Open-source software development is already well-known. Less so is the fact that Bell, an American bicycle-helmet maker, has collected hundreds of ideas for new products from its customers, and is putting several of them into production. Or that Electronic Arts (EA), a maker of computer games, ships programming tools to its customers, posts their modifications online and works their creations into new games. And so on. Not only is the customer king: now he is market-research head, R&D chief and product-development manager, too." The Economist 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:48 pm
Is There A Better Case To Be Made For The Arts?: The Home Stretch What do Bill Ivey, Midori, Robert L. Lynch, Glenn Lowry, Ben Cameron, Andrew Taylor, Joli Jensen, Jim Kelly, Adrian Ellis, Phil Kennicott and Russell Willis Taylor have in common? They're taking part in a week-long blog debate on ArtsJournal about the value of the arts: "Let's paint a picture of what we think a vibrant cultural system should look like, and then advocate on behalf of policies that take us there. In my experience, arts advocates tend to ask for "more," rather than for a specific outcome. If we want a drawing teacher in every fourth grade classroom, let's talk that way. I think policy leaders and funders like to know exactly what will happen if they support a program. The challenge, of course, is that once we get where we say we want to go, we have to be willing to stop, and not ask for more...That's been hard for us to do." A Better Case For The Arts (AJBlogs) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:35 pm
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Whose History Of 20th Century Art? A new history of art of the 20th Century suggests a new narrative, writes Eric Gibson. "Indeed, "Art Since 1900" is less a historical narrative than an extended piece of art criticism arguing for a particular point of view. In this one respect the book has something in common with Paul Johnson's recent "Art: A New History." The difference is that Mr. Johnson's approach is traditional and art itself is, for him, front and center; his insights grow out of his close look at the works of art that he is writing about. In "Art Since 1900" works of art are subordinated to one theory or another, reduced to little more than illustrations. And most of the theory itself is tendentious in the extreme, pushing a political "reading" of culture that amounts to a tired paean to Karl Marx and Walter Benjamin." The Wall Street Journal 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 7:59 am
College Selling Art To Cover Legal Settlement Facing large legal settlements with students who were sexually assaulted by a former teacher, Upper Canada College is selling millions of dollars worth of art and property. The art will be sold off primarily at public auction over the next few months. "The decision will be difficult for some people, but the art is not crucial to the education of the students here." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 6:47 am
The Disfunctional ICA London's Institute of Contemporary Arts has a new director. But "what a strange, dysfunctional institution the ICA is. Part cultural department store, part youth club (where the vicar is the DJ), part Kunsthalle, part computer shack, part bar and restaurant ... But this is the problem: there are too many parts, too many players, too many conflicting ambitions and drives, everyone pulling in a different direction amid perennial resentments. It is a situation where identity crisis is the norm." The Guardian (UK) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 11:16 pm
Is Shanghai The New Paris? "China's commercial capital is starting to take on the chic of Paris, the sophistication of New York and the futuristic vibes of Tokyo. It already boasts the world's fastest train (the Maglev that takes eight minutes to run the 30 km from Pudong airport into the city), the longest underwater pedestrian tunnel (under the Huangpu river) and the world's tallest hotel—the 88-storey Grand Hyatt, complete with the world's highest swimming pool and longest laundry chute. Most interesting, it has Xintiandi, a two-hectare (nine-acre) complex of hip restaurants, bars and shops in an open, elegant, low-rise style that cost $170m to develop and is one of the first examples of China preserving its own architecture." The Economist 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 10:10 pm
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A Model Orchestra Built On The New You don't build an orchestra by playing contemporary music. Or do you? Michigan's Plymouth Symphony is "an orchestra on the make with a growing budget, expanding menu of concerts and education programs, bulging attendance and, significantly, the most progressive programming of any orchestra in southeastern Michigan, including the Detroit Symphony. No one locally does more to promote living composers, present thematic programs laced with intellectual pop and unusual repertoire and create a sense of adventure when the lights go down." Detroit Free Press 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 7:24 am
Auckland Orchestra Gets Reprieve Auckland's City Council has approved an emergency $200,000 "top-up" for the budget of the Auckland Philaharmonia. "The Government arts funding agency approved a six-month operational deficit budget until June 30, 2005, "on the basis that the philharmonia's structure would be reformed and other funding sources were secured, especially from territorial local authorities." The orchestra recently declared it would be unable to operate past June without help, and negotiations with local governments have ensued. New Zealand Herald 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:59 pm
Music Of The People, By The People, And For The People Artist/musician Christopher Marclay went around Berlin posting music staff paper and inviting people to write on it. "My aim was to create a collective score made by the people of Berlin," he says. "Did many people actually write music? "Yes, surprisingly, perhaps because Berliners are so cultured musically. Of the 800 photographs of these posters I made a selection of 150, which make up the 'score'." Since then the score has been interpreted in vastly different ways, which is natural enough, given that the mixture of squiggles, images, notes and words is hardly precise." The Telegraph (UK) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:58 pm
A Concert Hall With Its Own Recording Label London's Wigmore Hall is "launching its own record label. In what is clearly becoming a significant industry trend it joins the likes of ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé, and artists as diverse as Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Michael Nyman, in taking recording work in-house. Uniquely, though, it is probably the first venue to take the step." Gramophone 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:57 pm
Government Report To Recommend Slashing Adelaide Symphony A soon-to-be-released Australian government report on orchestras is said to call for a sharp reduction in the number of players in the Adelaide Symphony. The report "recommends slashing the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 74 to 56 full-time players – in what has been described as an "act of vandalism"." The Advertiser (Australia) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 6:14 pm
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Cleveland Goes Looking For Big Money Cleveland arts organizations are looking for big money. Can they find it? "Three of Cleveland's nonprofit institutions have campaigns that together hope to raise more than $700 million. The Cleveland Museum of Art's $300 million effort is the newest, seeking money to expand and renovate the University Circle museum." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 8:11 am
The New 24/7 Lincoln Center Lincoln Center is growing. "With jazz after midnight and late-morning, breakfast concerts of classical music, Lincoln Center is evolving into an almost "24-7" performing arts hub. As it adds edgy creativity to its mainstream fare, the centre is expanding culturally and physically. It also has enlarged its board of directors to include leaders in non-artistic fields raising money from donors who might never before have given to the arts." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 7:18 am
What'll It Take For Women To Get Ahead In The Arts? "On the occasion of Women's History Month, Back Stage talked with the heads of several women's organizations for their spin on the challenges facing women in the arts and media today and to learn what they're doing about them. A repeated refrain is that while the status of women has improved enormously, there is still a lack of equality in terms of clout and pay. Men continue to outnumber women in positions of power behind the scenes, get better roles on stage and screen, and generally earn more money than their female counterparts of equal competence and experience (at any level above scale)." Back Stage 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 6:58 am
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David Byrne: PowerPoint As An Instrument Of Art Rocker David Byrne is touring with his current instrument of choice - a computer loaded with PowerPoint. "Byrne is most interesting when he goes off on flights of fancy that illustrate why he is called the Renaissance man of rock. "PowerPoint is a symptom of a long train of thought that started picking up steam during the Enlightenment," he says. "The idea was that we could name everything and draw lines that connect them." San Francisco Chronicle 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 9:17 am
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NY To Change Child Performer Rules? The New York legislature is considering a bill to change the child performer laws. "The current New York law lists the educational requirements for child performers and also mandates a trust fund to protect 15% of the child's income. It also provides a method by which producers can file that money with the state Child Performer's Holding Fund if the performer's parents or guardians don't establish a trust." Back Stage 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:30 pm
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When Documents Are Digital, Where's The History? "When all our documents are generated by digital means, the nature of what consists of an "original" becomes fuzzier and fuzzier. (Is it the first copy from the printer? The electrons on the hard disk?) And if search companies like Google succeed in their mission to get all human knowledge online, available to everyone, we'll have the power to peruse existing documents like those in the Christie's auction from the comfort of our dens." Newsweek 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 7:05 am
Tracing CanLit Back To Its Source Canadian literature has been hot in recent years. But where does this writing come from? Much of it derrives from the lit program at the University of British Columbia. "Sure, there are other schools – the universities of Victoria, New Brunswick and Windsor prominent among them – but UBC was first (founded in 1965 by poet Earle Birney) and it's earned the kind of cachet that must drive its rivals to distraction. "Indeed, nearly half the graduating class of 2001 finished school with a book contract. Every publishing house, it seemed, needed its own author from the Buchanan Building." CBC 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 6:53 am
Report: UK Libraries Need Major Help A new government report says UK public libraries are in dreadful shape and need major lottery funding. "The report by the Commons select committee on culture, media and sport indicts 50% of library services as "persistently below standard" after decades of underfunding - an explanation for steadily falling book loans and visitor numbers over the past 15 years. The committee cites estimates that between a quarter and more than two-thirds of a billion pounds would be needed to wipe out the backlog of building repairs and refurbishments." The Guardian (UK) 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 11:24 pm
Is The Science Boom Busting? In the 1990s, books about science were hot. "With the boom, inevitably, there came a torrent of rubbish. The stylistic innovations of the trendsetters soon became, in the hands of the disciples, stale recipes, recycled over and over in formulaic and uninspiring ways. Even the titles began to seem repetitive: The Panda's Thumb, Galileo's Finger, Einstein's Brain ... What a pity nobody had the chutzpah to write a book about Newton's penis. A decade and a half later, there are signs that the popular science boom is running out of steam." The Guardian (UK) 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 11:21 pm
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What's Next For Weinsteins Apres-Disney? "According to insiders at Miramax, the Weinsteins envision a new company, with a net worth of about $2 billion, with its own theatrical distribution and home video label. The Weinsteins want to raise a deep war chest so that they do not have to hustle for money and presell foreign territories to raise production coin. They hope to lure employees by promising to share the wealth when the company goes public within five years. But raising money is one thing. Structuring a new company in a way that satisfies investors is another." Hollywood Reporter 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 8:38 am
TV Comes To Shangri la The Himalayan country of Bhutan didn't get television until 1999. Now its residents are hooked. "Residents of the capital, Thimphu, now say they are glued to the telly for several hours a day. Long-running and popular Indian soap operas beamed from across the border are hot favourites. Thimphu residents animatedly discuss the serials and follow the fortunes of their characters." BBC 03/11/05
Posted: 03/11/2005 6:39 am
Toon Town - A Studio's Gotta Have 'Em "Virtually all the major studios now have an inhouse facility producing computer-generated (CG) feature films, from Sony's Imageworks to Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which created "Robots." Not surprisingly, the film-release calender for 2005 is filling up with CG films. Dreamworks has "Madagascar," a tale of zoo animals surviving in the wild, due out Memorial Day weekend. "Chicken Little," the first film to hatch from Disney's new CG studios, arrives in November. But some observers wonder how long Hollywood can sustain the CG-film gold rush." Christian Science Monitor 03/11/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 10:50 pm
BBC Cuts The BBC is undergoing significant cutbacks. "The changes to the BBC's professional services divisions will result in the loss of 980 jobs through a combination of redundancy and staff turnover. A further 750 posts will be outsourced, resulting in 1,730 job losses in total - a 46% reduction in headcount. Overall cost savings across the BBC are expected to reach £355m - £35m more than the original £320m target." BBC 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:20 pm
Arab Star Decries Western Radio Censorship Algerian musician Rachid Taha says there's more censorship in Western radio than in the Middle East. "Censorship is actually stronger in the West. Western leaders lead us to believe we are free to express our views - when actually we're not. Radio stations have become like dinosaurs," said the star, who sings in Arabic and French. BBC 03/10/05
Posted: 03/10/2005 9:12 pm
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