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03-03-07
feminist art exhibitions pay tribute to feminist movement
As we head into a month full of exhibitions devoted to feminist art including the opening of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and a major exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles a reasonable question might be: Why now? Why, 30 years after the heyday of the feminist art movement, are we putting this work under the lens?An article by Kate Taylor in The New York Sun.
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03-03-07
w.h. audens centenary
A century after his birth, W.H. Auden resists the efforts of readers to delimit him or publishers to comfortably sell him.... The poet who demanded that the poems in his first Collected Poetry in 1945 be printed alphabetically according to the first word of each poem rather than chronologically, so as to frustrate readers' preconceived notions about him. An article by Meghan O'Rourke in Slate.
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03-02-07
opera used to rehabilitate criminals
Music education - specifically, a full-scale opera program - is having a profound impact on the lives of prisoners in the UK, according to some observers in the prison system. But some guards and wardens believe that the program is just an undeserved reward for evil men. "This schism between the punitive versus the rehabilitative runs deep within the penal system; prisoner access to creative projects depends on the attitude of individual governors."
An article in The Guardian.
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03-02-07
literary classics boiled down
Two leading publishers have hit on the idea of boiling down classic novels for modern audiences who are too busy/stupid to read the real thing. Orion was first off the blocks with its Compact Classics, which will appear in May - Anna Karenina, Vanity Fair, Moby-Dick, The Mill on the Floss, David Copperfield and Wives and Daughters, all reduced to not more than 400 pages for "less confident readers".
An article by Stephen Moss in The Guardian.
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03-02-07
authors turn to podcasts to find an audience
It can be ridiculously difficult for unproven authors to attract the attention of a publisher, not to mention an audience of readers. After being snubbed by publishers for years, Mr. Sigler began recording his first book, “EarthCore,” in 2005. He offered it as a podcast in 22 episodes (roughly 45 minutes each) that he posted online and sent free to subscribers for downloading. Before long, Mr. Sigler had 5,000 listeners; by the time he finished releasing his second novel, “Ancestor,” last January, he had 30,000, as he does for “The Rookie,” which is playing now.
An article by Andrew Adam Newman in The New York Times
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03-01-07
the problem of olympic infrastructure
The Olympics are a global stage like no other, but too often, host cities find that the massive infrastructure required to present them hangs around for decades in the form of unpaid bills and underused facilities. So it shouldn't be any big surprise that Chicago and Los Angeles have a different vision of what the Olympics should look like. This pair of American cities, so different in so many ways, seem to agree that the best way to win the Olympics — and to pay for them — is to design a sort of pack-and-go games.
An article by Christopher Hawthorne in The Los angles Times.
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03-01-07
advanced math in medieval architecture
In the beauty and geometric complexity of tile mosaics on walls of medieval Islamic buildings, scientists have recognized patterns suggesting that the designers had made a conceptual breakthrough in mathematics beginning as early as the 13th century. A new study shows that the Islamic pattern-making process appears to have involved an advanced math of quasi crystals, which was not understood by modern scientists until three decades ago. An article by John Noble Wilford in The New York Times.
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03-01-07
vandalism on nyc street art
Someone out there has a problem with art. The evidence is the bright green and purple splashes of paint that began appearing on walls in Brooklyn and Manhattan more than a month ago. The carefully aimed blobs obscured or disfigured dozens of pieces of street art created by people who may not be household names, but who have achieved the esteem of peers and some recognition from the mainstream art world.
An article by Collin Moynihan in The Guardian.
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02-28-07
technology boosts the self esteem of young college students
All the effort to boost children's self-esteem may have backfired and produced a generation of college students who are more narcissistic than their Gen X predecessors, according to a new study led by a San Diego State University psychologist. And the Internet, with all its MySpace and YouTube braggadocio, is letting that self-regard blossom even more, said the analysis, titled 'Egos Inflating Over Time. An article by Larry Gordon and Louis Sahagun in The Los Angeles Times.
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02-28-07
in their own words
What should we think of the literary trend of authors integrating fictionalized versions of themselves into their work?
"Realistic fiction demands that the details of a character's job should be as convincing as possible, and the creation of a creative writer uses research already accrued... But there is also a deeper mental explanation."
An article by Mark Lawson in The Guardian.
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02-28-07
the possible future of museums
As the art market booms and interest in collecting grows, museums around the world are expanding with new buildings, new branches and new styles. A new golden age of museums or a profit-motivated bubble? Major gallery directors debated in Tokyo this month to layout their survival strategy.
An article by Lucy Birmingham Fujii in Bloomberg.com.
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02-27-07
music industry aims at free online sheet music
The next round of the ongoing war over free (and illegal) music online may not have anything to do with MP3s. The distribution of sheet music and guitar tablatures over the internet has become a widespread practice, and a concerted legal effort in the United States, which is about to gather pace. It could mean the beginning of the end for free music on the Web. Some analysts think the industry is squaring up for a rerun of the costly and damaging legal battles with peer-to-peer file-share services such as Napster in 2000 and 2001. An article by Jonathan Brown and Andrew Johnson in The Independent.
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02-27-07
fespaco africa's largest film festival has opened its 19th season
The Pan-African Film and Television Festival, Fespaco, is a biennial event that has been running since 1969 has opened its 19th season in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso.Fespaco is vital for African directors because African films struggle to find a market, both in Africa and in the rest of the world, correspondents say.More than 200 films will be shown at the festival, which runs until 3 March. An article in BBC News.
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02-27-07
chinese art becomes more and more popular among collectors
Huge crowds may jam the Miami Basel and Frieze art fairs, but those numbers are nothing compared with the potential size of the art market within China itself. Ten years ago, a few Chinese artists, like Chen Zen or Huang Yong Ping, appeared on the West's radar screen, satisfying a certain outdated "Orientalist" craving among some collectors. But now Western collectors and dealers are descending on China like a swarm of annoying and aimless flies.An article by Francesco Bonami in The New York Times.
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02-26-07
filmmaker claims to have the burial box of jesus christ
A Canadian documentary filmmaker will reveal at a news conference Monday that he has strong evidence a group of burial boxes unearthed in Jerusalem belonged to Jesus Christ and his family. An article by Stuart Laidlaw in The Star.
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02-26-07
how to talk about books you haven't read
Pierre Bayard, a Paris University literature professor, has published an instructional manual for intelligent folks who wish to learn how to talk about books they haven't actually read without sounding like blithering idiots.. “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?” has become a best seller here, with translation rights snapped up across Europe and under negotiation in Britain and the United States. An article by Alan Riding in The New York Times.
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02-26-07
a new tower in san francisco's skyline
San Francisco has never seen a tower like the federal building about to open at Seventh and Mission streets.
Neither has the United States.
No other tower in America is shaped so resolutely by the desire to create a healthy environment for workers while reducing the use of energy and natural resources. And no other high-rise so casually defies expectations of how a tower "ought" to look. An article by John King in The San Francisco Chronicle.
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02-24-07
errors in wikipedia cause a ban at middelburry college
The Middlebury history department notified its students this month that Wikipedia could not be cited in papers or exams, and that students could not “point to Wikipedia or any similar source that may appear in the future to escape the consequences of errors.”a growing debate within journalism, the law and academia over what respect, if any, to give Wikipedia articles, written by hundreds of volunteers and subject to mistakes and sometimes deliberate falsehoods.An article by Noam Cohen in The New York Times.
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02-24-07
scala's first encore since 1933
Ever since Arturo Toscanini himself held the podium there, Milan's Teatro alla Scala has had a strict rule: no encores. The continuity and integrity of the score, the music and drama as a unit, must be respected. (Today many other houses follow the same practice, most famously the Metropolitan Opera.) An article by Matthew Westphal in Playbill arts.
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02-24-07
escalating level of violence in film, TV, video games
The US struggle with the increase of violence in their broadcast and think of possible solutions."Federal and some state officials are looking to regulate the escalating level of violence in film, TV, video games, song lyrics, and Web-based entertainment. But many veterans of the struggle are concluding that regulation is not the answer. It's time, they say, for new ideas and a search for common ground."An article by Gloria Goodale and daniel B. Wood in Christian Science Monitor.
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02-23-07
online utopia?
Is it possible that a virtual community online creates a utopia? Second Life tried. "In the last year, the number of people who had visited Second Life skyrocketed from 100,000 to 2 million. As the population grows, early denizens are learning the truth of Jean-Paul Sartre's observation 'Hell is other people.' The website is facing the problem that many would-be utopias faced before it: When building the ideal world, it's impossible to change while remaining perfect in everyone's eyes."
An article by Alana Semuels in The Los Angeles Times.
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02-23-07
censorship never dies
Censorship is as old as civilisation itself - and the drive to suppress as strong today as ever. Our politicians seem to have concluded that there are no votes in artistic freedom, or even upholding the law, but many in pandering to every angry cry of offence.
An article in The Independent.
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02-23-07
rediscovering silent film
Silent film was never meant to be silent. It was meant to be heard.So, when the modern silent Passio premieres Friday at the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia, it will be accompanied not by the spooling whir of film feeding through the projector of an otherwise quiet theater but by a symphony orchestra and dozens of singers.
An article by John Brownlee in Wired News.
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02-22-07
are superstars becoming a memory of the past?
As the music industry struggles to come to terms with collapsing sales, diverging international markets and the internet-fuelled emergence of highly personalised and parochial buying patterns, is the era of the global musical superstar drawing to an end?
An article in The Telegraph.
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02-22-07
can e-mail abuse be worse than drugs on our brain?
Researchers at King's College, London, have discovered that email abuse reduces our cognitive powers even more than drugs, so now a method has been devised to cure us. Naturally, the American creators of the course talk in the argot of the alcoholics 12-step programme . And much of the advice is fatuous: Reduce the amount of email you receive.
An article in The Telegraph
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02-22-07
better acting through digital effects
Directors have started to manipulate actors' performances in postproduction. Modern visual effects technology allows them to go beyond traditional cosmetic changes, such as removing wrinkles and unsightly hairs, and adjust actors facial expressions and subtly alter the mood of a scene.
An article by Ben Hoyle in The Times.
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02-21-07
online newspaper thriving in norway
"At a time when other newspaper companies lament a loss of readers and advertisers, Schibsted is thriving. Its earnings rose 28 percent in the fourth quarter. Online operations will generate about 20 percent of the company's revenue this year. Perhaps more important, at least for investors, online businesses will provide nearly 60 percent of the company's operating earnings by next year."
An article by Eric Pfanner in The New York Times.
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02-21-07
a boom in india's art world
the art world is booming just like the economy in india.
Who is buying the art reveals a novel trend. Indian-born but foreign-based Indians, especially those who are self-made, see the new art as a way of reconfirming their ethnic identity and as an opportunity to move up into the rarefied world of elitist arts. The result is rapid inflation in art prices. An article in
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02-21-07
flaming or the online disinhibition effect
Why is it so easy to say something in an e-mail or on a blog without having the slightest idea how it will come across to the reader? Turns out there is "a design flaw inherent in the interface between the brain's social circuitry and the online world. In face-to-face interaction, the brain reads a continual cascade of emotional signs and social cues, instantaneously using them to guide our next move so that the encounter goes well. ... And in e-mail there are no channels for voice, facial expression or other cues from the person who will receive what we say."
An interesting article by Daniel Goleman in The New York Times.
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02-20-07
"scream" a crime story
Was the theft of Munch's "Scream" merely a diversion for another crime? The "gang needed what Sicilians call an 'illustrious corpse' to distract attention. What could be more spectacular than stealing The Scream? After all, it caused a sensation when the other version of Munch's picture was stolen from Oslo's National Gallery in 1994 and recovered in a sting operation. Stealing the Munch Museum version proved an even bigger story. And that was the point."
An article in The Guardian.
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02-20-07
steinbeck's novel sold for $47,800
A rare edition of John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath has sold for $47,800, doubling the estimated price and setting what is believed to be a world record for a book by the Nobel Prize-winning author. An article by Nick Tanner in the Guardian .
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02-20-07
pirates of the web
Hollywood is agressively fighting illegal downloads. But isn't this counter-productive? Will Hollywood adapt and survive, or will it continue to escalate its apparently futile battle against the collective intelligence of a million resourceful and highly motivated computer geeks worldwide? If Hollywood wants to stop online pirates—who cost the industry some $7 billion in 2005—it needs to join them, not beat them.
An article by Steven Daly in Vanity Fair .
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02-19-07
sculptural offsprings at the seattle art museum get blessing
When the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park opened last month, park administrators hoped it would be popular.Seattle's new sculpture park has been a hit with visitors. It also seems to have inspired local artists. Several of the park's sculptures have spawned miniature offspring. "They're not part of the museum's collection, but we're going to leave them where they are. This kind of engagement is positive and respectful to the art. We welcome it." An article by Regina Hackett here .
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02-19-07
human language eroded as endangered languages die
Of the estimated 7,600 languages known in the world today, half are endangered and could be lost forever within a few decades.
"The extinction of ideas we now face has no parallel in human history," Harrison says in the book "When Languages Die," recently published by Oxford University Press, "and most of the world's languages remain undescribed by scientists. So we do not even know what it is we stand to lose."
An article by David Perlman in The San Francisco Chronichle .
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02-19-07
michelangelos private room in the vatican
A 450-year-old receipt has provided proof that Michelangelo kept a private room in St. Peter's Basilica while working as the pope's chief architect, Vatican experts said."We now know that Michelangelo definitely had a private space in the basilica," said Maria Cristina Carlo-Stella, who runs the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office where the basilica's archives are kept. "The next step is to identify it." An article by Daniela Petroff here .
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02-17-07
new orleans residents are giving up
Many of the best and brightest who returned to the city after Katrina are giving up. "Their reasons include high crime, high rents, soaring insurance premiums and what many call a lack of leadership, competence, money and progress. In other words: yes, it is still bad down here. But more damning is what many of them describe as a dissipating sense of possibility, a dwindling chance at redemption for a great city that, even before the storm, cried out for great improvement."
An article by Shalia Dewan in The NY Times .
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02-17-07
identity and migration
Modern liberal societies have weak collective identities. Postmodern elites, especially in Europe, feel that they have evolved beyond identities defined by religion and nation. But if our societies cannot assert positive liberal values, they may be challenged by migrants who are more sure of who they are.
An article by Francis Fukuyama in prospect magazine .
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02-17-07
the uncertainty principle of beauty
Contemporary philosophers, preoccupied with their small quarrels, have abandoned the discussion of beauty to the likes of Elaine Scarry and Denis Donoghue and their colleagues in art and English departments. It should come as little surprise, then, that beauty has been smuggled back into philosophy by Alexander Nehamas, a professor of philosophy at Princeton, whose previous books have made wideranging inquiries into what he calls "the art of living."
An article by gideon Lewis-Kraus in The New York Sun .
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02-15-07
strike allows free admission to the louvre
Some visitors to the Louvre got into the world-famous Paris museum free on Wednesday after a partial strike by attendants temporarily blocked ticket booths.The workers, who are responsible for guarding the Mona Lisa and other famous works, later moved away from the booths and officials returned to charging for admission. Read more here.
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02-15-07
the ten best books ?
A list of 125 top writers' Top Tens makes the cut. "An unexceptionable list, right? Well, only until you start thinking about it. Critic Sven Birkerts, in his introductory essay, picks up on two oddities: first, only one of the works is by a woman (and she, Mary Ann Evans, used the male pen name of George Eliot); second, only one was written before the 19th century. No Homer, no Dante, no Chaucer. Also no Charles Dickens. Or Jane Austen."
An article by Frank Wilson in The Philadelphia Inquirer .
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