Nomura will buy London’s boondoggle Dome and turn it into a “state-of-the-art entertainment park using the latest in electronic effects and devices, and developing a further tranche of 50 acres around the site to offer shops restaurants cafes and a ‘Camden Lock’ ambience.” – London Evening Standard
Month: July 2000
MEDIA LAB COMES TO DUBLIN
Tod Machover and MIT’s thinky Media Lab have set up shop in Ireland. “They believe Dublin will host the creation of an entirely new, large-scale art form that combines a variety of media. ‘We need to figure out what comes after theatre, what comes after cinema,’ Machover says. ‘We’re hoping to develop a large part of it in Ireland.'” – Irish Times 07/28/00
MOVIE HEARING
A group of deaf movie fans has sued movie theatre chains under the Americans with Disabilities Act, seeking to force the theatres to accommodate them. “We’re looking for some form of captioning for the hearing impaired to be able to access first-run movies at the same time as the non-disabled.” – Wired 07/28/00
BUREAUCRATIC AND POMPOUS?
A former Australian Broadcasting Company producer enumerates ABC’s many shortcomings as he sees them. “Mr Moore also accused the ABC of class bias towards people educated in private schools, adding it was too literal, pompous, middle-brow, and lacking in irony and a sense of humour.” – The Age (Melbourne) 07/28/00
TIMES AXES MIRAPAUL
The New York Times has discontinued Matt Mirapaul’s column on art and technology. “The column was one of the first in the mainstream press to report on the intersection of art and technology, including ‘Web-based art exhibits, interactive music, hypertext fiction and other expressions of digital creativity.” – Wired 07/28/00
WHO OWNS DANCE
The board of the beleaguered Martha Graham company wonders if Graham’s work is really protected by copyright. They may go to court to find out. “The implications of such a ruling would be huge. Choreography was not explicitly protected by copyright law until 1978, so most works created before then would be affected. A ruling that there is no copyright protection would mean that anyone could perform such early Graham works as her 1944 masterpiece, ‘Appalachian Spring.’ ” – Washington Post
FEASTING ON SUMMER THEATRE
Canada’s summer theatres are booming. “The Ontario festivals are tourism fat-cats who feast on private dollars. During a decade when government funding of the arts has been steadily shrinking, the festivals’ incomes and expenditures have steadily grown. Stratford is the largest performing-arts organization in the country, and its $35-million budget has increased almost 50% in the last five years. With smaller theatres and fewer seats to fill, Shaw’s growth has been less spectacular but is certainly healthy.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
MEDIA LAB COMES TO DUBLIN
Tod Machover and MIT’s thinky Media Lab have set up shop in Ireland. “They believe Dublin will host the creation of an entirely new, large-scale art form that combines a variety of media. ‘We need to figure out what comes after theatre, what comes after cinema,’ Machover says. ‘We’re hoping to develop a large part of it in Ireland.’ ” – Irish Times
ONLINE ART REVOLUTION STALLS
It’s been about a year since the online art-selling companies launched in a big way, promising to revolutionize the way is sold. How’s business? “Looking back one year later, that boat looks something like the Titanic: imposing but doomed.” – Auctionwatch.com (Art & Auction Magazine)
ON BOARD AT THE KIMBELL
Fort Worth’s Kimbell Museum has a stellar collection and reputation. But two of its board members have managed to pocket a rather large share of the museum’s money, paying themselves about $1.5 million a year for their board services. “At $750,000 and $747,000 each, as reported on the private foundation’s 1998 tax return, the Fortsons are paying themselves far more than they pay their museum director. They list their hours on the job as ‘full time’ even though they have a full-time and well-paid director in Potts, and Ben runs an oil business (albeit one that’s not doing too well these days).” – FW Weekly