“Just like regular maps, brain maps are useful points of reference. Scientists use them to agree on what they’re studying in the first place, say, by pointing to something called the “anterior cingulate cortex” and having other people know what they’re talking about. But over time, better data can refine those maps. So a team of researchers have marshaled a huge amount of brain scan data to create a new, precise brain map, published in Nature today.”
Month: July 2016
A History Of Interpreting Blackness To White Audiences
“So much black intellectual energy has been expended on convincing white audiences simply to care about the exploitation of the black poor and the alienation of the black middle classes. The receptivity of particular white audiences has fluctuated over time, and with it—in tandem, arguably—various indicators of racial inequality. Perhaps just as pressing, then, as interpreting blackness for white audiences is interpreting the causes and consequences of white attention for the rest of us.”
Study: Are Video Games Becoming Less Sexist?
“The overall sexualization of female characters has decreased in recent years,” an Indiana University research team led by Teresa Lynch writes in the Journal of Communication. “The recent and growing interest of women and girls (in gaming) seems to be influencing game content in positive ways.”
Music Producers Need To Make Existential Shift In How They Think About Selling Music
“To take an academic look at music marketing, the traditional ‘sale’ was usually somewhere near the end of a customer experience journey: awareness, discovery, interest, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation, and advocacy. Now we have a situation where the ‘play’ is conceivably part of every step. So thinking holistically, if we view ‘experience’ as the product of a record label now, we need a way to measure it effectively, and that’s why it feels like there is a data ‘arms race’ going on at the moment.”
Bernstein And Stockhausen – How They Reflected The 1950s
We have much to learn from how Bernstein and Stockhausen dealt with their ’50s: not relying on the nostalgic old formulas that lie behind so much new music and supposedly new digital thinking, none of which is nearly as new as “West Side Story” and “Kontakte.”
Quodlibet (That’s Classical For Mashup): How To Turn 57 Famous Melodies Into One Cool Six-Minute Viral Hit
“Earlier this year, Grant Woolard, a California-based cartoonist, musician, and producer, mashed-up 57 well-known classical music themes by 33 composers. Instead of a cacophony, he created a beautifully tailored 6-minute work that has been watched by nearly 3 million people. In the Q&A below, Woolard gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his process, as well as a insight about his next project.”
A New Paradigm In Europe (And What Role Artists Play)
“We need to learn how to construct plural truths and yet manage consistent ethics. We need to move away from monotheism. The different communities engaged with art have a potentially revolutionary role to play in this, especially if they again elide its old claim to autonomous action within the artistic field, with a real stake in a change in thinking about and acting in society.”
How The Greeks Gradually Transformed The Idea Of The Afterlife
“What happens after death? In this, the ancients looked to Hades, god of the underworld, brother of Zeus and Poseidon. But Hades gave no reassurance. … Sympathetic interest in the human condition eventually led the Greeks to adopt new forms of religion and new cults. No longer seen as a joyless fate, the afterlife became more of a personal quest.”
What Is The Purpose Of Music?
“Like language, music is organised, human-made sound that sprang up independently across early human cultures. Unlike language, however, music serves no obvious evolutionary purpose. So then why do we love it? And why is it so entwined with our emotions?”
Alvin Ailey Dancers – On Their Own Time – Create A Protest Dance Video To Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’
Company member Sean Aaron Carmon, who conceived and choreographed the brief piece as a response to the recent shootings by and of police, talks about where his material came from and whether “Freedom” could become part of a larger project.