“I want stuff that has not been made in response to the pandemic, that would exist if we weren’t all in the same boat. Or things I know I won’t have time for once the real world begins to make its usual demands once again. I want to use my brain in ways that it didn’t ordinarily get exercised in the pre-pandemic world, things that I know I probably won’t have the time or patience for once this all gets back to some kind of normal.” – Washington Post
Month: May 2020
Missy Mazzoli’s ‘Breaking The Waves’ Premiered In 2016. The World’s Pretty Different Now. Does The Piece Hold Up?
Before the coronavirus hit, the Met was going to perform a new co-production of the opera this spring at BAM. David Patrick Stearns went online to revisit the original Opera Philadelphia production, and here’s why he believes that, despite the terrific craft in the score and libretto (and in Kiera Duffy’s performance as Bess), with the cancellation “the Met and Mazzoli dodged a bullet.” – WQXR (New York City)
Here’s One Theater That’s Putting On A New Show Every Weekend Despite The Lockdown
“As most American theaters have pared down their offerings to a mix of Zoom readings, artist conversations, and archival streams, Seacoast Rep, in Portsmouth, N.H., has been web-casting new productions since mid-May and has them planned for every weekend until at least July 5.” Says one of the Rep’s artistic directors, “People in the industry thought ‘no live audience means no live theater.’ We thought we just had to change our delivery system.” – The New York Times
Remembering Larry Kramer
For Kramer, who died at age 84 in Manhattan on Wednesday, not speaking up was a signal of a dishonorable combination — of cowardice, willful blindness and greed. He was constitutionally incapable of self-serving apathy, but that’s not to say that he didn’t recognize the cost of his conscience to that quieter corner of his identity as an artist. – Los Angeles Times
This Is The Book That Politicians, Pundits, And Reporters Want Everyone To See On Their Bookshelves
“It is 46 years old, weighs nearly four pounds in paperback and is about as ill-suited for the internet age as they come: The book is not even available for digital readers. And yet, in certain circles, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, the 1,246-page tome by Robert Caro, has become a breakout star of the Covid-19 era.” – The New York Times
Novelist Robb Forman Dew Dead At 73
“Mrs. Dew emerged in the early 1980s as part of a group of prominent female novelists that included her friends Louise Erdrich, Anne Tyler and Nancy Thayer, a onetime neighbor in Williamstown, Mass. A master at breathing life into flawed and complex characters, she had … ‘a special gift for charting the subtle tidal flow of emotions that make up daily life.’ She was 34 when she published Dale Loves Sophie to Death (1981), which won [what is] now known as the National Book Award for a first novel.” – The Washington Post
Coming In 2022: A Virtual Reality Biennial, Curated By An AI Program
“That’s right: the chief curator of the 2022 Bucharest Biennial is Jarvis, an artificial intelligence program in development from the Vienna-based studio Spinnwerk. … Jarvis will ‘use deep learning in order to learn by itself from databases from universities, galleries, or art centers’ and select works that fit the chosen theme, Spinnwerk founder Razvan Ion [said]. … Instead of a traditional in-person exhibition, the show will take place in virtual reality, meaning that it will be accessible to anyone in the world who has access to a VR headset.” – Artnet
Minnesota State Troopers Arrest Black CNN Reporter And Crew Live On Air
“Police arrested CNN journalist Omar Jimenez and his crew on air early Friday during a live broadcast in Minneapolis, as they covered riots sparked by George Floyd’s death, sparking intense outrage as well as an apology by Minnesota governor Tim Walz to top executives at the cable-news network . CNN called the arrests a ‘violation of First Amendment rights.'” – Variety
Artists, Don’t Worry That The AI Robots Are Coming To Replace You
Ahmed Elgammal, director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Rutgers: “Can an artificially intelligent machine be an artist in its own right? My answer is no. While the definition of art is ever-evolving, at its core it is a form of communication among humans. Without a human artist behind the machine, A.I. can do little more than play with form, whether that means manipulating pixels on a screen or notes on a musical ledger.” – The New York Times
Polish Government Fines Artists Who Protested At Parliament, Then Backs Down
Earlier this month, 11 artists from a collective called the Consortium of Postartistic Practices carried a 46-foot-long letter about 1¼ miles to the Parliament building in Warsaw as lawmakers debated whether to hold a presidential election during the COVID lockdown. The artists were subsequently fined about $2,500 for violating social distancing rules — until a public outcry led officials to reverse that decision. – The Art Newspaper