Dreams shroud the waking world, dazzling and disturbing it with mystery, perplexity, novelty, anxiety, terror, hope, and possibility. – Cultural Weekly
Author: Douglas McLennan
AI Program Scans Millions Of Historic Newspaper Images And Makes Them Searchable
Assuming the captions are at all accurate, these images — until recently only accessible by trudging through the archives date by date and document by document — can be searched for by their contents, like any other corpus. – TechCrunch
How Might Classical Music Work Differently Going Forward?
What if concerts were announced one or two at a time, just a week or two in advance? The tickets would be sold per concert, not per season, and the marketing would be heavy on social media. Concert programs could be designed to attract different communities in the county, rather than the monolithic subscription crowd. What’s more, it would allow the groups to perform exactly when circumstances allowed, rather than cancel concerts when they didn’t. – Voice of Orange County
La Scala Launches Virtual Tours Of Its Opera House
The project includes virtual tours of the theater, backstage and museum, along with 240,000 archival photos and 16,000 documents, more than 40 digital exhibits and close-up views of costumes worn by stars such as Maria Callas. Performances of operas are available on another platform through Italy’s RAI state television. – Washington Post (AP)
The Poetry Foundation Has Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars. Should It Be Giving Away More Right Now?
The foundation has only pledged $25,000 for COVID relief. “The Poetry Foundation’s IRS filings between 2016 and 2018 suggest the Foundation averaged about $213 million in assets that weren’t tied up in real estate or restricted. In 2018, the Foundation reported that it spent about $4 million on education, public programs and prizes; nearly $1.5 million on its website; and $1.2 million on Poetry Magazine, after accounting for $703,000 in revenue.” – Chicago Tribune
Canada’s Finest Orchestra (What Does That Even Mean?)
Sir Thomas Beecham used to say that there are no good or bad orchestras, only good or bad conductors, and to an extent he has a point. – Toronto Star
An Engineering Perspective On Art’s Transformational Potential On Technology
Domhnaill Hernon: “I believe that the arts could be (should be) more transformational in the way they inform more human-centric design. I believe that the arts should be deeply integrated into all companies but especially technology companies. I believe it is critical that the voice of the artist be heard and taken seriously in the context of business and in understanding the role that technology can play in influencing humanity. It is the role of companies to understand and embrace the unique perspectives of the artists, and it is the role of the artist to better understand the needs of industry.” – Americans for the Arts
When Kirill Met Thomas
Pianist Kirrill Gerstein and composer Thomas Ades have been in a musical conversation of the sort that happens only when two people intrinsically seem to understand what the other is trying to say. – The New York Times
Crises Have Always Inspired Creativity
“I would only say that some artists feel a curiosity about examining the phenomenology of those things. It is investigative work, not just emotional work, that can enable an artist to determine how a system works and find the right vocabulary to discuss it.” – San Diego Union-Tribune
Has Our Sense Of Time Changed In Lockdown? Scientists Are Studying…
Time’s elasticity has perplexed philosophers for millennia. It has inspired writers for centuries. More recently, it has captured the attention of psychologists like Ogden, who have crafted experiments to understand the conditions of time perception: whether people feel time differently when they’re hot or cold, stressed or at ease, watching the clock or focused on something else. Time can disappear when we are deeply immersed in an activity we enjoy—the baking of sourdough bread, or the total absorption in an art project. Other studies suggest that fear and anxiety shape our sense of time just as powerfully. – Wired