“It turns out that being in a dangerous situation with others fosters a new social identity. Boundaries between us, which seem so salient when things are normal, disappear when we perceive we’re locked in a struggle together, with a common fate, from an external threat. People go from me thinking to we thinking.” – Nautilus
Author: Douglas McLennan
Art Of The Silent Zoom Call
On paper, the practice of logging on to a video-conferencing site to sit with strangers for an hour without communicating may hold limited appeal. In practice, silent Zooms have become a lifeline in lockdown for users trying to focus on writing, reading, meditation and more. – The Guardian
Gerhard Richter On The Ambiguity Of Images
“Pictures which are interpretable, and which contain a meaning, are bad pictures.” A good picture “takes away our certainty, because it deprives a thing of its meaning and its name. It shows us the thing in all the manifold significance and infinite variety that preclude the emergence of any single meaning and view.” – New York Review of Books
Iconic Seattle Record Store, Once Named One Of The Best In America, Will Close After 41 Years
Dave Voorhees estimates that the store’s chockablock bins hold half a million recordings of rock, R&B, jazz, classical, country and other musical genres — an inventory his business manager, Bob Jacobs, values at $3 million. About 200,000 of those records are vintage 45 RPM singles, many extremely rare. – Seattle Times
Drive-Up Dance
Guided by pins on a digital map and a downloaded soundtrack — featuring songs, poetry, a couple of old voicemail messages and mysterious clues — ticketed audience members drive through the city and visit performers at their homes. The dancers perform from porches, sun rooms, front yards, alleys and balconies while the audience, cocooned in 20 cars (one per household), drives up to watch at 10-minute intervals. – Crosscut
Will We Take The Wrong Lessons From The Pandemic?
Will the current pandemic change human attitudes to death? Probably not. Just the opposite. Covid-19 will probably cause us to only double our efforts to protect human lives. For the dominant cultural reaction to Covid-19 isn’t resignation – it is a mixture of outrage and hope. – The Guardian
Formality Is Out Of Fashion – But Ritual Helps Make Things More Democratic
Comfort has won, and most formality is gone. But the freedom of informality comes at a cost. Formality is the bulwark against some of the nastiest human impulses, and acts as a vaccine against our most dangerous tendency: forming in-groups and out-groups. – Aeon
20 Major Film Festivals Will Stream An Online Festival
The 10-day “We Are One: A Global Film Festival” will feature content curated by the Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca film festivals, among others, starting on May 29, organizers Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube said in a statement on Monday. – Reuters
From People Who Care: The Opera Recordings That Got Them Hooked
Talk to a fan or performer, and they usually have a moment, a performance, a recording that got them hooked on whatever the art was. The Times asked 14 famous opera-lovers what their moments were. – The New York Times
How Italy Will Reopen Its Museums
The next phase is set to start on May 4, with museums slated to welcome visitors again on May 18. They must follow safety guidelines drawn up by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, which requires that all tickets be purchased online and visitors must practice social distancing in the galleries. – Artnet