“If knowledges are environmentally embedded, and have to be activated through skilled practices, our orthodox idea that the privileged pathway for knowledge acquisition is cognitive, from one brain to another, is challenged. Think about it: we have never been able to ‘think’ without more-than-human extensions.” –Psyche
Author: Douglas McLennan
Are Our Brains Wired To Want To Be Outside?
The evolutionary explanation for human connection to nature is a colossal safari through the African savanna, where our ancestors fought, fed, and frolicked for millions of years. The biologist E.O. Wilson speculated on this story in Biophilia, a slim volume on human attraction to nature. Wilson defined biophilia as an “innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes.” – Nautilus
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Classic Shows Remade For The Trump Era
“SHAMILTON. A rap-inspired musical drawn partly from the pages of The Art of the Deal, this show celebrates the creation of a new nation by a small group of wealthy landowners and hyper-successful businessmen through the adoption of an economic funnel that sucks money out of the pockets of the poor and middle classes and into the bank accounts of the rich. Its hit tunes My Way or the Highway and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break are hailed as chart-toppers, although there are mutterings inside the music industry that the numbers are manipulated and Payola is involved.” – Oregon ArtsWatch
Inside A Treasure Trove Of Wax Cylinder Recordings
Say what you want about the millions of digital songs stored in the cloud and awaiting your Spotify spin. Strolling through the rows of shelving units, each packed with cylinder recordings, overwhelms the imagination. – Los Angeles Times
John Waters Donates His Collection To Baltimore Museum Of Art
Waters’s collection, much of which is installed in his home, features in-depth holdings of works by Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Mike Kelley, Karin Sander and Richard Tuttle, and will fill gaps in the museum’s own collection of work by artists including Catherine Opie and Thomas Demand. An exhibition of works from the gift will be staged at the museum within the next five years, it says in a statement. – The Art Newspaper
Meet The Guardians Of The World’s Oldest Recorded Music
Preserving early recordings — and the lumbering machines that play them — has been an obsession for a small group of Southern California collectors, who have been stealthily wrangling from the wild the essential sounds of the early American acoustic recording era. – Los Angeles Times
Beware “Big Break” Scams For Classical Music
“It’s a psychological phenomenon: When you’ve been chosen for something, you feel flattered. And if you don’t have other options, you think, This is my big chance.“ – Van
The New Realities Of Live Music In Clubs
“It’s a new normal for these concerts, and yet another uncanny valley of the post-Covid world: a social experience where we can’t socialise; a show where dancing, hugging and head-banging are essentially illegal. Sweaty dance floors and beer queues are out, replaced by parlour-style seating and severely reduced capacities, often resulting in artists performing multiple shows a night. Dinner and a show has, against all odds, become the norm again.” – The Guardian
UK Culture Minister Questions The Value Of Public Broadcasting
The BBC is just one piece of a bigger puzzle. The world has changed, and every broadcaster needs to change with it. So I’m taking a close look at the future of our entire public service broadcasting system. That includes ITV and Channels 4 and 5 – and S4C in Wales and STV in Scotland, both of which are important to those nations. – The Telegraph (UK)
Covid Fan Tutti: Opera In Exotic Places
LA’s Pacific Opera Project’s unconventional, often playful productions have included a bilingual “Madama Butterfly” performed in the Aratani Theatre in L.A.’s Little Tokyo; a “Magic Flute” that took its cue from 1990s video games; and at the outdoor Ford Theatres, a version of Mozart’s “Abduction From the Seraglio” staged as an episode of “Star Trek.” Still, the company has done nothing quite like what it is attempting in the parking lot of Camarillo United Methodist Church in Ventura County, about an hour’s drive northwest of downtown L.A. – Los Angeles Times