Wayne McGregor teamed up with Google engineers and creative technologists to train the algorithm, called “Living Archive,” using thousands of hours of video from the choreographer’s previous works over 25 years. It was a way of “activating the archives” and “hijacking its past,” McGregor said. – Los Angeles Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
The Offstage Toll It Takes To Play A Loathsome Racist Character
“It can be fraught and isolating, it seems, portraying a white character activating the racial overtones of a beloved novel brought to the stage. Just ask Fred Weller, essayer of Bob Ewell, the patently evil father of Wilhelmi’s Mayella, who forces her to concoct the story that sends a blameless black man, Tom Robinson, to prison for rape.” – Washington Post
In Praise Of The Guilty Pleasure
Because it’s often used in a winking way, the term “guilty pleasure” feels innocent, like a joke we’re proving we’re in on. But if that joke is about something that brings us genuine joy and isn’t harming anyone, then what’s the punch line? – The New York Times
The Robots Can Now Beat You At Poker Too
At the crescendo of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a pair of computer scientists have announced that they’ve created an artificial intelligence poker player that is stronger than a full table of top human professionals at the most popular form of the game — no-limit Texas Hold ’em. – FiveThirtyEight
Discovery Of A Skull In Greece Changes What We Know About Human Pre-History
The finding is likely to reshape the story of how humans spread into Europe, and may revise theories about the history of our species. – The New York Times
Unlimited Information And Free Access? Turns Out It Was A Problematic Idea
The Palo Alto Consensus held that American-made internet communication technologies (both hardware and software) should be distributed globally and that governments should be discouraged from restricting speech online. Its proponents believed that states in which public discourse was governed by “everyone” — via social media and the internet — would become more democratic. – The New York Times
Meet The Remarkable Darren Walker
“To me the question is, How do we as the Ford Foundation, and I as its president, leverage the foundation’s and my networks, and on behalf of whom?” – The New York Times
Mapping Where The Creative Class Wants To Live
The creative class has seen remarkable growth in the past decade, increasing from 44 million members in 2005 to more than 56 million in 2017, as virtually all large U.S. metros saw growth. The rate of creative class growth (27.2 percent) was more than double the growth rate of overall U.S. workforce (13.6 percent) over this period. – CityLab
The Surprising And Enduring Relevance Of Sam Shepard
That Shepard is starting to feel like a guide for the rest of us is surprising. He died two years ago, at the age of 73, and although the valedictions from the dramatic world were respectful, few suggested that his work was acutely relevant. But Shepard plays are back in season, and they are neither antiquarian nor regional. They are modern—even visionary—and disturbingly universal. – The Atlantic
What Burning Man Taught Us About Networks Of Cooperation
So when do networks enable cooperation to thrive? And when do they hinder it? A vast body of work from across anthropology, psychology, and sociology has explored the conditions under which cooperation—the propensity for individuals to pay a personal cost for the benefit of the whole—operates. – Nautilus