Laypersons and academics alike have largely viewed creativity as a positive force, a notion challenged by the philosopher and educator Robert McLaren of California State University, Fullerton in 1993. McLaren proposed that creativity had a dark side, and that viewing it without a social or moral lens would lead to limited understanding. As time went on, newer concepts – negative and malevolent creativity – included conceiving original ways to cheat on tests or doing purposeful harm to others, for instance, innovating new ways to execute terrorist attacks. – Aeon
Author: Douglas McLennan
Despite Charges Of Fabrication, Dan Mallory’s Second Book Still On Track
Despite the opprobrium, a spokesperson for HarperCollins UK confirmed on Thursday that there was no change to its publishing plans. A second novel from AJ Finn has been slated for a January 2020 release. – The Guardian
Woody Allen Sues Amazon Studios For $67 Million For “Breach Of Contract”
The new complaint states: “Amazon has tried to excuse its action by referencing a 25-year old, baseless allegation against Mr. Allen, but that allegation was already well known to Amazon (and the public) before Amazon entered into four separate deals with Mr. Allen — and, in any event it does not provide a basis for Amazon to terminate the contract. There simply was no legitimate ground for Amazon to renege on its promises.” – New York Magazine
Theatre About The Brain
Ten years ago, theatre about neuro conditions or neuroscience was rare. Now it’s everywhere, and sparking all sorts of innovation. There is a new emphasis on neuroscience as opposed to specific neurological conditions. – Howlround
Netflix’s New Horror Movie Set On The Art World
The newest entry into the canon of bad art-world satires is director Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw, which premiered on Netflix last weekend. All the familiar grotesques are here: greedy gallerists, ruthlessly ambitious assistants, tax-dodging collectors, a critic so accustomed to churning out self-serving aesthetic pronouncements that he can’t help but bitchily opine about a dead colleague’s casket. – The Baffler
Global Pop Music 2.0 – A New Kind Of Star
There’s been a fundamental change to the idea that English is pop’s lingua franca. This development has been accompanied by a remarkable shift in the pop-star system itself. While bilingual artists surge into charts and playlists, joining the American rappers who have profoundly reshaped popular music in the last 20 years (the five most listened-to tracks on Spotify in 2018 were by US hip-hop acts), it’s a different story for the stars who emerged during the era we might call Pop 1.0. “The massive pop stars of yesteryear – Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake – are fading from the public consciousness. – The Guardian
More And More, Scientists Are Leaving Academia For Private Industry
A recent study following the careers of over 100,000 scientists for over 50 years found that half of university-hired scientists leave the academic life after just five years. That’s a huge increase over prior years: According to the study, which was published in the Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences, academic scientists in the 1960s stayed in the ivory tower for an average of 35 years. – Pacific Standard
Doctors: Families Should Ban Screens From Dinner Table, Bedtime
“We know that children notice if their parents are paying attention to them and we do know that one in five children wakes up at night to check their phone for social media messages and interrupted sleep decreases their quality of education the next day. So there isn’t a cause and effect, but there seems to be an association and that’s why we’ve been very cautious in making very bold statements about the harms.” – BBC
Claim: UK Is Facing A “Crisis” In Music Education
In short, music ed is disappearing from schools, parliament was told. The government “must act quickly to ensure music does not become the preserve of a privileged few”, the report claims and identifies a number of systemic challenges as a way of illustrating the scale of the crisis facing music education in England. – The Stage
Study: How Political Rap Music Has Influenced Feminist Attitudes
According to the authors, “Hip-hop feminists embrace rap music as a culturally relevant and generationally specific art form that elicits social justice, consciousness raising, and political and social activism” and the contradictions of being both feminists and hip-hop fans. Hip-hop feminism advances conversations about the portrayal of black womanhood, coalition building, black gender relations and black women’s empowerment through rap music. This perspective is distinctly different from the early academic writings on women and hip-hop that focused almost exclusively on male domination and misogyny, they wrote. – Georgia State University