The question is whether architecture and design could do anything to alleviate walmartism. It is difficult because there is a kind of Heisenberg Paradox at work here: the moment designers try to intervene, even if they do so pro bono, the result almost inevitably becomes more expensive. Anything that differentiates, softens, or responds to the human body, costs money.
Author: Douglas McLennan
History’s Most Dangerous Dances
The notion that dancing is dangerous and subversive is actually deep-rooted and wide-ranging. Throughout history, international dances have inflamed passions and come under Puritanical fire.
Why The Ancient Library Of Alexandria Still Lives High In Our Imaginations
The Library of Alexandria is so embedded in our cultural canon that it remains a broadly known and admired institution. Its shadow lingers over the world of scholarship, despite the fact that the library was completely destroyed nearly 2,000 years ago leaving no physical trace behind, including, scholars believe, not a single scroll.
Sports And Pop Music Make Fortunes From Merchandise Sales. Why Not The Arts?
Merchandising? Virtually non existent but for a few big museum gift shops that contribute something to the bottom line. Many organizations make a half hearted attempt to sell shirts or calendars with the organization or artist logo at live performances, but it is an anemic exercise at best.
How A Gender-Parity Campaign Led To An Irish Theatre Revolution
There’s no big stick here. The policy shifts have been enthusiastically and widely embraced and have been led by theatre companies themselves, in response to the #WakingTheFeminists movement and its research. WTF was responding to a distinctly male programme for the 2016 Waking the Nation initiative at the Abbey, and it woke a sleeping beast of its own, protesting against the lack of representation of women in theatre, the outcome of which has been real.
How The UK Government Proposes To Treat Culture Post-Brexit
The UK, it states, will always be a country that “advocates cultural diversity as part of its global identity and is committed to ensuring its support of European culture”. It proposes a “culture and education accord” that provides for UK participation in EU programmes and “allows UK institutions to be partners, associates or advisers” to EU projects and vice versa.
How A Vancouver Family Turned Out A Generation Of Star Pianists
Jon Kimura Parker, Jamie Parker, Ian Parker, and Liz Parker are siblings and cousins. All three Parker pianists have garnered praise for their recordings as well as their performances across North America and beyond. How did the Parkers of Vancouver manage to produce a generation of musicians that has left such a discernible mark on the world of classical piano? On a practical level, it boiled down to a family discipline.
Canadian Indigenous Leaders Criticize Another Robert Lepage Production
In an open letter first published by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir Saturday morning, a group of Indigenous actors, writers, activists and artists from across the province said they are fed up “of hearing other people tell our stories.” Lepage’s new production, Kanata, aims to tell “the story of Canada through the prism of relations between whites and Indigenous people.” It is being staged in Paris in December.
Superheros Are Thriving At The Movies. But In The Comic Books… Not So Much
Today’s comics sell one-tenth the numbers Marvel expected in the 1960s and 1970s glory days when comic books were cheaper than candy bars and just as easy to find at the nation’s newsstands, corner markets and drugstores. Now, a new comic book costs $4-$6 and the only shelves they reach are at the 2,500 comic book specialty shops doing business in the U.S. and Canada — and even that number is in decline as stores
Apple Music Overtakes Spotify as Biggest Music Subscription Service
Apple Music’s growth accelerated past Spotify’s, and now, for the first time, Apple has pulled ahead. According to a report from Digital Music News last week, Apple Music has become the top on-demand streaming music service in the U.S. in terms of users. (The exact user numbers weren’t released.) Both apps have roughly 20 million U.S.-based subscribers, but Apple Music now has the upper hand.