“Is there any purpose in translating poetry? … It is perfectly true that you will never get a replica of the original – nor would you wish to. The way it works, when translator and original are in tune, is that a third poem is created. It is the child of two parents and simply couldn’t exist without them.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Onstage, Looks Matter. Let’s Not Pretend They Don’t.
“One of the oddest aspects of writing about theatre is the tricky question of how one goes about describing the actors. After all, it is their presence, the way they look and how they sound, that constitutes a large element of seeing a play. The problem for critics is balancing the need to describe the obvious and deliberate dynamics which have been – often calculatedly – set up, while at the same time trying not to offend, appear lecherous, or come across as entirely superficial.”
For High Return On Investment, Fund The Arts
“Not many investments return $5 for every $1 put up – at least, not many legal investments. That eye-popping $5-to-$1 calculation comes from a new study of the impact of arts and cultural groups on the economy in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs. Given the chance to reap such handsome returns while boosting a key asset to the region, state and local government officials should be more bullish than they are on the funding of arts and culture.”
A Children’s Museum Underground? No. Just No.
“The raging debate over putting the Chicago Children’s Museum in Grant Park has literally descended to a new low, one that reveals how fundamentally misconceived the plan is. The plan not only would undermine more than a century of efforts to keep this singular park free and clear of buildings. It also threatens to mar the experience of the very constituency the museum is designed to serve — children.”
Calatrava’s Imprint Is All Over His Spire’s Apartments
“With high-end real estate markets reeling, the developer of the Chicago Spire on Wednesday did what any crafty developer would do to instill confidence in his $1.5 billion project: He had his star architect show off fresh plans for apartments, including one with a circular sleeping zone framed by sliding glass doors. How real-life buyers will react is anybody’s guess but these details clearly reflect the vision of architect Santiago Calatrava.”
Park Wildflowers Were Public Art, Chicago Judge Says
“Artist Chapman Kelley insisted the wildflowers he planted in Grant Park was not a garden but a federally protected work of art — a belief supported by a judge Wednesday. … Kelley’s attorney, Frank Hernandez of Dallas, said the case is believed to be the first time an artist using ‘alternative materials’ has successfully sued under the Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VERA), passed in 1990 to protect public art and its creators.”
Can Ang Lee Remove The Stigma Of NC-17?
“The NC-17 rating has long been the movie industry’s equivalent of the scarlet letter. Slap the label on a movie and audiences would shun it, many theater owners would refuse to show it and the film certainly would be a long shot for an Academy Award. But some in Hollywood are hoping the latest film by Taiwanese director Ang Lee will change the way American audiences perceive the NC-17 label.”
Why Video Games Aren’t Art — And How They Could Be
“Thirty-five years after Pong, fans and critics still debate whether video games can legitimately be called art. Certainly, whatever artistic potential that games have, few, if any, have fulfilled it. Halo 3 hasn’t changed that. Games boast ever richer and more realistic graphics, but this has actually inhibited their artistic growth. The ability to convincingly render any scene or environment has seduced game designers into thinking of visual features as the essence of the gaming experience.”
Lazy Reporting Is A Threat To Great Art
“I think maybe it’s time to take a hard look at the conventions by which newspapers and online news outlets cover visual art stories. In fact, if you look at how visual art appears in the news over any length of time you will find essentially the same stories appear repeatedly. … Bad reporting along these generic lines distorts understanding and can destroy our pleasure in great art.”
Publishing’s New Frontier: The Mobile Phone
“Love Sky (1.3m ‘copies’ sold, a film in the offing) is the latest of a new best-selling type of story, the keitai shosetsu, literally ‘portable (phone) novel’, read not on a page but on your phone screen. Armed with the latest in mobiles, Japan’s ‘oyayubi zoku’ or ‘thumb tribe’ are lapping up these novels, often written by teenage first-timers, themselves reared on the fast-paced, melodramatic world of anime….”