“50 families have become the first permanent residents of Pinewood Forest, a strange hybrid of artist’s commune, luxury suburb and company town, built directly across the street from Pinewood [Atlanta] Studios, … the largest purpose-built studio outside Hollywood. … A few dozen homes are complete, but within 10 years the plan calls for 1,300 residences, along with a movie theater, a fitness center, pocket parks – and an entire town center. And the main local employer will be right across the street.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Portrait Created By AI Sells For $432K At Auction
A member of the art collective (called Obvious) behind this project explained, “On one side is the Generator, on the other the Discriminator. We fed the system with a data set of 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th century to the 20th. The Generator makes a new image based on the set, then the Discriminator tries to spot the difference between a human-made image and one created by the Generator. The aim is to fool the Discriminator into thinking that the new images are real-life portraits. Then [when the Discriminator can no longer tell the difference,] we have a result.”
Museums Are Now Using AI To Engage And Manage Visitors
“Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used today by museums of all sizes worldwide, which employ it to develop everything from robots, chatbots and websites, to tools that help them analyze visitor data and their collections, and determine admission policies and exhibition content.” One notable example, a fleet of robots, called Pepper, used by five Smithsonian museums to interact with visitors.
New Fellowship Program In L.A. To Train Young Musicians Of Color For Orchestral Careers
“Three of the city’s powerhouse musical institutions — the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, [the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles], and USC’s Thornton School of Music — have come together to create the Los Angeles Orchestra Fellowship. Launched in August, the program selected four fellows who, over the course of two years, will be trained by LACO musicians, perform in concerts throughout the city, instruct aspiring young students at ICYOLA, and pursue a music certificate at USC.”
Artwork Worth $1 Million Sets Itself On Fire (No, This Is Not Banksy’s Doing)
A blaze broke out last Saturday at the Dia:Beacon museum in upstate New York. The cause: overheating of an electrical element in a newly-acquired work by artist Mary Corse, reportedly worth $1 million. (The artwork was unnamed but was likely Untitled (Electric Light).)
Cincinnati Ballet Is Shaking Us Down For $1 Million, Says CEO Of City’s Pro Soccer Team
“The Cincinnati Ballet is pressuring FC Cincinnati to pay it $1 million for land it doesn’t own, knowing the team needs at least some of the land it uses for a Major League Soccer stadium, the team president says. … ‘This sure feels like a shakedown to me.'” Responds the CEO of the ballet company, “This is patently false.”
Defending National Theatre Wales From Those Who Say It’s Not National, Welsh, Or Theatrical Enough
Last month, a group of Welsh playwrights wrote an open letter strongly criticizing NTW for, as the letter put it, “taking pride in ridding itself of a theatrical identity and even its nationality.” Tom Payne writes that the signer of the letter, for all their good intentions, should consider just what they’re demanding: “If we apply [the letter’s] demands retrospectively, a significant number of NTW’s thirteen inaugural productions (2010/11) might never have taken place.”
Hungary’s National Opera Company Is Now A Flash Point In The Country’s Politics And Culture Wars
The Hungarian State Opera “is in the midst of one of its biggest expansions ever, thanks to the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars by the increasingly autocratic right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who … has described Hungary’s theaters, opera houses and concert halls as ‘temples of national culture.'” Yet there have been political attacks on some of the company’s programming, and most of Hungary’s internationally famous classical musicians are vehement opponents of Orbán’s government.
What Will Brexit Do To British Arts And Culture? (Not Much Good)
Reporter Olivia Bridge gives an overview of what we know and don’t know about the effects that the UK’s departure from the EU will have on the arts sector. The biggest problem? Personnel.
The New Big Thing On Israeli TV These Days? Ultra-Orthodox Jews
“The hottest TV shows in Israel right now are not about sex, drugs or violence. Instead, they are about the insular Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, whose everyday dramas — albeit fictionalized — are Israeli TV’s latest obsession.”