Author: Matthew Westphal

Grads With Arts Degrees Have Lower Earning Potential Than Any Others: Study

“Research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has found that … people who study degrees in the creative arts – subjects such as drama, dance, music and design – were found to make about £20,000 annually five years after graduation. This is 15% lower than the average and 35 percentage points below those who studied the highest earning degrees.”

Theatre Company Offers Live-Streamed, Real-Time Virtual Walk Through Houses And Streets Of Gaza

“Artists in London and Gaza are to launch a series of simultaneous, live-streamed performances this month in an attempt to connect people living under severe blockade in the coastal enclave with international audiences in Britain. Performers will use video projection as a backdrop to simulate walking through each other’s homes and streets, and interact as if they were in the same room, even as they are separated by 2,000 miles.”

Dutch Museum Invites Visitors To Watch Conservators Clean Its Oldest Painting

“Visitors to the Mauritshuis in The Hague … [will] have the opportunity to see conservators in action, when two specialists embark on a project to clean the oldest work in the Dutch museum’s collection: The Lamentation of Christ (around 1460-64) by Rogier van der Weyden and his studio. The treatment, due to be completed by the end of the year, will take place in a special studio in the institution’s exhibition galleries.”

‘Couch Shows’ Vs. ‘Phone Shows’: Why We Need More And Shorter TV Episodes

“Consumers are now, often unconsciously, sorting every media product — from podcasts to magazine stories to video — into three categories: intentional, interstitial, and invisible. The implications of these changes are huge, especially for the people who create what we watch.” Daniel H. Pink makes the case for intentional content (“couch shows” that you make a point to sit and watch) and interstitial content: “programming we use to fill the spaces in our lives — 10 minutes in a grocery store line, 5 minutes waiting to pick up a kid at practice, 35 minutes on a train or bus.”

Exploring The Depopulated Ruins Of ‘Second Life’

“Residents and businesses began fleeing for more popular social networks long ago. Vast acres of land are abandoned or sparsely populated by the few remaining diehard users. … Digital worlds don’t typically rot or become overgrown with foliage, after all. They exist for a time, and then someone shuts them down. Right now, Second Life resembles a city swiftly evacuated following a radioactive threat.” Just seven months after The Atlantic ran a feature on the communities (notably the disabled) who are still thriving on the 15-year-old virtual-world platform, Joe Veix writes about how empty Second Life now appears compared to the days (a decade ago) when it had millions of users.

The Mad James Joyce Scholar Who Corrected ‘Ulysses’, Fed Pigeons In Boston, And Absconded To Rio

Jack Hitt explains the years-long scholarly feuds over the errors, large and small, in various editions of Ulysses (and why they matter); tells the story of James Kidd, the professor who prepared, but never published, the most accurate edition of Joyce’s novel yet; and finds and visits Kidd in Brazil, some 16 years after he disappeared from Boston, seemingly without a trace.

The Problem With Artist-Driven Museum Boards (Like L.A. MOCA’s)

Brian Allen: “Two defenestration of top people in a few weeks is a rarity in most museums, yet this is the latest sign of dysfunction at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Los Angeles. … As a museum, it prides itself as being founded by artists; lots of great museums were. The problem is that artist-driven boards almost always fail. And they take their museums with them, drowned in a sea of ego, hissy fits, door-slamming, free-spiriting, and self-promotion, seasoned with a legendary aversion to opening wallets.”