Matthew Westphal – Page 866 – ArtsJournal Wayback

A 700-Year-Old Nutmeg Tree In The Hirshhorn Museum Lobby

“A design over two years in the making, [Hiroshi Sugimoto’s makeover] transforms the museum’s entrance and lobby area, turning the information desk into a coffee bar, and providing a more inviting seating area next to it. Sugimoto’s armchairs reference both the iconically circular shape of the building and coils of DNA, and the tables are made from the roots of a 700-year-old Japanese nutmeg tree he found 15 years ago. … Benches stand on legs of the same kid of optical glass used in camera lenses.”

Deal Struck To Sell Westminster Choir College To Chinese Steel Co. For $40 Million

Just a day after Princeton Theological Seminary announced that it has filed a lawsuit to stop the sale of Westminster Choir College, Rider University has finally revealed the potential purchaser of the school, a Chinese firm based in Beijing that runs private K-12 schools. The company, Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Co., Ltd., … was called ‘Jiangsu Zhongtai Bridge Steel Structure Co’ until December of 2017. The company has only been operating schools since 2016.”

Supreme Court Rules Terrorism Victims May Not Seize Iranian Antiquities As Compensation

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Americans injured in a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem cannot seize ancient Persian artifacts from a Chicago museum to satisfy a $71.5 million court judgment against Iran, which they had accused of complicity in the attack.”

Makers Of ‘The Shape Of Water’ Sued For Plagiarism By Playwright’s Estate

“David Zindel, son of American playwright Paul Zindel, filed the complaint Wednesday alleging that [Guillermo] Del Toro’s critically acclaimed film, which has more Oscar nominations than any other this year, has ‘exploited’ the play Let Me Hear You Whisper and should have credited and licensed his father’s work.”

With A New Orchestra In San Diego, Conductor Rafael Payaré Is Leaving His Old One In Belfast

Little more than a week after the San Diego Symphony announced that it had hired the 37-year-old Venezuelan as its music director, the Ulster Orchestra has announced that Payaré will step down as music director at the end of next season.

What’s The Next Big European TV Export? Flemish Crime Dramedies

Says Walter Iuzzolino, who curates a selection of European television for broadcast in the UK and streaming in the US, “You often pretty much know what you’re going to get from a Scandinavian, or French, or Italian show. But there is something about the Belgians that means a show is never entirely straight. So The Out-laws is like a family comedy stroke thriller. You’re watching something like Desperate Housewives with a gun, and then gradually it becomes darker and darker. Professor T has almost Ally McBeal-like musical and dream sequences alongside straight police procedural.”

Scotland’s Arts Funder Gets Caught Lying About Controversial Cuts

“Creative Scotland has admitted a cover-up over how controversial funding cuts were made – as its chief executive admitted she was ‘profoundly sorry’ over how they were handled. The quango has also pledged a ‘root and branch’ review of the way funding decisions were made and a ‘reset’ of its future priorities in the wake of widespread criticism across the cultural sector.”

We Are Our Anxieties (And That’s A Good Thing)

Samir Chopra: “The Buddha and David Hume considered the self to be a bundle of ever-changing perceptions and thoughts and images. Similarly, I propose a ‘self-as-bundled-anxieties’ theory: we are a bundle of anxieties; by examining them, to see what vexes us, what makes us anxious, we come to know who we are. Anxiety is a reminder that our selves are rather more diffuse and disorderly than we might imagine, that there are more bits to be seized as they swirl ‘about’ and ‘inside’ us.”

Can The Artificial Intelligence Field Learn From Non-Western Philosophies?

“‘I think there is a domination of Western philosophy, so to speak, in AI ethics,” said [technology ethicist] Dr. Pak-Hang Wong … ‘By that I mean, when we look at AI ethics, most likely they are appealing to values … in the Western philosophical traditions, such as value of freedom, autonomy and so on.’ Wong is among a group of researchers trying to widen that scope, by looking at how non-Western value systems – including Confucianism, Buddhism and Ubuntu – can influence how autonomous and intelligent designs are developed and how they operate.” (audio)

Author: Matthew Westphal