“Today, social media are hailed for empowering dissidents and undercutting tyrannies around the world. Yet it’s hard not to watch the Google video and agree with Forbes’s Kashmir Hill when she suggests that such a technology could ultimately ‘accelerate the arrival of the persistent and pervasive citizen surveillance state,’ in which everything you see and do can be recorded, reported, subpoenaed … you name it.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Having A Hard Time Getting Off The Sofa? Grab A Good (Audio)Book
“It is we amateur runners who are likeliest to turn to audiobooks as a training accompaniment, I suspect. Far from wanting to ‘listen to our breathing’ to achieve an optimum split time, we’d rather drown it out with something more interesting that will distract our minds from the miles of unrun road ahead. As I found with The Fear Index, a cliffhanging chapter ending will force the most reluctant runner into his or her trainers again, not for the fun of training but simply to find out what happens next.”
Sarajevo Museums Under (Budgetary) Siege
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s major cultural institutions, including the National Gallery and the National Museum, which are both in the capital Sarajevo, are in danger of closing indefinitely due to a lack of funding and government support.” The staff work without pay or heat, and are desperately trying to get some attention to the museums’ plight.
How Can Artists Make Environmentally Ethical Art?
It’s tough. “The visual arts do not always produce the prettiest of pictures. There are lashings of toxic pigments, solvents, petrochemicals, formaldehyde and other ecologically destructive preservatives thrown into the mix of a working studio.”
The Prime Minister May Try To Kill Libraries, But They Refuse To Die
“Trestle tables are strewn with everything from well-thumbed copies of Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize winner, to a pristine biography of Sigmund Freud. Children sit on the grass listening to storytellers. William Orbit plays from a portable sound system. An upright coffin with the words ‘RIP Barnet Libraries’ on the side leans against the tent. Here, on a patch of green in an entirely unassuming part of north London, the ‘People’s Library’ is in full swing.”
Past Time For An Oscar For The Actors Whose Faces We Never See
“If Jack Gill has his way, this will be the year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally acknowledges stunt work at the Oscars.” Or are the actors and studios too worried about damaging actors’ reputations?
Changing The Faces Of Dance In Los Angeles
Renae Williams Niles, one of the most powerful dance people in L.A., “is highly regarded for her business acumen and knowledge of the art. Her unpretentiousness and sunny disposition have also won her fans. And she is an anomaly in the field: A rare female executive at a large multi-disciplinary performing arts facility who is young (38), African American, a former dancer (with the Lula Washington Dance Theatre) and a homegrown Angeleno (since age 13).”
If You ‘Just Have A Gut Feeling,’ Can You Still Be A Scientist?
“The implication is that being ‘scientific’ means completely digesting and testing every idea before deciding whether it’s right or wrong. But sometimes we have to make fast decisions based on prejudice, or we’ll never get anything done. Is that OK, or does it fundamentally undermine what we’re trying to achieve?”
Which Musical Instrument Is The Best? (Can This Question Possibly Be Answered?)
“Take a look, if you have the strength, at the 12,000 entries in the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1985). Then consider that the next edition will have 20,000. The standard symphony orchestra, parading a mere 14 or 15 varieties of instrument, begins to look as limited as a supermarket cheese counter.”
Food (Waste) Porn: Pretty Enough To Make Us Stop Throwing So Much Away?
“Pichler approached his project as if it was an advertising photo shoot for a high-end brand. He started with common items from the supermarket, like cheese, strawberries and cauliflower. After letting each food fester for a few weeks, he arranged it in his studio for a luxurious portrait.”