“Obviously no actor has ever reached opening night knowing none of his lines, but the absurdity of it all is no defense against the pain. In the dream ‘reality,’ the stark, paralyzing fact is that you are about to experience an agonizing humiliation. “
Author: ArtsJournal2
Liberal Arts Colleges May Be Facing Collapse. Idea: Don’t Focus On The Frosting
“The No. 1 problem facing liberal arts colleges is demand. An increasing number of people don’t think they are valuable. In the past, people never really thought, ‘What I want is liberal arts education.’ They thought, ‘I want a degree from Williams or Swarthmore.’ Now that more people see college as an investment, asking what they can get out of it, they are choosing vocational majors. “
New Copyright Law For Canada? Fine, Except For A Little Lock Problem
“Many internet, copyright and legal experts say Canada has gone too far in appeasing the corporate interests that use the locks at the expense of consumers, who are entitled to use copyrighted content lawfully but prevented from doing so by the excessively restrictive digital lock amendments.”
Listen To London Shine In Silent Movies
London’s silent film history wasn’t just illuminated by a tinny piano and a pathetic old pianist. “Market forces were at work in cinema exhibition as in any other trade, and good music brought in the punters just as much as good films.”
Everybody’s A Designer, Except That One Physicist
“Another benefit, at least for designers, is that they should be able to work more widely, say, by addressing social problems or being integrated into scientific research programs. The old-school grumps complain that this will de-professionalize design, but ‘open’ designers are willing to risk that for the chance to tackle challenging issues. They also argue that society as a whole stands to gain from more extensive use of design.”
Crystal Bridges Museum: Design May Overcome Stupid Name
Moshe Safdie’s newest building, nestled in the heart of the Ozark forest and funded by a WalMart scion, both nods to its location and aggressively reworks the forest itself.
School’s In, And So Are The Architectural Prizes For The School
Zaha Hadid wins the UK’s prestigious Stirling Award for the second year running, for an academy that incorporates four different schools. One innovation in the tight space? “A 100-metre running track through the middle of the site, under a bridge between two school blocks.”
A Rather Big Wind Instrument: The Subway Tunnel
“The damp, dingy tunnels below Waterloo station in London are hardly your typical concert hall. But last weekend, as part of the Mindful exhibition, artist Oliver Beer brought a choir down to create ethereal music by turning the space into a giant musical instrument. To make the space resound, the singers needed to tap into the natural resonant frequencies of the building.”
Future Shock [SLIDESHOW]: What Yesterday’s Movies Tell Us About Tomorrow, And Today
If the future doesn’t look hopeful to you now, you’re not alone: Filmmakers of the past and present show us grim dystopias, with the occasional perk of a space-age shoe.
Is The Realist Novel Dead? Not In This Chat Between Colm Toibin & Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides: “We know from our Derrida that narrative is exhausted and character a fraud. We know that we might be ‘mocked’ for persisting in writing realist fiction. But we keep on doing it! Because we think there is something about reality, and especially about human consciousness, that can be accurately described and that the novel is the best way to do it.”