They’re on the way, with authors and publishers hard at work…
Blog
Dumbing Down The Classics?
Publishers realize there are plenty of books out there that everyone knows but few have read. Is it because they’re too hard? So publishers are putting out “new editions of some of the great, often unread, works with a fresh emphasis on ‘accessibility’. Some may call it dumbing down. The books will be, well, simpler. One of the first to receive the treatment is Tolstoy’s War and Peace, republished this month by Penguin in a new, reader-friendly translation.”
RIBA Head: Architecture Shows Are Crap
London needs a place to stage architecture exhibitions. The head of the Royal Institute of British Architects Trust says that “most architecture exhibitions are crap. In my opinion, yes they are. The content isn’t crap but the way it engages is appalling because it’s the wrong medium. I’ve seen many architecture exhibitions where the subject matter should be in a book or on a website or in a journal or on television, but it’s not an exhibition.”
Kidnapping As Art (Really?)
Journalist Morgan Fowler has homself “kidnapped” by a performance artist, who beats on him. “Lying on the floor I had felt genuinely degraded, afraid of the next punch, ashamed that I’d submitted to it at all. Yet something like determination kept me submitting to this for a full 40 minutes. Even after a cab home and a shower I found myself oddly reluctant to talk about what had happened. The game had been a little more involving than I had envisaged. I had quite a few bruises.” Is this really art?
Portrait Of The Orchestra Musician In The UK
“According to the survey, orchestral musicians earn an average of £28,579 per year – of which £25,126 comes from their orchestral contract. (According to the Office of National Statistics, the UK average salary last year was £22,060.) The pay scale is fairly flat across the sector, with 71 per cent of respondents earning between £20,000 and £30,000. 14 per cent earned below that, and 15 per cent above. Over the last three years, musicians’ average earnings have risen at slightly below the rate of inflation.”
The Disappointment That Is Baltic
GAteshead’s Baltic gallery opened in 2002 with great fanfare and high hopes. But “the Baltic has become the safely provincial test bed of the wannabe cutting-edgers. You know the kind of thing: formulaic novelty and predictable, in-your-face transgression, not to mention those darkened rooms containing videos that render visitors comatose. Fair enough, Bill Viola is a master, but how about the others? If the Baltic’s programme of institutional avant-gardism has been underwhelming, its managerial record has been abysmal.”
Philly Calder Museum Dies
A planned Alexander Calder museum in Philadelphia has died. “Both the state and the proposed museum’s major financial backer have withdrawn their support for the project. The proposed museum was to have been a permanent home for about 100 artworks, mostly those of Alexander (Sandy) Calder, a Philadelphia-area born sculptor famous for whimsical mobiles and steel sculptures.”
What Happened To Women In British Theatre?
“At present, women artistic directors are less well represented in British theatres than at any point in the past 20 years. Moreover, last year there were 218 new plays staged in Britain – only 38 by women. In the light of these statistics, did women’s companies make a difference?”
Media – Killing The Ideas In Science
“Why is science in the media so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong? Like a proper little Darwin, I’ve been collecting specimens, making careful observations, and now I’m ready to present my theory. It is my hypothesis that in their choice of stories, and the way they cover them, the media create a parody of science, for their own means. They then attack this parody as if they were critiquing science.”
Art Out Of Disasters? Forget About It
“Down in New Orleans they do not need a symphony; they need bottled water, food, clothing, money, diapers, dry goods. Put down your pen and take up your wallet—there are thousands of musicians who, like me four years ago (but worse), find themselves suddenly without a home. Send them trumpets, not trumpet sonatas, as these are gigging musicians who have no means by which to make a living. Buy their records. Give to help organizations. You cannot help them heal with your music—not yet, maybe not ever—but you still can do something. They need your help, not your attempt at catharsis.”