“When all our documents are generated by digital means, the nature of what consists of an “original” becomes fuzzier and fuzzier. (Is it the first copy from the printer? The electrons on the hard disk?) And if search companies like Google succeed in their mission to get all human knowledge online, available to everyone, we’ll have the power to peruse existing documents like those in the Christie’s auction from the comfort of our dens.”
Blog
What’ll It Take For Women To Get Ahead In The Arts?
“On the occasion of Women’s History Month, Back Stage talked with the heads of several women’s organizations for their spin on the challenges facing women in the arts and media today and to learn what they’re doing about them. A repeated refrain is that while the status of women has improved enormously, there is still a lack of equality in terms of clout and pay. Men continue to outnumber women in positions of power behind the scenes, get better roles on stage and screen, and generally earn more money than their female counterparts of equal competence and experience (at any level above scale).”
Tracing CanLit Back To Its Source
Canadian literature has been hot in recent years. But where does this writing come from? Much of it derrives from the lit program at the University of British Columbia. “Sure, there are other schools – the universities of Victoria, New Brunswick and Windsor prominent among them – but UBC was first (founded in 1965 by poet Earle Birney) and it’s earned the kind of cachet that must drive its rivals to distraction. “Indeed, nearly half the graduating class of 2001 finished school with a book contract. Every publishing house, it seemed, needed its own author from the Buchanan Building.”
College Selling Art To Cover Legal Settlement
Facing large legal settlements with students who were sexually assaulted by a former teacher, Upper Canada College is selling millions of dollars worth of art and property. The art will be sold off primarily at public auction over the next few months. “The decision will be difficult for some people, but the art is not crucial to the education of the students here.”
TV Comes To Shangri la
The Himalayan country of Bhutan didn’t get television until 1999. Now its residents are hooked. “Residents of the capital, Thimphu, now say they are glued to the telly for several hours a day. Long-running and popular Indian soap operas beamed from across the border are hot favourites. Thimphu residents animatedly discuss the serials and follow the fortunes of their characters.”
Toon Town – A Studio’s Gotta Have ‘Em
“Virtually all the major studios now have an inhouse facility producing computer-generated (CG) feature films, from Sony’s Imageworks to Fox’s Blue Sky Studios, which created “Robots.” Not surprisingly, the film-release calender for 2005 is filling up with CG films. Dreamworks has “Madagascar,” a tale of zoo animals surviving in the wild, due out Memorial Day weekend. “Chicken Little,” the first film to hatch from Disney’s new CG studios, arrives in November. But some observers wonder how long Hollywood can sustain the CG-film gold rush.”
The Customer As Inventor
“How does innovation happen? The familiar story involves boffins in academic institutes and R&D labs. But lately, corporate practice has begun to challenge this old-fashioned notion. Open-source software development is already well-known. Less so is the fact that Bell, an American bicycle-helmet maker, has collected hundreds of ideas for new products from its customers, and is putting several of them into production. Or that Electronic Arts (EA), a maker of computer games, ships programming tools to its customers, posts their modifications online and works their creations into new games. And so on. Not only is the customer king: now he is market-research head, R&D chief and product-development manager, too.”
Is There A Better Case To Be Made For The Arts?: The Home Stretch
What do Bill Ivey, Midori, Robert L. Lynch, Glenn Lowry, Ben Cameron, Andrew Taylor, Joli Jensen, Jim Kelly, Adrian Ellis, Phil Kennicott and Russell Willis Taylor have in common? They’re taking part in a week-long blog debate on ArtsJournal about the value of the arts: “Let’s paint a picture of what we think a vibrant cultural system should look like, and then advocate on behalf of policies that take us there. In my experience, arts advocates tend to ask for “more,” rather than for a specific outcome. If we want a drawing teacher in every fourth grade classroom, let’s talk that way. I think policy leaders and funders like to know exactly what will happen if they support a program. The challenge, of course, is that once we get where we say we want to go, we have to be willing to stop, and not ask for more…That’s been hard for us to do.”
NY To Change Child Performer Rules?
The New York legislature is considering a bill to change the child performer laws. “The current New York law lists the educational requirements for child performers and also mandates a trust fund to protect 15% of the child’s income. It also provides a method by which producers can file that money with the state Child Performer’s Holding Fund if the performer’s parents or guardians don’t establish a trust.”
BBC Cuts
The BBC is undergoing significant cutbacks. “The changes to the BBC’s professional services divisions will result in the loss of 980 jobs through a combination of redundancy and staff turnover. A further 750 posts will be outsourced, resulting in 1,730 job losses in total – a 46% reduction in headcount. Overall cost savings across the BBC are expected to reach £355m – £35m more than the original £320m target.”