A computer program that purports to be able to authenticate and identify artwork is making waves in the highly subjective and specialized world of art analysis. Most art experts are openly skeptical of the program and its creator, but many also admit that a judicious use of technology could be quite helpful in supplementing the work of trained (human) authenticators.
Blog
Nothing Like A Good (Free) Book
It’s not a bookstore, not a library, and definitely not a profit-driven enterprise. It’s Book Thing, the Baltimore-based book exchange where rich meets poor, elitism dances with populism, and everyone goes away with either a good book or a good feeling.
Author Hailey Dies
“Arthur Hailey, the bestselling author who plucked characters from ordinary life and threw them into extraordinary ordeals, died in his home in the Bahamas, his wife said yesterday. He was 84.”
Toronto Film Industry Withering Fast
“In economic impact, the [film] industry has brought $2.6 billion annually into Toronto’s economy — to say nothing of the bragging rights the city has enjoyed as a metropolis sparkling with Hollywood glitter. But in recent years that bloom has withered dramatically. A generous system of provincial tax credits that allowed both domestic and foreign film productions a rebate on labour expenses incurred while in production in Ontario has been duplicated — and in most cases, bettered — all over the world… That, combined with a rising dollar, an increasingly hard line in Los Angeles against ‘runaway productions’ and the lingering effects of last year’s SARS outbreak, has driven foreign production in Ontario down from $981.6 million in 2001 to $874.1 million in 2003.”
The Human Cost
The downturn in Canadian film fortunes has had a very real impact on the people who make their living behind the scenes. Jobs are decidedly scarce for Toronto-based location managers, grips, and other crew members working for the TV and movie industries. Actors are having a rough time too, and many are wondering whether they can continue to make a living without moving south.
Big Cuts At Interlochen
Interlochen Center for the Arts, the northern Michigan-based arts academy which runs a full-time arts high school as well as a massive summer camp program, has made some big cuts to its summer offerings. 37 faculty members received notification this week that they would not be brought back in 2005, and the summer camp will be shortened from eight weeks to six. Interlochen administrators say that the cuts were necessary to insure financial stability and allow for basdly-needed raises for the remaining faculty. The summer program had 247 instructors and more than 2000 students this past summer.
Lean & Mean, Or Just Watered Down?
AJ Blogger Drew McManus, an alumnus of Interlochen, has a number of questions about this week’s cuts, and is curious about the creation of 18 new positions for “teaching assistants,” who will presumably be paid considerably less than the more experienced full-time faculty. “These assistants report directly to the newly created area coordinators, the same people responsible for evaluating and recommending the faculty members who were on the current ‘massacre’ list… I don’t know how enthusiastic I would be to send my son or daughter off to camp if part of their instruction is not going to come directly from resident faculty members.”
The Chelsea Backlash?
There are now twice as many galleries in New York’s Chelsea as there were in Soho at its peak. “As a result of this explosion, the inevitable anti-Chelsea backlash has been on the rise, too. The rap against Chelsea is that it is too big, too commercial, too slick, too conservative and too homogenous, a monolith of art commerce tricked out in look-alike white boxes and shot through with kitsch. This litany is recited by visitors from Los Angeles and Europe, by dealers with galleries in other parts of Manhattan or in Brooklyn and often by Chelsea dealers themselves.”
All-Star Dance Meets Russian Melodrama
The Moscow Ballet is in the midst of a massive 75-city tour featuring 100 dancers culled from Russia’s various professional troupes. A few bumps in the road are only to be expected during such a long tour, of course, but the Russians seem to be facing more than a couple of minor crises. “A disgruntled former director and performer, Valery Lantratov, has issued a couple of angry e-mails to the press complaining of ‘an unacceptable contract which infringed on the rights of the artists’ and ‘discontent with the marketing practices’ that included allegations of false advertising.”
Owning Digital Art, Collecting A Problem
There’s a basic problem with collecting and selling digital art. “As Napster and KaZaA have taught us, once creative works have been digitized, controlling their distribution becomes problematic. In video art, for instance, there is a trading site with everything from Matthew Barney to Nam June Paik available for bartering. Once files start floating around in cyberspace, the certificate of authenticity becomes paramount. And what if that certificate gets lost?”