Blog

Artists Against Bush

There is an awful lot of anti-Bush art making the rounds these days. “You don’t need a conspiracy theory or an imminent Republican convention to explain why there is so much Bush-bashing entertainment today: Mr. Bush is in power. The opposition is generally more motivated, but perhaps not as galvanized as it seems to be this year.”

How (Whether) To Reform German Spelling

In 1998, Germany undertook to reform its spelling. Six years on, there are big forces at work to change back to old spellings. “Backers of reform say simplification of spelling is badly needed to make life easier for schoolchildren; rolling back now would cause chaos in the classroom and cost millions. Critics say the overhaul has failed and Germany could become a land of dyslexics. Both sides have a point…”

What Role Language?

“It seems that words for exact numbers do not exist in all languages. And if someone has no word for a number, he may have no notion of what that number means. While there is no dispute that language influences what people think about, evidence suggesting it determines thought is inconclusive.”

BalletLab As A Product

Phillip Adams’ BalletLab has a short history – it was founded by Adams in 1998 – but the company has already made an impressive impact in Australia and abroad, having already toured to Beijing, Mongolia, Britain and Europe.”Product is what it is. But I’m not embarrassed about my art, and I’m an artist with a pretty clear vision of what I want to say to the world. I am a damn fine schmoozer and am one of those people that get out there and are not ashamed to say ‘this is my gear and I think you will like it’. I think there’s a place for it not just in the Australian scene, but in the international arena.”

Of Pugilism And Philosophy

Is there really much relationship between boxing and philosophy? Well… “The deeper you get into the fights, the more you may discover about things that would seem at first blush to have nothing to do with boxing. Lessons in spacing and leverage, or in holding part of oneself in reserve even when hotly engaged, are lessons not only in how one boxer reckons with another but also in how one person reckons with another. The fights teach many such lessons — about virtues and limits of craft, about the need to impart meaning to hard facts by enfolding them in stories and spectacle, about getting hurt and getting old, about distance and intimacy, and especially about education itself: Boxing conducts an endless workshop in the teaching and learning of knowledge with consequences.”

Plans (Many Of Them) To Help Aboriginal Artists

Australian Aboriginal art is very popular these days, and the market just keeps on going up. But the artists themselves live in poverty, so now some plans to improve their welfare. “Suddenly such conscience is manifest in several plans – complementary, competing, or controversial, depending on your view – initiated by dealers, auction houses, artists, and government.”

Remembering Czeslaw Milosz

“Milosz was always worried that he had betrayed his homeland by leaving it and was glad to return to newly free Poland for the final years of his life. He was welcomed as a literary giant. But like many east European intellectuals who flourished in adversity, he had little to say directly about the new era of uncaptive minds. ‘Intellectuals have a certain image of things and don’t know very well what is going on beneath, in people’s heads, after those decades of totalitarian smashing and modelling’.”