“Poland’s current Minister of Culture, Piotr Gliński, a leading member of the rightwing governing Law and Justice party (PiS), is accused of attempting to take control of the [European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk] in an effort to curtail its programming and replace its director with a ministry-appointed one.” The PiS government has tried to do this several times in the past few years at theatres and other cultural institutions, including the Museum of World War II, also in Gdańsk. – Hyperallergic
Blog
New Canadian Film Shot In Indigenous Language With Only 20 Speakers Left
“With subtitles, audiences will be able to understand a feature film titled SGaawaay K’uuna, translated as Edge of the Knife, which has its UK premiere in April. It is in two dialects of the highly endangered Haida language, the ancestral tongue of the Haida people of British Columbia. … The film is playing an important role in preserving the language, its director Gwaai Edenshaw said.” – The Guardian
Theatre Company Goes Into Welsh Schools To Teach Students About Drug-Dealer Dangers
Long-distance drug-dealing gangs known as “county lines” have hit North Wales hard, with all the attendant violence and human misery. Theatr Clwyd, a professional company in the region, is touring to area schools with a new play depicting the dangers and consequences of getting involved with a county lines gang. – BBC
Literary Prize Runners Denounce ‘False Hierarchy’ Of Prizes, Then Revise Their Own Prize Accordingly
Said the organizers of the Republic of Consciousness Prize, devoted to books from publishers with five or fewer employees, “While the competitive dynamic of prizes points readers towards ‘the best books’, they also create a false hierarchy where ‘the best’ becomes a valid category.” So, beginning with this year, judges may select anywhere from one to four titles as winners, “on the criteria that book X or Y cannot not win.'” – The Guardian
Will Apple’s Entry Into Streaming Mean A New Golden Age For TV?
Golden ages are frequently proclaimed, but a glance at the selection of television options suggests something new is happening. Even for those of us who spend most of our recreational hours reading, suddenly many of us find TV is worth watching again as companies like Netflix open their wallets to risky projects in hope of appealing to every niche. – CBC
Trigger Warnings Do Not Work, New Study Finds
“Trigger warnings are, at best, trivially helpful,” writes a research team led by psychologist Mevagh Sanson of the University of Waikato. The paper finds they “have no effect, or might even work slightly in the direction of causing harm.” – Pacific Standard
Why Movie Westerns Are An Enduring Genre
An important reason for the survival of the Western is that it has proved to be unusually adaptable to changing times and sensibilities. Younger filmmakers continue to find fresh ways to make their traditional plots reflect modern attitudes and concerns, and younger viewers continue to embrace the genre with the same relish as did their parents and grandparents. – Commentary
We’re Not In Kansas Anymore: Museums Dive Into Influencers, AI And The Social Maelstrom
We’ve moved far beyond the DYI days of tech-integrated engagement with audiences. As the technology becomes higher level and more complex, it moves further way from the art. – The Art Newspaper
Why Robots Won’t Replace Us (No Matter How Smart They Are)
If the goal is for them to understand us people in order to perform tasks for us they must be programmed to have their own emotional life and the insight that the ability to abstract is a human commodity. For the robot, language seems to be a fixed material, whereas for the dialectical human it describes and it makes the material comprehendible. – LitHub
Has Instagram Become A Path To A Creative Director Career?
While many people over a certain age may see social media influencers as the demon spawn of P.T. Barnum and David Ogilvy, it has emerged as a significant advertising tool. According to a CivicScience survey in December 2018, one-third of daily Instagram users in the U.S. said they had purchased a product or service based on a recommendation from an influencer or blogger on the platform. – Fast Company