Reviewers are neither arbiters of taste nor are they ushers doing the job of wheedling readers to get under a particular set of covers. Consideration of a book is an engagement with its context, and even more crucially an enunciation of the alchemy between its content and the inevitably subjective experience of reading it. In this sense, the unique subjectivity of every reader will inevitably interact differently with a book; this prismatic aspect of what individual readers “get” from literature is part of the intimacy of reading, its inherently individual aspect.
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Years Of Abuse By Opera Director Reported
In the weeks since Austin Opera’s conductor was fired amid allegations of harassment, seven women have come forward to describe a culture of permissiveness that they say allowed Richard Buckley to touch women inappropriately and engage in lewd talk because he was a star.
Misty Copeland Talks About Diversity And Parity In Ballet
Copeland said that ABT and ballet in general are naturally moving in a direction that favors gender equality and more diversity on stage, but key to ballet’s survival is the diversification of its patrons, too. “Bringing diversity into the theater is going to keep ballet thriving and relevant and alive. To me, that’s so critical and so important,” she said.
Authentication Of Middle Eastern Art Is A Mess
Around 20 active family estates and foundations are now known across Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. However, charging up to €2,000 for authentication certificates also raises questions about the motives and expertise of artists’ relatives, particularly where conflict has damaged other archives, museums and libraries.
We Are Our Anxieties (And That’s A Good Thing)
Samir Chopra: “The Buddha and David Hume considered the self to be a bundle of ever-changing perceptions and thoughts and images. Similarly, I propose a ‘self-as-bundled-anxieties’ theory: we are a bundle of anxieties; by examining them, to see what vexes us, what makes us anxious, we come to know who we are. Anxiety is a reminder that our selves are rather more diffuse and disorderly than we might imagine, that there are more bits to be seized as they swirl ‘about’ and ‘inside’ us.”
Research In The Arts Is Broken
“This is not merely an idle philosophical debate. Every year, our society invests thousands of hours and millions of dollars in generating knowledge about arts and culture.1 But just when choices about how to distribute resources seem to matter more than at any time in living memory, the arts field’s system for knowledge production, dissemination, and consumption is under tremendous strain, if not entirely broken — a predicament only exacerbated by a rapidly changing media environment.”
Can The Artificial Intelligence Field Learn From Non-Western Philosophies?
“‘I think there is a domination of Western philosophy, so to speak, in AI ethics,” said [technology ethicist] Dr. Pak-Hang Wong … ‘By that I mean, when we look at AI ethics, most likely they are appealing to values … in the Western philosophical traditions, such as value of freedom, autonomy and so on.’ Wong is among a group of researchers trying to widen that scope, by looking at how non-Western value systems – including Confucianism, Buddhism and Ubuntu – can influence how autonomous and intelligent designs are developed and how they operate.” (audio)
Trending? Really? What Does That Mean And Why Should We Care?
When we sort through our feeds, “latest” has an obvious chronological sorting mechanism; even “popular” has a fairly clear and agreed-upon definition. “Trending,” however, does not. It’s similar, but not the same as “popular”; generally speaking, it means “popular, in some relative, technically defined way.” That is, the “trending” sections of major platforms are, as of now, algorithmically determined, their contents selected by formulas developed internally at those companies and kept private.
Why Isn’t Ski Ballet In The Winter Olympics?
“The internet sank its teeth into a now-defunct Winter Olympics event this week: ski ballet. And it makes sense. When you see footage of actual ski ballet competitions from years past it’s hard to deny the novelty of it all, while simultaneously taking in the raw athleticism and artistry of the event. There’s also an extremely ‘What the hell am I watching?’ quality to ski ballet. … But really, no words can truly do it justice.” (includes video)
Is The Sound Of The City Around You Making You Sick?
Concerns about hearing loss largely focus on excessive noise exposure. But environmental noise is just as unsafe. People living in cities are regularly exposed (against their will) to noise above 85 decibels from sources like traffic, subways, industrial activity, and airports. That’s enough to cause significant hearing loss over time. If you have an hour-long commute at such sound levels, your hearing has probably already been affected. Urban life also sustains average background noise levels of 60 decibels, which is loud enough to raise one’s blood pressure and heart rate, and cause stress, loss of concentration, and loss of sleep.