“I worry that the Met’s plan is classist, and nativist. It divides people into categories — rich and poor, native and foreign — which is exactly what this country does not need right now. I think this is tied to the abstract way wealth is accrued these days. In the last Gilded Age the rich had a much more literal sense of the suffering their fortunes were built on and a greater need to give back.”
Blog
Does Ireland Need A New State-Funded National Orchestra?
If RTÉ does what the world expects it to to, what we will actually need is a new, genuinely national orchestra, directly funded by the State, just as most of our essential national cultural institutions are. It will be interesting to see if any of our politicians will be brave enough to start that particular ball rolling.
We Need To Distinguish Between Creative “Human” Music And That Made By Machines
A distinction is necessary here between creative ‘composing’ and ‘compositing’. Artificial Intelligence generativity (so-called “creativity”) is based on a compositing process; it’s basically all just recombinations of pre-existing data. While it is clear that the human process of creativity lies on a continuum between compositing and composing, a salient aspect of human creativity involves the creation of new ‘data’ rather than the novel recombination of prior ideas.
Las Vegas Needs A Museum (It Doesn’t Have One)
“Art museums are an essential part of a city’s character. Las Vegas doesn’t have a museum that could stand alongside a MoMA or a Broad, and we need one. Cynics like to hold up the early-2000s failure of the Venetian’s two Guggenheim spaces as evidence that Vegas can’t support an art museum, but could Vegas have supported an NHL team back then? There are 2 million people now living in this Valley, and they’ve proven that they don’t want to travel for the things LA can take for granted. It’s art museum time.”
Information (As Opposed To Opinion) Is Fundamental To A Functioning Democracy
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is well known for his description of known knowns, the “things we know we know,” and the unknown unknowns, “the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” This second part is the realm of science. Exploring, searching, finding. But, as we saw numerous times in 2017, today we struggle to keep the catalogue of what we do know.
Academics Raise Concerns About Chinese Government’s Increasing Influence In Education
“In recent years the Chinese government has stepped up its crackdown on domestic dissent at the same time it continues to expand the country’s global influence. A confluence of events has China studies scholars raising concerns about whether the Chinese Communist Party is exporting its censorship regime abroad, and what the implications are for free discussion and research at universities outside China.”
Most People Believe They’re Self Aware. Research Reveals The Contrary
Our research revealed many surprising roadblocks, myths, and truths about what self-awareness is and what it takes to improve it. We’ve found that even though most people believe they are self-aware, self-awareness is a truly rare quality: We estimate that only 10%–15% of the people we studied actually fit the criteria. Three findings in particular stood out, and are helping us develop practical guidance for how leaders can learn to see themselves more clearly.
Neuroscience Is Beginning To Tell Us How Healthy Brains Make Us Successful
“Another lesson from our brain imaging work is that illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, begin in the brain years—even decades—before people have any symptoms. But you can do something about it, and prevention seems to be key.”
Why Is Sleep So Important Across The Entire Animal Kingdom?
“In a way, it’s startling how universal sleep is: In the midst of the hurried scramble for survival, across eons of bloodshed and death and flight, uncountable millions of living things have laid themselves down for a nice, long bout of unconsciousness. … Whatever sleep gives to the sleeper is worth tempting death over and over again, for a lifetime.” Reporter Veronique Greenwood visits a lab in Japan where scientists are trying to find the answer(s) to this question.
Producers Need A More Artistic Definition (Or Do They?)
“Unlike curating, the changing role of the producer seems less motivated by theory than by external pressures – namely, an increasingly competitive, capitalist working culture.”