Culturally, mazes are now massively resurgent. Practically every country park has its hedge maze, mirror maze or maize maze – and so do a growing number of churches and cathedrals. In virtual reality, notably, the maze forms the basic substructure of innumerable videogames. So why do mazes draw us in? And what do they do to us while we are there?
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How Virtual Reality Can Change How People Behave
“Last year at the annual computer graphics conference SIGGRAPH, they debuted a new version of the game, called I Am A Robot, that allowed groups of people to don headsets and become genderless robots at either a ballet recital, cocktail gathering, or dance party. The response from participants was surprising – men in suits who swore they wouldn’t dance became entirely different people when in the genderless VR world – but it was the experience of two volunteers that moved Daffy most: one had social anxiety and had struggled to enjoy herself at the conference until she put the headset on and, inhibitions gone, danced and laughed for the first time in days. Another said they felt comfortable being gender-free for the first time in their life.”
Toronto’s Tafelmusik Orchestra Reports Its 17th Year In A Row Of Balanced Budgets
It finished the season in the black to the tune of $7,123. The period orchestra also reported a record-breaking year in donations, with more than 1,000 members and donors giving more than $975,000: a 63 per cent increase over the previous record set during the 2015/16 season.
How A Jazz Musician Is Redefining Culture At At The Kennedy Center
Not so long ago, Moran’s eclectic, adventurous approach to jazz would have placed him well outside the aesthetic boundaries of Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts . But in the past few years, the big white box on the Potomac has opened its venues to jazz in tandem with skateboarders, stand-up comics, dancers, painters and rappers. This redefining of what it means to be the “national cultural center” is, to a large extent, the doing of Jason Moran.
This Year’s Winners Of Canada’s Governor General’s Writing Awards
“Thomas Hynes’s We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, described in a release from the Canada Council as a portrait of a man’s hilarious yet disturbing journey from St. John’s to Vancouver, is the winner of the English fiction category. Richard Harrison’s On Not Losing my Father’s Ashes in the Flood took home the top poetry prize, Hiro Kanagawa’s Indian Arm was the winner under the drama genre and The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State by Graeme Wood was the pick for non-fiction.”
Cookbooks, Class, And Status Symbols: A Brief 600-Year History
“In the 15th and 16th centuries in Western Europe, the oldest published recipe collections emanated from the palaces of monarchs, princes, and grandes señores. … Gradually, technology broadened cookbooks’ intended audiences … [and,] in time, as new ideas formed about equality, democracy, and social stratification, presenting certain books as best suited for rich or for poor was no longer considered effective marketing, but culinary literature nonetheless has borne class markers for as long as it has existed.”
Should We Be Terrified That AI Will Let The Machines Take Over?
“After so much talking about the risks of ultraintelligent machines, it is time to turn on the light, stop worrying about sci-fi scenarios, and start focusing on AI’s actual challenges, in order to avoid making painful and costly mistakes in the design and use of our smart technologies.”
Martin Luther Was A Stout, Lusty, Physical Guy – Here’s Why That Mattered
“Luther physically embodied the Reformation. His massive size mirrored the bulky Saxon princes who protected him from Rome. Excommunicated, the rebellious priest married a former nun; he fathered children and celebrated family life as the antithesis of monasticism. He liked to eat, drink beer, and have sex, even as sin was ever present. … Luther’s physical monumentality became a positive view of the (male) body, a reflection of a positive image of Lutheranism, portraying an earthy and heroic wrestler against the Pope and Satan.”
Why World-In-Decline Thinking Is Not Helpful
“Our declinist age is noteworthy in one important way. It’s not just the Westerns who are in trouble; thanks to globalisation, it’s the Resterners too. In fact, we are all, as a species, in this mess; our world supply chains and climate change have ensured that we are poised before a sixth mass extinction together. We should worry less about our lifestyle and more about life itself.”
Why Demand-Based Pricing For Movie Tickets Is A Bad Idea
“Under an ‘alternative pricing model’ the company will pilot in several markets in 2018, Regal [Cinemas] will charge more for tickets to movies people want to see, and less for under-attended flops. … The thinking goes – especially in smaller markets where viewers don’t have other multiplex options – that customers will feel compelled to pay more to see a Marvel movie or Star Wars, the kind of experience audiences still flock to the theater for.” David Sims makes the case for why this won’t work for movies the way it does for Hamilton or airline tickets.