No specific program has been announced yet, but “look for some combination of performances presented online, outside, or in other ways that maintain social distance. The festival will continue [from Sept. 10] through Oct. 4, and organizers expect it to include eight to 12 curated works, as well as a virtual bookstore, artist talks, and independently presented works.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
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€50,000 A Day: What La Scala Would Lose By Operating Under Social-Distancing Rules
That’s the grim figure that the Milan opera house’s new superintendent, Dominique Meyer, will present to its board of directors on Thursday. Under the law that Italy’s parliament passed last week, La Scala could accommodate only 200 people, including the performers. – Gramilano (Milan)
Post-Virus Prognosticators – We Just Don’t Know
“The public square is thick today with augurs and prophets claiming to foresee the post-Covid world to come. I, myself, who find sundown something of a surprise every evening, have been pursued by foreign journalists asking what the pandemic will mean for the American presidential election, populism, the prospects of socialism, race relations, economic growth, higher education, New York City politics and more. And they seem awfully put out when I say I have no idea. – The New York Times
Using The Human Brain As A Model For Artificial Intelligence Hasn’t Turned Out (So Far)
What computer scientists and neuroscientists are after is a universal theory of intelligence—a set of principles that holds true both in tissue and in silicon. What they have instead is a muddle of details. Eleven years and $1.3 billion after Henry Markram proposed his simulated brain, it has contributed no fundamental insights to the study of intelligence. – Wired
How Leadership Is Failing Universities
How does a university with a $6-billion endowment and $10 billion in assets suddenly find itself in a solvency crisis? How is one of the country’s top research universities reduced, just a month after moving classes online, to freezing its employees’ retirement accounts? – Chronicle of Higher Education
Arvo Pärt On What The Pandemic Says To Us
“This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism and human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings. The notion of “relationship” should be understood as a maxim, as the ability to love. Although this is truly a high standard, maybe even too high for a human being. Our current situation is paradoxical: on the one hand, it means isolation, on the other, it brings us closer. While isolating ourselves, we should be able to – we are even forced to – appreciate our relationships in a small circle and to tend to them.” – Estonian World
Cirque du Soleil Founder Wants To Buy It Back To Save It
In 2015, Guy Laliberté sold the Cirque du Soleil to American private equity investment firm TPG Capital, Chinese investment company Fosun and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for a reported US$1.5 billion. In late March, the Montreal-based circus laid off 95 per cent of its staff, close to 4,700 employees, after all of its shows around the world were shuttered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. – Montreal Gazette
Actor Showcases Go Online – A Push To The Future?
Some representatives believe that, even after social distancing measures fade, schools will begin to incorporate video into at least part of their showcase models. On-demand video allows agents and managers to avoid the hassle of attending a live event, to choose the time when they view the showcase, to take meetings with students over a longer period and to see actors who they are considering for television or film projects onscreen. – The Hollywood Reporter
Italian Museums Reopen: A Survey Of How They’re Doing It
As museums begin to reopen, many are requiring visitors to book tickets in advance, wear masks, use hand sanitizer upon entering or undergo temperature checks, according to Fortune. In Munich, the Bavarian State Painting Collections’ museums are limiting the number of visitors to one person per roughly 215 square feet, reports CNN’s Karina Tsui. At the Giacometti Institute in Paris, meanwhile, just ten people are allowed in every ten minutes, and public bathrooms remain closed. – Smithsonian
Philip Glass’s Lost ‘Music In Eight Parts’ Has Been Recovered
“For decades, [the piece] seemed, to Mr. Glass’s circle, to exist only as fragments in his archive. Then the final manuscript for Music in Eight Parts resurfaced near the end of 2017. … Now in the hands of Mr. Glass’s publisher, it has been realized anew for his ensemble and, 50 years after its premiere, released on a recording by Orange Mountain Music this week.” – The New York Times