Here’s a look at the safety measures which the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has put in place for receiving visitors beginning this Saturday. The San Antonio Museum of Fine Arts is following soon after, opening to visitors next Tuesday and the general public the following Thursday. – Artnet
Category: AUDIENCE
BBC Three Could Become An Over-The-Air TV Channel Again
“The corporation is actively exploring reviving the broadcast channel, four years after it was taken online-only, … after enjoying a run of hits – from Fleabag [and Killing Eve] to lockdown obsession Normal People – that have rated with the youth audience the corporation is desperate to win over.” – The Guardian
Social Distancing At The Drive-In
The masked audience members lined up, 6 feet apart, at the concession stand. People were grilling. There was at least one birthday party going on. Then the movies began – and then the storms blew through. – The New York Times
Report: We’re Reading More In Lockdown (And Our Taste Is Changing)
According to the nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults, surveyed from 29 April to 1 May, the nation has also increased the amount of time it spends reading books from around 3.5 hours per week, to six. Just 10% of adults said they were reading less. Readers also revealed their tastes have changed since the outbreak of Covid-19. – The Guardian
Interest In Disaster, Dystopian Stories Is Soaring. Why?
Global downloads for Plague Inc, a 2012 video game that encourages players to spread a disease around the world before a cure is found, increased by an annual 123% from January to March this year, as the spread of Covid-19 began to gather speed internationally. Its UK-based developer Ndemic Creation addressed the game’s popularity: “Whenever there is an outbreak of disease, we see an increase in players as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread, and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks,” the company said. – BBC
What Are The Possibilities Of Socially Distanced Performance? We’ve Been Seeing Some Of Them For Years
Justin Davidson: “There is a cohort of artists and presenters who, long before the great contagion, were already rethinking the physical relationships between performers, audience, and space. They rebelled against the tyranny of the proscenium, placed intimate shows in vast rooms, coaxed audiences to roam, and expanded their palette with electronics — all techniques that could now prove essential. … I can think of a dozen powerful experiences from the recent past that might seem suddenly timely.” – Vulture
Why The Pandemic Has Seen Shakespeare Popping Up Everywhere Online
Alexis Soloski: “The glut of new content speaks to the reach and ubiquity of his work, the open-source accessibility of his plays, the confidence that if you do share a snippet of pentameter, you will be heard, recognized and retweeted. The plays — and the humanist values they intimate — offer a [common] cultural touchstone when the rest of our lives feel unsteady.” – The New York Times
A New Kind Of Corona-Concert: Ten Minutes, One Musician, One Listener, One Empty Airport
Flutist Stephanie Winker has been organizing these very intimate events at the airport and in other locations around Stuttgart — inspired, she says, by The Artist Is Present, the project in which Marina Abramović sat in a chair and, one at a time, stared into people’s eyes. – The New York Times
Next-Level Zoom – The Virtual Reality Version
“The weird feel of us meeting in a virtual fishtank, with real people able to peek in, makes me think of a possible future where performers work in VR, while directors or creators observe in video panels, able to provide more emotional nuance with their faces. VR isn’t able to blend moving around and using real facial expressions yet, which makes VR theater performances feel more like dance and puppetry than real living, talking faces. But this hybrid of VR and video chat feels like something new.” – CNET
Some Bookstores Are Starting To Reopen. How’s It Working?
As some states allow a handful of businesses to reopen and other regions charge ahead full throttle, it is an experiment for bookstore owners and other retailers attempting to strike a balance between staying afloat and keeping workers and customers safe. – The New York Times