Category: media

German artist Anselm Kiefer invited Sophie Fiennes to document a massive, weird artwork. Fiennes “wandered the grounds, navigating tunnels illuminated with skylights or single bulbs, discovering a crypt and an amphitheater and a patch of land scattered with concrete towers inspired by the biblical story of Lilith that resemble modern ruins.”

“New data released Friday by the Digital Entertainment Group, an industry trade association, showed that people spent $4.2 billion renting movies in the first six months of 2011, compared with $4.1 billion buying them on disc or via digital download.”

Nearly 50 US arts organisations have received money from the company behind the Golden Globes, which is giving $1.5m (£921,000) away in grants.

“The three evening newscasts added almost 2 million viewers combined in the second quarter compared with the same period the year before. The uptick in the morning is all the more impressive, given the downturn in the audience for broadcast television overall. All three networks lost viewers in prime time this TV season compared with the year before.”

“The Rise of the Planet of the Apes blockbuster reboot is out next week. To celebrate, we revisit the strange and complicated history of primate films – and ask whether we’ve lost our enthusiasm for simians on celluloid.”

A mockumentary titled The Ministry “sends up the nepotism, payoffs and sheer incompetence that are commonplace in the Afghan government. The Ministry of Waste in the imaginary country of Hechland, which means ‘nothing land,’ is inhabited by a weak minister and his hapless entourage.”

The Viacom exec in charge of setting up the new network talks about the sudden flowering of stand-up comedy in Brazil and the mix of local and imported programming he plans to air (including Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and South Park, all in English with subtitles).

“Politicians won’t do a thing if their electorates aren’t persuaded that illegal downloading is immoral and destructive of creativity. And, sadly, millions of people (especially those under 35) aren’t persuaded. Nor will they be, if the giant record companies project an image of themselves as out-of-touch fat cats trying to protect their cream. In that respect, choosing an ageing multimillionaire opera singer as a figurehead sends out just about the worst possible message.”

“The ABC will disband its arts unit, a move which will spell the end of weekly arts broadcasting on the ABC. Production has been cancelled on Art Nation presented by Fenella Kernebone and on all the internally-produced arts documentaries which air under the Artscape banner.”

“Website blocking was one of the key provision contained in the Digital Economy Act. Internet Service Providers had objected to the idea that copyright owners could compel them to cut off some sites.”