“Imagine life before money. Say, you made bread but you needed meat. But what if the town butcher didn’t want your bread? You’d have to find someone who did, trading until you eventually got some meat. You can see how this gets incredibly complicated and inefficient, which is why humans invented money: to make it easier to exchange goods. Right? This historical world of barter sounds quite inconvenient. It also may be completely made up.”
Tag: 02.26.16
Has The Debate About Oscar Racism Gotten Out Of Hand? Here Are Some Numbers
“Racism in the entertainment industry is a complex, multifaceted beast, with much blame to go around, from discriminatory hiring patterns on the part of the industry to the casual commercial indifference of audiences to films about the black experience. But, having noticed a lot of changes in the way the academy has gone about its job over the last fifteen years, I think on balance that the criticism of it has gotten into the realm of the irresponsible.”
‘No Feeling Is Stable’ – Colm Tóibín On James Baldwin’s ‘Giovanni’s Room’
“No feeling is stable in this novel, which attempts by a set of opposing images to find a place where something finally can be said that is true, even if it is too late. Perhaps, oddly enough, this effort at a healing dialectic is all the more necessary, and urgent in its tone, because it will make no difference.”
Museum Audiences Have Less Time. So How Will Museums Adapt?
“If the lack of leisure is the fundamental problem the museum sector faces, it should address the issue directly, broadly and fearlessly. Indeed, the entire cultural community needs to accept that it makes no sense to obsess about a dwindling audience or the lack of public resources without addressing the underlying issue of leisure, and why, as a society, we have failed to make time for pleasure, learning and self-improvement.”
Did Eero Saarinen Base His TWA Terminal On A Chair?
“One piece in particular included in the TWA lounges – the Pedestal or Tulip chair – designed by Saarinen just before the TWA Flight Center, foretold its hovering form and mix of organic and modern design.”
Geneva’s Orchestra Abruptly Fired Its CEO – And May Have Lost Its Music Director As A Result
Early last month, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande “parted ways” with general director Henk Swinnen. Now conductor Jonathan Nott, who’s due to take over as the OSR’s music director this fall, won’t return a signed contract. Here’s what’s going on over there. (in French; Google Translate version here)
The Last Opera
“While his contemporaries steered toward modernism, Floyd took a more conservative tack musically, merging older European tradition with newer American folk music forms and regional vernacular. For years, Floyd’s approach kept some scholars from embracing his work. He wasn’t mentioned in Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker’s ‘A History of Opera’ when it was published in 2012. ‘It’s telling that for years Philip Glass has been held up as important and Floyd hasn’t.'”
The Author Of ‘The Revenant’ Is Also A Lead Official At The World Trade Organization
And, as such, he cannot – by law – talk about his book. “‘It’s been frustrating,’ said Stephen Morrison, the publisher of Picador. ‘Any other author would be out on press junkets, but he’s not able to do any promotion at all.'”
You Might Soon See A Lot More Of Robert Rauschenberg’s Art
The Rauschenberg Foundation “has decided to adopt a new policy of making images of Rauschenberg work much more widely available free. In doing so, it is urging other artists’ estates and foundations to take a hard look at protections it believes — in the name of safeguarding works from piracy or misuse — have become too restrictive, especially in the digital era.”
What Kind Of Art Are We Sending To The Moon On The MoonArk?
“Everything, however, remains visual; nothing exists in data form. To accomplish this, the team had professional engravers laser-etch the various visuals in platinum on sapphire discs, resulting in delicate-looking objects that are works of art in their own right.”