The current crisis has turned the industry’s cracks into chasms, exposing the ways in which it fails its workers almost by design. It has also raised the question of what restaurants will look like—and how they could survive—once this is all over. But a better question might be whether they should survive as they currently exist. What could restaurants look like if we threw out the old system and built something better? – The New Republic
Tag: 05.21.20
Are Patents And Copyrights Slowing Down Innovation?
Whether we’re talking about vaccines or groundbreaking clean energy, lifesaving technologies shouldn’t be treated as precious commodities to be hoarded for private gain. In the midst of global emergencies, they’re public goods to be deployed as rapidly as possible. – The New Republic
How Did Renaissance Architects Build Church Domes Without Columns? High-Tech Analysis Has Found The Answer
The broad cupolas in Italian churches of the era were constructed by laying bricks in a “complex cross-herringbone spiraling pattern” called a double loxodrome, according to a team of engineering researchers at Princeton and the University of Bergamo. – Artnet
Artist Boss Move: Befriending Your Thief
Not everyone’s first reaction, is it? But: “After two of her most prized paintings were stolen, Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova came face-to-face with thief Karl-Bertil Nordland in a courtroom. Rather than reprimand Nordland though, she asked him if she could paint his portrait.” – Vanity Fair
Now The Hard Part: Testing Out Concerts In The New Normal
For the moment, the eyes of the concert industry are on the Arkansas city of Fort Smith. There, at a venue called TempleLive, blues-rock singer Travis McCready is set to perform a solo show Monday. It may well be the first ticketed indoor public music event in the nation to take place since the coronavirus-fueled shutdown of concerts. – San Diego Union-Tribune
Pandemic Is A Golden Opportunity For Australia’s Big Festivals To Reinvent
With high profiles, comparatively secure government funding and established philanthropic networks, major arts festivals are in a position to make a difference. At one point in Getting Their Acts Together, Adelaide festival’s annual bill is placed at $20m – around four times the amount of money the Australia Council has scraped together for its Covid-19 resilience fund. And after months of cancellations and pushbacks there will be no shortage of compelling shows by Australian artists and companies looking to make up for lost time – and income – in 2021. – The Guardian
An Online Education: Some Essentials Missing
I’ve heard administrators insist that online instruction is just a “change in delivery system,” not a diminution of content. But this bureaucratic bromide wilfully ignores the wisdom of Marshall McLuhan, whose work I often teach. The medium is always the message. You can reduce a seminar to a distortion-addled screen, sure, but that will never substitute for being there. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
We Have To Talk: Learning (And Teaching) Online Is A Lesser Experience
The real question may not be “How can you possibly teach art online?” but “How can you possibly understand art online?” My simple answer to that complex question is: “At best, imperfectly. At worst, inadequately.” – Los Angeles Times
West End Producer: Without Help, Our Theatres Will Be Obliterated
“Without an urgent government rescue package, 70% of our performing arts companies will be out of business before the end of this year,” she wrote. “More than 1,000 theatres around the country will be insolvent and might shut down for good.” The producer said the loss would be “irrecoverable” and said that without intervention the country would watch as over the next six months “our arts and cultural organisations will have to spend their reserves until there is nothing left”. – The Guardian
Bernice Silver, Beloved Agitprop Puppeteer, Dead Of COVID At 106
“A hummingbird of a woman at 4-foot-8, [she] was a puppeteer whose performances were mock-chaotic, subtly cerebral and always slyly subversive. She made sure to slip in a history lesson, or a plug for conservation or social justice. She called them happenings, for the political theater she was schooled in. Her fellow puppeteers called her the Queen of Potpourri.” – The New York Times