Evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson has spent much of his career studying prosociality – cooperative behaviors that help particular species survive and prosper as a group. Now he’s trying to introduce and increase prosociality as a way to help the survival of the city where he lives, Binghamton, New York.
Tag: 06.08.11
Is Rem Koolhaas Going Howard-Roark On Us?
The modernist starchitect rues the “disappearance of the crusader-architect, and the public disfavor into which so much modern design eventually fell … [and] sees the designer in his present estate as a creature hemmed in by petty bureaucrats with docent badges.”
Will Art.sy Change The Way We Look (And Buy) Art?
“Devised by chief executive and Princeton computer science engineer, Carter Cleveland, Art.sy hopes to take art to a wider potential audience. Modelling itself on successful music sites like Pandora, it uses “genome technology” to make connections between works of art based on shared characteristics to introduce users to works they might not otherwise know.”
Remaking Voice of America For The New Media Age
“When Walter Isaacson championed Voice of America’s decision to shut down its shortwave radio broadcasts to China – and shift those funds to the Internet, cellphones and other forms of digital media – he viewed it as the sensible updating of a propaganda playbook dating from the cold war.” Then he talked to Congress …
Is A Push To Entrepreneurship Dangerous For Writers?
“I’m concerned about the slow and subtle shift in attitude that constant marketing may effect in writers. Once you are in charge of your own promotion and sales, you cannot but help think of your audience as a market, and a market must be pleased.”
A Theatre Manifesto For Young People
It was developed following consultation with those working in the sector and is described as a “call to action” to MPs, parents, teachers and practitioners to “unify their efforts and ensure that young people have access to drama and theatre”.
New Life For Really Old Music
“Once derided in the academy as the province of musicians who weren’t good enough to play modern instruments–mastering the core 19th-century repertoire has traditionally been viewed as the pinnacle of success–historical performance is now seen as part of the continuum, appealing to modern-instrument players and specialists alike.”
If Computers Start Writing Our Music For Us, Then What Actually Is Music?
“The implications of these programs are tremendous. For musicians and audiences alike, the progress and even nature of music could be fundamentally changed. If a computer program could create new music with the push of a button, customizable to anyone’s taste and without distinct intellectual copyright issues, it would revolutionize the way music is produced and consumed in everyday life.”
Who Says Humans Are The Only Ones Who Can Compose Good Music? (How Arrogant!)
I have heard the words ‘truly original music’ many times over the years. They’re often used to suggest that humans, as opposed to anything non-human, have the ability to pull rabbits out of hats by developing completely new things, when in fact, we humans are, like everything else in the universe, combining and recombining already extant things to produce new and original things.”
Vancouver Symphony Needs $100K Or It Will Close (That’s Vancouver, Wash.)
“The symphony – the largest performing arts organization in Southwest Washington – relies on donations to cover its costs, the majority of which go toward paying its staff and musicians. But donations have slowed over the past three years, and the symphony has burned through its emergency reserves.”