“For many years the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, a part of the Smithsonian museum empire, has been identity-free. The Hirshhorn has never equaled the National Gallery of Art’s prestige and has never become as beloved as the Phillips. It’s long been a humdrum museum bunkered in an abominable Gordon Bunshaft building, with a so-so collection and a so-so exhibition schedule. Still, the Hirshhorn has always had great promise…”
Tag: 08.25.03
Why Written Languages Die Out
“In the first study of its kind, three experts in the study of written language have described the common characteristics that caused three famous scripts – ancient Egyptian, Middle Eastern cuneiform and pre-Columbian Mayan – to disappear. ‘Thousands of languages have come and gone, and we’ve studied that process for years. But throughout history, maybe 100 writing systems have ever existed. We should know more about why they disappear’.”
Scottish Theatre On The Rocks
Scottish theatre is in disastrous shape, “haemorrhaging some of its greatest talents to better-funded companies in England. Its great companies are lurching from one catastrophe to the next, and a long dreamed of national theatre, which was meant to symbolise the reawakening of a new, dynamic Scottish identity, has slid into limbo.
Theatres are only producing half the work they did in 1990. That this impoverishment has come at a time when Scotland has produced the most exciting generation of playwrights in a century” is a tragedy.
The Art Of Self-Driving Cars
Toyota plans this fall to unveil a car that parks itself. Journalists who have test-driven the car report it works. “Self-driving systems have been in research laboratories for years. Automotive experts expect the car to make splashy headlines when Toyota officially unveils it to the public next month. It will initially be offered as a high-end feature for the $20,000 Prius, a model that uses an electric motor to assist a gasoline engine to conserve fuel.”
Record Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival attracted record audiences this year. “On the final day of the three-week arts festival, organisers said 1,184,738 tickets had been sold, which represented a 21% increase on 2002 when 975,110 were sold. Income rose to £9,386,003, compared to £7,688,113 last year. The festival offered 21,000 performances of 1,541 shows in 207 venues.”
MIA – Public School Arts Programs
“As they head back to the classrooms in coming weeks, kids may find their favorite part of school cut or reduced. The culprit, some educators and arts advocates say, is a combination of historic fiscal crises in the states and new federal standards stressing academic basics. Some critics say that if school officials cut unnecessary overhead costs they wouldn’t have to touch academic programs and activities.”
Keep Art Alive
A California state legislator writes of his fight to keep arts funding alive in California: “We are truly at a turning point in the relationship between government and the arts. I had one of the hardest fights of my life this year to prevent the legislature from eliminating the California Arts Council entirely. Not just defunding it, but eliminating it from the state. I have no idea how or why this proposal came about, but it was made and it very nearly happened — California almost became the first state in the nation to abolish all public funding of the arts. As it is, we will continue to fund the arts, but at a level that is the lowest in the nation. Lower than Mississippi. Lower than Alabama. Lower than North Dakota. The state’s General Fund, which last year gave the California Arts Council about $18 million, will now fund it at $1 million. We will thus be spending less than 3 cents per capita on the arts. For comparison, the national average is $1.00 per capita. The math on that is fairly easy — California spends about 3% of the national average on the arts.”
The Old Blind Violin Side-By-Side Comparison Test
Audience members at a concert will be asked to judge between a Strad and a modern instrument. “At the concert on 15 September, a Nagyvary violin, built in six weeks earlier this year, and the $4 million Rochester Stradivarius, built in 1720 by Antonio Stradivari, will each be played behind a screen by violinist Dalibor Karvay. Audience members will attempt to distinguish between the two, and at intermission their guesses will be tallied up.”
Florida Philharmonic – Autopsy For The Future
Can the bankrupt Florida Philharmonic be restarted? Perhaps – but a new model is needed. “Clearly what we did did not work. A different business model needs to be considered. Whatever is decided to be done, you’ve got to be put on good financial footing to begin with, with the money down before you build anything. That was never done with this orchestra.”
Is It Live Or Is It… “Auto-Tuned”?
“Pop stars and punk bands alike are piping their voices through the hardware, which corrects and improves their vocal pitch during concerts and on records. With musicians on the road touring for weeks on end, the autotuner has become a safety net that catches the occasional clinker on days when their voices may be off. (In a nutshell, the autotuner is told what key the vocal is in and analyzes the wave form in real time. If the singer is off-key, it will adjust the pitch to the closest note in that key.)”