“There was a time when the entertainment industry believed it could stop digital thieves like the Coles with copy-protection software that prevented duplication and dissemination. Commercially released movies have contained copy-encryption software since the fledgling days of VHS. Modern DVDs feature a patented Content-Scrambling System (CSS) that prevents them from being copied using standard burner software. But for all it does to stop piracy, CSS may as well not exist.”
Tag: 09.07.06
No Bureaucracy Required
Arts groups in New York have begun to despair of ever being granted their promised role at a rebuilt Ground Zero, but one Manhattan theatre company isn’t waiting for the politicians to nix their contribution. “An experimental multimedia and theater company, 3-Legged Dog was located at Fiterman Hall, next to 7 World Trade Center, before the 9/11 attack destroyed its space.” This week, the company opened “the new 3LD Art and Technology Center, a 12,500-square-foot warren of theaters and offices,” just down the block from its old space.
But They Draw The Line At The Oil Portrait Of Mr. T
Score one more fight for that ultimate underdog, Rocky. “The 8-foot bronze statue of the fictional film character won another fight yesterday – over its own meaning and worth – when [Philadelphia’s] Art Commission voted 6-2 to move the statue to a patch of lawn near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Supporters maintained that the statue had stood the test of time and had become a beloved symbol of inspiration for Rocky fans. The two opponents felt the statue was unnecessary at that location – the museum steps themselves provided the magic and inspiration.”
KC Music Director Pulls Out Of Season Opener
“Conductor Michael Stern will miss the opening concerts of his second season as the Kansas City Symphony’s music director. The orchestra announced yesterday afternoon that Stern has withdrawn from this weekend’s performances due to the expected birth of his first child… Filling in for Stern will be David Robertson, the widely-admired American conductor who begins his own second season at the helm of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra September 23-24.”
Parsing Katie’s Theme
Lost amid all the armchair quarterbacking of Katie Couric’s debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News is the fact that a new orchestral theme for the program also made its debut this week. Such a detail may seem unimportant on its face, but “viewers have come to rely on music to explain what it is they are feeling — something CBS, like all contemporary broadcasters, is well aware of.”
Pompidou Takes Responsibility For Damaged Artwork
How did the Pompidou Museum damage an artwork from a show of Los Angeles art last spring? A museum investigation assigns the blame: “A restorer was called in to glue the metal ring in place, but her instructions to let the glue set for 24 hours were ‘misinterpreted’ by a Pompidou employee who hung the work that same day. It fell from the wall that night.”
Pompidou Offers To Pay To Recreate Damaged Art
The museum has contacted the artists “to see if they would be interested in remaking the works as they are reproducible in the technical sense. We would, of course, assume the costs of the study and the fabrication.”
The 9/11 Images That Won’t Go Away
So many piectures of 9/11. But how to make sense of it? “The technology exists to allow people to spend the rest of their lives re-creating that day, taking it apart minute-by-minute and trying to put it back together again. It is now buildings that rapidly disappear, while digital storage and retrieval of information offers the promise of images that don’t fade and countless opportunities for enhancement, editing and playback of an experience.”
Met’s Massive New Media Deal
The Metropolitan Opera’s wide-ranging new deal with its unions (the flashiest aspect of which will see the company simulcasting six performances in digitally equipped movie theaters across the country) will also allow for “the possibility of digital downloads, video-on-demand, digital radio, ring tones, CDs, DVDs and instant CDs available after certain performances. One hundred additional live performances will be broadcast either over the Internet or on digital radio, with another 1,500 broadcasts from the past 75 years — the Met’s entire recorded history — to be made available soon through an audio-on-demand service.”
A 3D Castiglione
As a promotion for a show of art from the Louvre in Atlanta, animators have created 3D images of some of the art for a TV spot. “Most contemporary artists wouldn’t allow their work to be doctored but because the Louvre pieces are hundreds of years old, ‘we had a little more freedom’.”