Says Rafael Herrin-Ferri, who has been photographing the houses of the New York City borough for five years, “I have always been interested in houses and was impressed by how idiosyncratic – and unorthodox – the low-rise housing stock is. They express the personal preferences and cultural backgrounds of their owners without much regard for what is ‘correct,’ marketable, or fashionable.”
Tag: 12.12.17
Did A Tourist In Bethlehem Just Get A Photo Of Banksy?
“Is the secretive street artist Banksy actually a fedora-sporting middle-aged white guy who dresses ‘inconspicuous’ when he goes out stenciling? That certainly seems to be the case if the photo snapped by 24-year-old British tourist Jason Stellios and published by the Daily Mail is to be believed.”
Why Write Fiction In The Age Of Endless Story?
“As much as we carp about the increasing digitization of our lives, this isn’t really a new problem. Writing required cord-cutting long before the computer. It’s an act of refusal, of relinquishment, and of retreat, a decision to turn away from the world and its noise of possibilities, to chase instead a signal down the quiet of a page. That work—the deep, sustained kind that yields poems and essays and fiction—can only happen in solitude, and in silence. And that’s the trouble.”
What Is “Culture” Anymore? The Answers Are Surprising
“The study found that more than a third of art museum-goers did not think art museums were a cultural experience, and over half of theatergoers felt the same. Audiences were more likely to consider a street fair or exotic food and drink a cultural experience than opera or ballet. Eighty-one percent of respondents said they attend cultural events for fun, while “interest in content” and “experiencing new things” ranked second and third.”
Merriam-Webster’s 2017 Word Of The Year: ‘Feminism’
Beating out Dictionary.com’s more disheartening choice, “complicit”, “feminism” saw searches spike by 70% over last year – thanks to the Women’s March, #MeToo, and (we’re afraid so) Kellyanne Conway.
Lewis Manilow, Chicago Arts Philanthropist, Dead At 90
By profession an attorney and real estate developer, he was a co-founder of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and led the effort to move the Goodman Theatre into a building of its own, anchoring a “theatre row” in the North Loop.
No Humans Were Used In The Making Of This Art (Do We Care?)
“The technologies underlying this shift will soon push us into new creative realms, amplifying the capabilities of today’s artists and elevating amateurs to the level of seasoned pros. We will search for new definitions of creativity that extend the umbrella to the output of machines. But this boom will have a dark side, too. Some AI-generated content will be used to deceive, kicking off fears of an avalanche of algorithmic fake news. Old debates about whether an image was doctored will give way to new ones about the pedigree of all kinds of content, including text. You’ll find yourself wondering, if you haven’t yet: What role did humans play, if any, in the creation of that album/TV series/clickbait article?”
The Stunning Speed That Artificial Intelligence Is Mastering Problems
How did AlphaZero teach itself? The rules of the games were programmed into the system. Then, AlphaZero started to play itself. The more it played itself, the better it became. Over a few hours, it learned to play the games better than the games had ever been played.
How Netflix Became The Best TV Network
While several networks gave us plenty of quality programming this year, including HBO, FX, and others, no other U.S.-based streaming service, broadcast or cable network released more terrific scripted TV shows this year than Netflix did. None.
Tibet’s Languages Are Disappearing, Says Researcher
The Tibetan Plateau is home to more than a dozen distinct local tongues, many of which come with their own elaborate character systems. Unfortunately, thanks to the growth of internet infrastructure and state-sponsored education, many of these lesser-spoken languages are now on the brink of extinction.