Arts
Historic Orchestra Faces Bankruptcy
The 111-year-old Philadelphia Orchestra is facing the possibility of bankruptcy even though it has assets that outweigh its debts. If the vote goes through it would be the first big US orchestra to take this extreme measure. They are planning to mount a campaign to raise $160 million in their biggest ever fundraising drive. But [...]
Nose to Tail Tattooing
Here’s a night class I’d like to try… Will Smith went to a tattoo parlour in London’s East End to be taught how to tattoo by world-class tattoo artist Mo Coppoletta. Wisely banned from trying his inept hand at tattooing a real person, he’s given a hunk of pig skin to practice on (much as [...]
Little Magic Stories – Interactive Holograms
Chris O’Shea is an installation artist who has designed a holographic projection system with the aim of encouraging computer savvy kids to gain confidence in drawing and telling their own stories on stage. The kids draw props and characters which then float alongside them and react to their movements in real time. The system uses [...]
The Art of Video Games: Smithsonian, 16th March – 30th September, 2012
The Smithsonian Museum is staging an exhibition dedicated to the history and evolution of video games from the Atari VCS to PlayStation 3, and from early developers like Carol Shaw to current designers such as Kellee Santiago. It also explores how video games have influenced, and been influenced by contemporary history and pop culture. Until [...]
Black at Sundance
According to NPR, the 2011 Sundance festival was an outstanding one for black filmmakers, where there were more films by, or about, black people than at any time in the history of the festival, which started in 1978. Shari Frilot, senior programmer at Sundance, attributes it to filmmaking becoming less elitist and equipment more accessible, [...]
Asda Dating
Walking down the the aisle with your beau takes on a new meaning when the aisles are stocked with potatoes and floor cleaner. Supermarket chain Asda has launched a new online dating website, claiming that “the supermarket has overtaken the pub and the internet as the nation’s number 1 spot to find love”, and that [...]
Punchdrunk in Chelsea
Punchdrunk the imaginative London-based immersive theatre company has upped sticks for NYC, and set up home in an abandoned hotel in Chelsea. The McKittrick Hotel was built to be New York’s most luxurious hotel, but it was closed down 2 days after the start of WWII (and six weeks before it opened). Now it’s home [...]
No Right Brain Left Behind
No Right Brain Left Behind is an innovation challenge designed to give US children the creative tools they need to solve modern-day problems. Run in conjunction with Social Media Week 2011, creatives from ad agencies, design and innovation companies had five days to come up with ideas and submit them to the No Right Brain [...]
Are Copy Editors Becoming Extinct?
Has commerce and marketing taken priority over careful crafting and editing of books? It’s a question asked, and discussed at length, by Alex Clark (and some more by the many people leaving comments). Rather inevitably, there appears to be an error the text that hasn’t been picked up by the copy editor. Can you spot [...]
Fantastic Factology for the London 2012 Olympics
Fantastic Factology has been gathering facts from the public about “surprising things in life” – the best will be engraved onto plaques sited on benches around the 2012 London Olympic site, which will (hopefully) be visited by “generations of future visitors”. You can see some of the facts on the Fantastic Factology website. It seems [...]
