An innovative virtual reality project created by National Geographic Explorers in collaboration with local communities was recognized with the “Best in Category: Visualize” during the XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change earlier this month. The project, “Qikiqtaruk: Arctic at Risk” was selected for the award from across 150 submissions at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa...
Art & Style
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Helping Define the Impact of “Art” in Education
Growing up, Brian Kisida always enjoyed going to school. He especially enjoyed the broad spectrum of subjects he was able to explore, including the arts. Now, as an assistant professor in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, he is researching the relationship between arts education and student success. Over the...
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AI Helped Create ‘Last Beatles Record,’ Paul Mccartney Says
Artificial intelligence has been used to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to create “the last Beatles record,” Paul McCartney said Tuesday. McCartney, 80, told the BBC that the technology was used to separate the Beatles’ voices from background sounds during the making of director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series, “The Beatles: Get...
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Tacita Dean on Turning Her Hand to Costume and Set Design for the Dante Project
Artists don’t just make art: They venture far and wide. And few of these forays have been more fruitful than when they take them to the stage. The history of painters and sculptors designing sets and costumes for opera and dance is exceptionally rich. Impresario extraordinaire Sergei Diaghilev set the tone at the turn of...
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West Side Story in Chicago– Always a Treat
West Side Story is certainly one of the most beloved American musicals. The catchy and propulsive songs, the energetic dances, the moving story which is at turns humorous, romantic and painful, all contribute to its massive success as a crowd pleaser. Even though most showgoers know that the story ends with tragic notes, many continue...
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Towards ‘General Artistic Intelligence’?
Geoffrey Hinton, the ‘Godfather of AI,’ recently predicted that so-called general artificial intelligence could emerge within 20 years. This term refers to a hypothetical future AI that can perform any cognitive task that a human can. This statement begs the question: how long will it take before we see the emergence of general artistic intelligence? And what should...
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How I Became an Artist: Hoda Kashiha
‘I was always interested in painting. As a teenager, in the early 2000s, I attended a government-led cultural institution for the intellectual development of youths, with campuses throughout Iran. Several great Iranian filmmakers and artists came out of it. Our teacher told us about a book called Drawing Method Vol.1 (1974) written by the Iranian artist Mohsen Vaziri-Moghaddam....
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Where Art and Terror Collide
Meet the alleged money-laundering, sanctions-evading Lebanese collector with a penchant for expensive art, blood diamonds, and, possibly, Hezbollah Little is known about Nazem Said Ahmad, the Lebanese businessman and high-profile collector, but one thing that’s certain is that he has liberal tastes in art, bought a lot of it, and wasn’t quiet about it. Before...
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‘The Diplomat’ Negotiates Expectations – and Myths – About Gender, Power and Politics
Few people would have predicted that a loquacious drama about a woman foreign service professional would have been Netflix’s next big hit. But everyone is talking about “The Diplomat” – for good reason. The series, starring Keri Russell as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, debuted at No. 1 on the streaming charts. Critics...
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Hollywood Writers Strike: AI Concerns, Industry Consequences
Hollywood screenwriters have gone on strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) seeks higher pay, upfront fees from streaming services, better working conditions and reassurance that studios won’t use artificial intelligence programs to generate scripts. The last WGA strike, 15 years ago, led to permanent changes in the entertainment landscape, such as the rise of...
