In all the news reports of record-breaking crowds gathering to recreate Thriller’s signature dance sequence from beginning to end, I’ve heard no mention of Michael Peters, who choreographed Thriller with Michael Jackson.
Michael Peters was an award winning choreographer, winning Tonys and Emmys for his work, including choreography for Donna Summer’s Love to Love You Baby, [...]

For The Wall Street Journal, David Byrne talks about his version of a perfect city.
There’s an old joke that you know you’re in heaven if the cooks are Italian and the engineering is German. If it’s the other way around you’re in hell.
Read more from The Wall Street Journal: A Talking Head Dreams of a [...]

The Computer Chronicles series ran for 20 years, covering the new and ever-changing world of computers for a broad audience.
In 1987, they presented a show titled Computers and the Arts.

The New York Times explores the “global movement is hacking, subverting and critiquing the hardware, software, content, visuals — even the philosophy of the wired world.”
This work is created using and hacking the very same technologies and methods it is often commenting on.
Examples include

Hacking Nintendo cartridges to create new games, music and video art
Subversion and [...]

Seed Magazine investigates the blind spots of science’s latest frontiers, and how the limits of scientific method and unbiased observation are holding us back.
…before we can unravel these mysteries, our sciences must get past their present limitations. How can we make this happen? My answer is simple: Science needs the arts. We need [...]

A great look at a film detail often overlooked, but very important to a sci-fi film’s greatness… the design of hallways.
From Den of Geek, In Praise of the Sci-fi Corridor:

Corridors make science-fiction believable, because they’re so utilitarian by nature – really they’re just a conduit to get from one (often overblown) set to another. [...]

From the Economic History Blog:
with the establishment of formal training for artists and salon system for exhibiting, painters began arriving on the market in numbers that could never satisfied by existing means of distribution (mainly the salon). This produced an ever burgeoning Artist Proletariat who constantly sought out new methods of retailing art.
Read more: How [...]

This isn’t intended to be a partisan blog… I wanted to link to each of the candidate’s positions on The Arts. I could only find a position on Barack Obama’s site, so that’s what I’m linking to. If anyone has links to information about Hillary Clinton’s or John McCain’s positions on the [...]

Richard Florida’s latest book, Who’s Your City?, has a lot of interesting ideas. It is a continuation of his work which started with the often quoted, celebrated and vilified Rise of the Creative Class.
In essence, the original book argues that economic greatness in any given place depends on the place’s ability to attract creative [...]

In this post I pondered whether dolphins blowing bubble rings were a form of art.  After all they serve no purpose except aesthetic ones – the dolphins are having fun and stare at them.  So now we have this video of an elephant painting a self portrait.
Whether methodically trained to do this or not, how is it [...]

In this video of dolphins blowing rings and playing with them, you can’t help but notice they themselves look at them in wonder like some people look at art, and interact with them in interesting ways that lack any real purpose.  Some definitions of art boil it down to objects or performances created with no [...]

Heidelberg University in Germany has solved the long asked question “who is the Mona Lisa?”
In margin notes of a book by Cicero, Florentine city official Agostino Vespucci, a friend of Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa was identifiend as Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant.
More from The New York Times and ABC News.

In Bethlehem, artists from all over the world, including local artists, have been making art on the barrier wall separating Israel and Palestine.
Video from the BBC:

Read more from
The Washington Times
National Public Radio

Support for the filmmakers…
Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Last week, David Byrne interviewed Thom Yorke of Radiohead for Wired, about their battle with record companies and their ultimate decision to produce and distribute their own music. This was punctuated a few months ago by releasing their latest album, In Rainbows, through their own site, and allowed fans to name their own price [...]