Monstrous maestro: why is Cate Blanchett’s cancel culture film Tár angering so many people?; The Guardian, January 16, 2023

 Xan Brooks, The Guardian; Monstrous maestro: why is Cate Blanchett’s cancel culture film Tár angering so many people?

"Great art asks us questions. Confounding heroes do too. It’s not a film’s job to pander to our preconceptions, parrot back our opinions and reassure us that we’re right. Nor, for that matter, is a film obliged to stay in its lane and give us clearcut goodies and baddies; that simple, bogus moral structure. Fictional characters don’t have to be exemplars of anything. Cinemas, like colleges and libraries, should be physical safe spaces, but intellectual and emotional danger zones.

Books aren’t mirrors, they’re doors, as the critic Fran Lebowitz likes to say – and the same goes for films. Doors can be scary: we don’t know what’s behind them. But without opening a door, we all remain in our own silos. We miss out on a life of adventure and a world of interesting people we haven’t yet met. Some of them will appal us. Some we might quite like."

‘Maus’ Author Art Spiegelman: ‘We Are on the Brink of Fascism’; The Daily Beast, November 28, 2021

Sarah Moroz, The Daily Beast; ‘Maus’ Author Art Spiegelman: ‘We Are on the Brink of Fascism’

"“Comics are an art of communication,” Spiegelman said, standing firmly in contrast to so-called “high art.” In the past, “communicating too easily was considered commercial,” he noted, but countered simply: “I think art is anything that gives shape to your thoughts or feelings.”...

“Cartoonists are gone,” Spiegelman said. “Humor has become more and more dangerous… Pictures are dangerous.” Editors fear “different interpretations,” he lamented: “Newspapers want to keep every reader they have—so it’s better to talk to the stupid ones.” He concluded: “Every time someone says something satirical, they get cancelled.”"

Ethics of news photos in a digital world; Northern Wyoming News, November 18, 2021

KARLA POMERO, Northern Wyoming News; Ethics of news photos in a digital world

"Ethically, for a news photo there is not much you can or should manipulate. We take out some of the yellow when shooting photos in certain locations due to the overhead lighting.

If using a flash and the lighting is wrong and I get people with red eyes I will use the tool to remove the red eyes because I know those people did not have red eyes at the time I took the photo.

That’s the key in news photography. The news photo must tell the story of what was happening at that exact moment, where it was taken at that moment. You must not alter the story and altering the photo alters that story.

If you photoshop out things in the background of a photo because they may be distracting – that’s altering history, the history of that photo.

One of the students said they will combine photos to get the exact composite they want. You can do that for art. You can not do that when telling news through photos."

Kona Stories Book Store to Celebrate Banned Book Week; Big Island Now, September 21, 2019

Big Island Now; Kona Stories Book Store to Celebrate Banned Book Week

"At its heart, Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to access ideas, a fundamental right that belongs to everyone and over which no one person or small group of people should hold sway.

Banned Books Week is a celebration of books, comics, plays, art, journalism and much more. 

At Kona Stories Book Store, books have been wrapped in paper bags to disguise the title. Books are decorated with red “I read banned books” stickers and a brief description of why they are on the list.

Customers are encouraged to buy the books without knowing the titles."

What we gain from keeping books – and why it doesn’t need to be ‘joy’ ; The Guardian, January 7, 2019

Anakana Schofield, The Guardian; What we gain from keeping books – and why it doesn’t need to be ‘joy’

"The metric of objects only “sparking joy” is deeply problematic when applied to books. The definition of joy (for the many people yelling at me on Twitter, who appear to have Konmari’d their dictionaries) is: “A feeling of great pleasure and happiness, a thing that causes joy, success or satisfaction.” This is a ludicrous suggestion for books. Literature does not exist only to provoke feelings of happiness or to placate us with its pleasure; art should also challenge and perturb us.

We live in a frantic, goal-obsessed, myopic time. Everything undertaken has to have a purpose, outcome or a destination, or it’s invalid. But art doesn’t care a noodle about your Apple watch, your fitness goals, active lifestyle, right swipes, career and surrender on black pudding. Art will be around far longer than Kondo’s books remain in print. Art exists on its own terms and untidy timeline."

Illuminating the ‘Dark’ Web and Content Monitoring; New York Times, 6/24/16

Ted Loos, New York Times; Illuminating the ‘Dark’ Web and Content Monitoring:

"Eva and Franco Mattes — married Brooklyn artists and “hacktivists” — use those ideas metaphorically, peeling back the surface of what they call the “sanitized” internet to reveal its murkier side: the world of content monitoring and the elusive individuals who are tasked with tracking and removing offensive material online.

Their latest exhibition, “Abuse Standards Violations,” on view at London’s Carroll/Fletcher gallery until Aug. 27, is a journey into what Ben Vickers, a London curator at the Serpentine Galleries and fan of their work, called “the dark, morbid heart of the internet.”"