Culture Stuff
Arts & Culture
Two-thirds of online audiences viewed a new art form during COVID, according to research by Marquee TV and Indigo.
Craig Easton is among the winners at the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards for his work representing communities in northern England.
Commissioned by Arts Council England, Horizon is seeking a new generation of exciting artists for a pilot connecting performance and creative ideas at Edinburgh Festivals.
Inc Arts has built a new toolkit to help theatres and cultural organisations measure anti-racism progress.
The Crafts Council is on the lookout for a new head of public programmes.
A grey single-pixel ‘work of art’ has sold for $1.3m at Sotheby’s first NFT sale. OF COURSE IT HAS.
Design
Dezeen on the wave of small design firms moving their businesses abroad in the wake of you know what.
Baca Architects are building the world’s largest natural marine observatory in Australia in the shape of a whale. All kriller, no filler.
The logo for the 2026 Winter Olympics has been unveiled. Not Christmassy enough for me.
Theatre & Dance
Leeds Playhouse is marking the big 5-0 with dramas from the likes of Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake on how life has changed in Leeds since the 70s.
The Guardian on top theatres, including the Young Vic and Royal Court, acting to root out the ‘system failure’ of racism in the industry.
Manchester’s Home is set to open a 400-seat temporary outdoor theatre, Homeground, next to its main venue.
Classical Music & Opera
Violinist Nicola Benedetti has been named as BBC Music Mag’s personality of the year.
The orchestra of the Phantom of the Opera is to be cut by 50% to just 14 players when it returns to the West End.
Tourism & Heritage
A high status Roman villa has been discovered near Scarborough – the first of its kind found in the world, too. Already booked up on Airbnb. Just checked.
Museums
Unesco has issued a list of recommendations to help museums bounce back after a report on the impact of COVID.
Books, Press & Libraries
English publishers now boast more than 23m digital news subscriptions between them, according to Press Gazette stats.
Facebook is rolling out a local news section through Facebook News for us lot in the UK.
Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell has issued an open letter to the Prime Minister to ringfence £100m a year for primary school libraries.
Exhibitions and Events
Edinburgh International Festival is BACK for the month of August, with massive marquees and shorter shows.
Illuminated River, the art installation transforming nine bridges along the Thames at night, is now complete.
Brighton Fringe has set out plans for a hybrid festival in May, with a programme of both in-person and digital shows.
The Art Newspaper with its pick of the best gallery shows to see in London as lockdown tentatively lifts.
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A whole host of wonderful works from Rebellion Publishing have been shortlisted for the 2021 Hugo Awards – the premier awards for the science fiction genre. Woo.
A deep dive here from CG Channel into how the Evil Genius 2 cinematic trailer made its way to our screens.
You can now get your mitts on Rebellion’s first thrilling foray into film School’s Out Forever on DVD or Blu-ray. Or get the Scott K. Andrews eBook which kicked it all off.
Interesting watch here from the Rebellion team on what it’s really like working in the games industry.
Homegrown British superheroes The Vigilant have been reimagined for a new generation via the Treasury of British Comics.
TIGA have announced that two games courses at Sheffield Hallam University have achieved TIGA accreditation.
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Creative Industries & Tech Stuff
Film & TV
Promising Young Woman (5*) and Nomadland (2.5*) were the big winners at the BAFTAs last weekend.
Europe now watches more TV than America, according to figures from Glance. Eat THAT.
The late Chadwick Boseman is to be honoured in an upcoming Netflix documentary about his life and career.
Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford are among those who will be dishing out Oscars later this month. Were you busy, Ed?
Eat my goal. David Beckham is to join Disney+ for a new grassroots footie show.
Fashion
Footfall is up 225.2% in UK shopping centres and 176.1% on high streets this week, according to Springboard data. Mainly me sprinting around to find a barbers.
Nike is trialling a ‘sneaker refurbishment programme’ in the US to try and cut down on shoes ending up in landfill.
Oh cool. A virtual hoodie you can’t wear selling for £19,000 as an NFT. Cool. Super cool. Cool.
Music & Radio
Rap and hip-hop now accounts for well over a fifth of all UK singles consumption – a six-fold increase in 20 years, according to a new BPI report.
Arlo Parks and Headie One are also set to perform at the BRITs next month and this year’s Mercury Prize will be with us in September.
Help Musicians is to expand its Music Minds Matter service with the support of PPL.
Sony Music has announced seven new organisations that will receive funding from its UK Social Justice Fund.
Spotify has revealed a surge in dance music streams over the past 12 months. Big box, little box, cardboard fish.
Mick Jagger has released a pandemic-themed solo track, Easy Sleazy, about the boredom of lockdown. Features Dave Grohl, too. I feel ya, Mick.
Gaming
The number of gamers in the 55-64 age bracket has risen by a third since 2018, so says GamesIndustry.biz.
And gamers also stream music at double the average rate, according to MIDiA research.
Streamer Ludwig Ahgren has broken the Twitch record after broadcasting live for 31 days straight. Healthy.
Tech & Telecoms
Bitcoin hit a record high of $63,000 this week – and trading platform Coinbase hit a market value of nearly $100bn on its stock market debut.
And China is creating its own digital currency – a first for a major economy.
A planned update to the NHS COVID app has been paused after Apple and Google blocked it for privacy violations.
Proposed EU regulations of AI will ban the use facial recognition for surveillance.
Microsoft Iooks set to buy Nuance, the AI speech tech firm behind Siri, for $20bn.
Ireland is investigating whether Facebook broke GDPR rules.
Insightful read from Chris Yiu of the Tony Blair Institute on why the public has a right to digital government services built around them.
You can now time travel on Google Earth. Not actually, though. Would probably at least lead this section if that was the case.
NASA’s next lunar rover mission, VIPER, will run open-source software. I’m going to make it play Crazy Frog constantly.
A monkey has been taught to play Pong with its mind using Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Makes you wonder what Bill Gates has planned for us.
Android is launching a new ‘heads up’ feature to stop people staring at their phones while on the move. Ha! It’s not like there’s any chance of walking into anyth
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Appointments & Movers
Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane is leaving to become chief exec of the RSA; Tate’s Maria Balshaw has been appointed as chair of the National Museum Directors’ Council; Ian Moss will be new CEO of Radiocentre; Marcus Ryder has taken up a full-time post at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity; Adrian Vinken is stepping down as CEO of Theatre Royal Plymouth after 31 years; Davina Mallinckrodt will be the new chair of Cockpit Arts; Gerry Cornelius has been appointed as music director for the English Touring Opera; New Look has appointed Ed Alford in the new role of chief tech officer; BioSuit inventor Dava Newman will be the new director of MIT Media Lab
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Ed Stuff
Appointed as chair of the advisory board for Digital Futures; popped up on ITV’s Peston discussing the Culture War and lobbying; talked contested heritage on The Culture Bar podcast from Harrison Parrott; whispers of Ed being ‘in the running’ for the Ofcom chair role from Bloomberg and City AM…
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...And Finally
Imagine going back 30 years and telling everyone that, NO, we don’t have hoverboards, but, YES, we do have robot dogs that can ‘pee beer’ on demand.
Let me paint the scene. Dulux becomes Spurs’ official paint sponsor (there’s more)… they then mock the club on Twitter… and are forced to apologise. And that, dear readers, is an emulsional rollercoaster.
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