Arts and Technology

From National Endowment for the Humanities: Today, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is announcing a major new research initiative, Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence. Under this agency-wide initiative, NEH will support research projects that seek to understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of artificial intelligence (AI). NEH is particularly interested in projects that explore the impacts of AI-related technologies on truth, trust, and democracy; safety and security; and privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

"Artificial intelligence is quickly transforming the way we live and work — and nonprofits are no exception. From using ChatGPT to jumpstart your grant proposals to building out responsible and secure A.I.-use policies, nonprofits are grappling with new questions on how to leverage the technology to advance their mission — while proactively navigating the risks," said Sara Herschander for Chronicle of Philanthropy. "We spoke with several A.I. experts about the promise and perils of this technology for nonprofits, and what you need to know to get started." 

From Center for Artistic Inquiry and Reporting: Since the earliest days of print journalism, illustration has been used to elucidate and add perspective to stories. Even with the advent of photography in the 19th century, hand-drawn illustrations continued to have their place, both as a synthesis of the artist’s vision and the writer’s meaning. The illustrator’s art still speaks to something not just intimately connected to the news, but intrinsically human about story itself.

Claire Riley recapped Flannel and Blade's webinar "Meta, Musk and MAGA," which gathered nearly 200 people involved with nonprofit communications. "...Our session was a response to the massive shake-ups happening in social media," said Claire. "Capitalism is cracking all over the world: people are rising up here and quiet-quitting there. AI and other technology is exploding into a cultural Renaissance, with an ever expanding division of audiences and growth of niche sub-subcultures."

"That leads us to ask: what are the biggest risks of social media, for organizations in the world today, who are trying to do good? We hope that you'll see by the end of our report-out, that sometimes even these kinds of big shake-ups can lead to silver linings."

In the latest episode of Art Restart with the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, they are joined by Trey McIntyre, "a graduate of the UNCSA School of Dance, [who] went on to the Houston Ballet Academy whereupon finishing his training, he was given the position of Choreographic Apprentice at the Ballet..."

"In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Trey discusses why and how he has always pushed himself past comfort zones in order to feed his voracious curiosity and wonders what it will take for dance companies to remain equally curious and nimble in the digital age."

Join Flannel & Blade and Catnip Comms in an expert panel discussion and open conversation, as we unpack these big and important questions. Our teams are keeping our ears to the ground, reading not only national news outlets, but also the comment sections on TikTok and diving into different subreddits. We're seeing how Twitter users who have taken flight are enjoying their migration to Mastodon to see what we can learn.

"A massive 40,000-word report on cryptocurrency that appeared on Bloomberg stirred some controversies."

"According to the article written by journalist Matt Levine, 'every web3 project is simultaneously a Ponzi scheme,' as most tokens are purchased with the purpose of selling them for a higher price, and not because the buyers want the product. According to Levine, the NFT is technologically weak, there's a general negative sentiment about the tokens, and legal grounds of ownership are concerning, considering that buying an NFT buys you a notation on the blockchain, giving you the ownership of a web server and not the token itself."

"Remember, this was before TV, and just as radio was getting off the ground. Film productions were novelty shorts in a world of vaudeville and live theatre, musicals, opera, and dance," said M L Clark for Only Sky Media. "So how did one make money as a creator? Well, in part through royalties off live performance, and in part by selling the music directly, to a market of households that usually had at least one person who could play an instrument or sing. But if someone figured out how to bypass purchasing sheet music, on a mass scale? Well, then they’d be affecting music publishers’ profits, and by extension the artists. How would creators survive, if no one was paying for their work?"

"Over the last 150 years, humanity has experienced a breakneck pace of growth, not only in science and technology, but in population and data production. How could we as a species deal with so much knowledge unless we turned to hyper-specialization? We have done that well," said Kamal Sinclair (Guild of Future Architects) for NEA. "However, we still have not understood that the potential of these specializations is limited unless we can construct robust collaborative networks across fields and disciplines. At this point, we are so hyper-specialized that we are missing critical connections for discovery, design principles in our systems development, and context for defining meaning."

From NEA: "In June 2021, the National Endowment for the Arts published Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Digital Technology as a Creative Medium. This report is the culmination of a nearly two-year research study into artists whose practices are rooted in digital technologies. Launched in partnership with the Knight Foundation and Ford Foundation, with research conducted by 8 Bridges Workshop and Dot Connector Studio, the report explores the broad spectrum of tech-centered artistic practice, as well as the networks, career paths, and hubs of activity that support this work."