Smartphones for Carmen. Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing arts plans to use smartphone technology to allow their audience to follow the French narrative of “Carmen” in English from their smartphones, tablets or Google Glass in their upcoming July 25 performance. This will be the first large-scale demonstration of the new arts technology and CEO Arvind Manocha hopes that this will open new possibilities for “second-screen” experiences for opera and also dance, rock concerts or other programs.

Musical Scores in Japanese Skylines.  Artist Koski Kawachi converts mountain ranges and cityscapes into musical scores using the skyline’s critical points so that people can literally “hear” the shape of the environment.   Kawachi created the score you can hear here (homonyms are so cool, aren’t they?) for a recent exhibit at the 500m Museum in Sapporo, Japan.  The score is played on a tonkori – a string instrument indigenous to the island.

Royalties for Artists.  Congress is considering the American Royalties Too (A.R.T.) Act, a bill which would give artists a 5% cut of the profits when their works are resold at auction.  Unlike authors and composers, American artists get no cut of future sales because copyright law protects published works and a work of  art is not “published,” just made and sold.   Currently, 70 other countries recognize the basic right of artists to claim royalties including the European Union who standardized the right in 2001.  Slate did a great analysis of the bill and gave several examples of bands and songwriters who have greatly benefited from royalties because their songs did not become popular until long after their release.  Of course my mind went straight to the scene in the movie Inside Llewyn Davis where the title character signs away his rights to royalties in exchange for a paycheck that he can cash immediately (Side note: if you love Folk music, Inside Llewyn Davis is a must see and I dare you not to chuckle during the scene I just referenced.  I had to rewind when I first watched it because I was laughing so hard at the song Osacar Isaac, Adam Driver, and Justin Timberlake are singing).    Unless you are Llewyn Davis, the prospect of royalties give authors and composers a huge incentive to perform well and invest in their music in order to potentially reap the benefits of the popularity of the music.  Furthermore, as the Slate article points out, there is a strong argument to be made on the grounds of fairness that the artist who sold his/her work for pennies only to learn that the same piece sold for significantly more at auction be given a small percentage of that re-sale.

New York Arts Education Funding.  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced last Tuesday a plan to put $23 million toward hiring 120 new arts teachers and new resources for the arts in public schools across the city.  The announcement comes on the tail end of a study that found 28% of city schools fail to employ even one full-time arts teacher.  City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer stated during the announcement: “Every child deserves the opportunity to pick up a paint brush, dance at a recital, play an instrument, and create a work of art that they can call their own.”  I couldn’t agree more.  As I continue to say, I don’t know where I would be now if I wasn’t given the access to arts that I had as a child.