University of Copenhagen: ChatGPT promotes American norms and values. “ChatGPT, the revolutionary new AI chatbot, reflects American norms and values – even when queried about other countries and cultures. The mismatch has been demonstrated in research from the University of Copenhagen. The AI spun web of cultural bias is a major problem according to the study’s researchers.”
Oxford University: Online arts and culture engagement can have a positive impact on young people’s mental health: Oxford study. “Researchers found a link between engaging in online arts and culture and mental health, with participants in both trial groups reporting a reduction in psychological distress at the end of the pilot study, despite the pilot study being conducted at a time of increased Covid restrictions.”
BBC: Ukraine to ban music by some Russians in media and public spaces. “Ukraine’s parliament has voted in favour of banning some Russian music in media and public spaces. The ban will not apply to all Russian music, but rather relates to music created or performed by those who are or were Russian citizens after 1991. Artists who have condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine can apply for an exemption from the ban.”
Spotted via lots of mentions that I could not resolve into an article link: Festivals from India. From the About page: “Festivals From India is an India-UK initiative made possible by the British Council. The digital platform is designed to showcase hundreds of arts and culture festivals across artforms, locations and languages. Whether you love attending festivals, are a festival manager, supplier, sponsor, advertiser, volunteer or just a curious cultural carnivore, Festivals from India is here to help.”
Washington Post: Global Hunt For Looted Treasures Leads To Offshore Trusts. “When the United States indicted [alleged artifact trafficker Douglas] Latchford in 2019, it seemed at last that hundreds of stolen items he had traded might be identified and returned: Prosecutors demanded the forfeiture of ‘any and all property’ derived from his illicit trade over four decades. But then the 88-year-old Latchford died before trial, leaving unresolved a tantalizing question: What happened to all the money and looted treasures? The answer lies, at least in part, in previously undisclosed records describing secret offshore companies and trusts that Latchford and his family controlled.”
Google Blog: Explore our planet’s most unique places and cultures. “Our physical world is changing faster than ever. Climate change and global socio-economic shifts are threatening our magnificent natural landscapes and disrupting small communities. In keeping with this, there is value to be found in confronting and documenting our at-risk environment. For World Photography Day, we invite you to explore A World of Difference, a new online exhibition on Google Arts & Culture offering a perspective of these diverse stories through the lens of Italian photographer Angelo Chiacchio, in collaboration with Art Works for Change.”
Google Blog: Culture needs us, as much as we need culture. “On the occasion of World Heritage Day, UNESCO, Google Arts & Culture and our international partners are joining forces to promote access to and education around cultural and natural heritage through a new online resource, Explore UNESCO World Heritage. This is a unique opportunity to enjoy a virtual globetrotting tour of cultural landmarks and outstanding places of natural beauty, as well as to access accurate and reliable information on sites of outstanding universal value.”
Net Nebraska: Do ‘Tight’ Cultures Fare Better In The Pandemic Than ‘Loose’ Cultures?. “Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that some countries have had few cases and fewer deaths per capita. The U.S. has had 152 deaths per 100,000 people, for example, versus .03 in Burundi and .04 in Taiwan. There are many reasons for these differences among countries, but a study in The Lancet Planetary Health published last month suggests that a key factor may be cultural.”
Pittsburgh City Paper: The Andy Warhol Museum showcases young voices with Gen-Z Time Capsule project. “Andy Warhol made collecting things part of his work, eventually turning the practice into Time Capsules, a project where he filled and taped up boxes with items from his daily life. Those boxes – containing an estimated 500,000 objects – are being opened and cataloged by The Andy Warhol Museum staff, giving insight to the Pittsburgh-born artist’s process and eccentricities. In honor of this project, The Warhol launched Gen-Z Time Capsule, an effort calling on young people born between 1997-2012 to submit photos of objects they believe best represent their generation’s experience.”
Museums+Heritage: V&A launches ‘world’s largest and most accessible’ cultural heritage preservation database. “Launched as part of the V&A’s ongoing Culture in Crisis programme, the Museum’s new free-to-access Culture in Crisis Portal is claimed to be the world’s largest and most accessible database of cultural heritage preservation projects.” The V&A in this case is the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Ancient History Encyclopedia: Interview: UNESCO Archives Digitization Project. “Ancient History Encyclopedia has partnered with the UNESCO Archives, which we are very excited about. Our mission aligns very much with UNESCO, wanting to bring about peace and international understanding to the world through cultural heritage and education. We sat down with Mr. Adam Cowling, the Digitization Project Manager to talk about their project and where it is headed. What they do in their archives is absolutely fascinating.”
JTA: The Jewish Food Society wants to preserve your grandma’s recipes — before they’re lost forever. “Ayala Hodak usually cooks the way her mother taught her: adding a pinch of spice here or relying on her eyes — never a measuring cup! — to judge how much liquid to add. But on a recent Tuesday, she was being much more meticulous. Her reason for the precision: Hodak’s recipe was being recorded by a new nonprofit, the Jewish Food Society, which aims to be an archive of Jewish recipes from around the world.”
BBC World Service: The 85-year-old woman who wants to collect every recipe in the world. “Harvard Food Historian Barbara Ketcham-Wheaton is trying to collect every cookbook ever published in Europe and the U.S. in order to compile an online digital database of recipes she’s calling The Sifter. Her ultimate goal is to gather recipes from all over the world in the hope it will reveal the global patterns in cooking over time. She talks to the BBC’s Emily Thomas.” This is audio-only, to which I do not usually link, but it’s glorious, so I’m breaking my own rule.
New-to-me, the online New Zealand Fashion Museum. “The online museum brings together a record of the national collection of fashion objects held both in public and private collections, as well as providing a digital home for the pop-up exhibitions and a vehicle for exclusive online exhibitions, such as the current offering, Flash Back, which features the work of 18 fashion photographers working in New Zealand between 1930-2015, showcasing the ways they have contributed to the development and articulation of a unique New Zealand identity.”
Library of Congress: Remix, Slang and Memes: A New Collection Documents Web Culture. “The Library of Congress just announced the release of the Web Cultures Web Archive Collection, a representative sampling of websites documenting the creation and sharing of emergent cultural traditions on the web…. Archived from the web starting in 2014, the new—and growing—collection of collaborative cultural creation includes reaction GIFs (animated images, often bodies in motion, used online as responses or reactions to previous posts in a communication thread); image macros (photographic images on which a funny caption is superimposed); and memes (in this context, internet phenomena).”
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