The cultural dollar is tight. Why spend taxpayers’ money on mounting Wagner operas rather than – say – erecting a mile-high statue of Kyle Sandilands on the moon warning alien civilisations what to expect…
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Australia wants to foster innovation in a digital economy, but our copyright laws discourage businesses from investing in new technologies and make it harder for individuals to access the knowledge upon…
In the pre-internet, pre-“Cool Japan” era, Yoko Ono was arguably the most famous Japanese person outside of Japan – and she’s about to get more famous in Australia. Ono’s life and work is the subject of…
Four cinemas in Sweden recently pledged to rate films based on whether they pass what is known as the “Bechdel test,” a means of evaluating gender bias in film, named after American graphic artist Alison…
“The world’s most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does.” That’s how John Lennon once described Yoko Ono. It’s a description that would be less apt now. Today…
Only a quarter of a century ago, art museums in Australia were generally thought of as stately enterprises authoritatively disseminating knowledge of high culture to respectful devotees. That was reflected…
It’s intelligent. It’s left-wing. It’s pathbreaking. It’s non-commercial. It’s fiercely autonomous and it has loyal readers. Arena is the kind of media entity that, in the world of Rupert Murdoch and Tony…
There’s more than one reason the new Australian film Patrick – released last month – is a horror story. Sure, it’s a fright flick, based on the 1978 orginal, in which a creepy coma patient uses telekinesis…
Denmark’s award-winning cultural export, Borgen, is back on our screens for a second series following the fortunes of its fictional female Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg. Denmark need never resort to hard…
Recently on The Conversation, [Julian Meyrick asked](http://theconversation.com/does-australia-get-culture-18327](http://theconversation.com/does-australia-get-culture-18327) why Australians didn’t get…
What makes one space adorable and engaging? What makes another unfriendly and inhospitable? You might think that after two millennia of architectural discourse, we’d have ready answers. And not just answers…
The Sydney Intercultural Film Festival, which opens this week, is the most ambitious new film festival to hit Sydney this year. It represents a major departure from the conventions of film festivals…
We are now about half way through the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, the much-hyped TV spin off from the enormously successful 2012 superhero blockbuster, The Avengers. The honeymoon is…
As a professional book designer, I’ve spent a decade observing electronic books from a cagey distance. A couple of years ago, I reluctantly recognised the need to engage with these alien book forms, both…
There are few English nouns that have received such relentlessly good publicity as the word “creativity”. Creativity — apparently — drives innovation, increases productivity, and safeguards the national…
The logo for the upcoming Anzac centenary was released last year with surprisingly little fanfare. The final design was selected from several options by the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board after consultation…
Australia’s national story is littered with significant occasions that have fallen on November 11 and two years ago, for me, was no different. It was the morning of November 11, 2011 and I was working…
The winners of the National Architecture Awards were announced last night at the Sydney Opera House – that iconic public building Australians initially struggled to accept but now boast of as a national…
The northern summer of 2013 was a bad one for Hollywood. After Earth, The Lone Ranger, White House Down, World War Z and Pacific Rim were among the million-dollar turkeys. And you may have noticed the…
Street art is the name given to artworks placed in public, usually without permission – and Banksy is probably the most famous street artist in the world. Last week he completed a residency in New York…
Jason Potts’ article for The Conversation earlier this week purports to bring an economist’s clear-eyed vision to the small problem of arts funding – and in this it follows quite a few others who tell…
In most public discussions, the issue of same-sex marriage is posed as a simple question – for or against? – where to be for or against is to be, more or less, for or against gay people. Although it doesn’t…
Recently the Prime Minister called upon the Labor Party to “repent” of its introduction of the carbon tax. His comments were ridiculed by some critics, not for the substance of what he said, but for the…
As you’ve no doubt noticed, celebrations are underway to mark the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House – and that’s as it should be. But this year marks a few other “40ths” that have had a tremendous…
Move over Mad Men – there’s a new group of advertising executives hitting the small screen. The Crazy Ones, a TV series set in a Chicago advertising agency, is currently the top-ranked show in the new…