Douglas McLennan
@ajdoug.bsky.social
ArtsJournal editor. AI, tech, journalism, arts (not in that order)
Classical music is an opaque mystery for many newcomers. AI that's “studied” the entire repertoire and every recorded performance could answer questions about pieces or performances that relate to one another, and start to interact with your preferences. www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/...
The Essential AI: Translating the Art of What We See, Hear and Experience
To an AI model, a picture is data, sound and music are data, as is traditional spoken or written language. That data is translatable, interchangeable, and, most importantly, linkable and actionable…
www.artsjournal.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Classical music is an opaque mystery for many newcomers. AI that's “studied” the entire repertoire and every recorded performance could answer questions about pieces or performances that relate to one another, and start to interact with your preferences. www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/...
When thinking about AI and creativity, it helps to think of systemic/structural change rather than new toolsets. open.substack.com/pub/douglasm...
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 AM
When thinking about AI and creativity, it helps to think of systemic/structural change rather than new toolsets. open.substack.com/pub/douglasm...
A framework for thinking about AI and the arts. Big money changes hands for art. Highlights from the 120 stories we collected across the internet about the arts. douglasmclennan.substack.com/p/roundup-th...
November 23, 2025 at 5:53 AM
A framework for thinking about AI and the arts. Big money changes hands for art. Highlights from the 120 stories we collected across the internet about the arts. douglasmclennan.substack.com/p/roundup-th...
November 22, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Today's ArtsJournal highlights open.substack.com/pub/douglasm...
November 21, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Today's ArtsJournal highlights open.substack.com/pub/douglasm...
If web users can get answers from chatbots directly, why should they visit websites? Here's something I wrote about what's about to happen to journalism business models as AI begins to dominate.
www.postalley.org/2025/10/07/j...
www.postalley.org/2025/10/07/j...
Journalism is in Dire Straits. It’s About to get so Much Worse
If web users can get news from chatbots directly, why should they visit websites? Since Google introduced its AI summaries atop search results, publishers have reported traffic has dropped sharply.…
www.postalley.org
October 7, 2025 at 6:24 PM
If web users can get answers from chatbots directly, why should they visit websites? Here's something I wrote about what's about to happen to journalism business models as AI begins to dominate.
www.postalley.org/2025/10/07/j...
www.postalley.org/2025/10/07/j...
Some of my thoughts on AI and creativity: There’s no question we lose something when tools make what was previously special, commonplace. But if the extraordinary becomes generic then extraordinary has to be, by definition, redefined. And that usually means up.
www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/...
www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/...
Making the Creative Turn: Is Using AI Cheating?
Throughout the digital age, Big Tech has promised us products that will make us more efficient and save time, which, it is assumed, is always an obvious good. It’s a cliché that tools shape the thi…
www.artsjournal.com
June 30, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Some of my thoughts on AI and creativity: There’s no question we lose something when tools make what was previously special, commonplace. But if the extraordinary becomes generic then extraordinary has to be, by definition, redefined. And that usually means up.
www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/...
www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/...
Reposted by Douglas McLennan
A dazzling ocean of tulips stretching endlessly in Hokkaido, Japan...
June 15, 2025 at 6:08 AM
A dazzling ocean of tulips stretching endlessly in Hokkaido, Japan...
Reposted by Douglas McLennan
Really hard to say what the worst part of this NEA grant termination letter is (sent at 10pm on a Friday!) but I think it's finding out the federal government's priority for arts funds is now "fostering AI competency" rather than funding literature.
May 3, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Really hard to say what the worst part of this NEA grant termination letter is (sent at 10pm on a Friday!) but I think it's finding out the federal government's priority for arts funds is now "fostering AI competency" rather than funding literature.
Reposted by Douglas McLennan
Just in case if you missed this printing event in #Mainz: they publically printed a giant page of the Gutenberg bible in the format 5 x 7,20 meter. #bookhistory #skystorians
April 29, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Just in case if you missed this printing event in #Mainz: they publically printed a giant page of the Gutenberg bible in the format 5 x 7,20 meter. #bookhistory #skystorians
Universities organizing to create a mutual defense pact. There are signs law firms are as well (tho sadly not the biggest). Maybe arts orgs ought to get together to form one? NEH, NEA, CPB, Smithsonian, IMLS are getting killed & maybe some collective support wd help?
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/u...
Emerging From a Collective Silence, Universities Organize to Fight Trump
A recent group statement showed that the nation’s academic leaders, at first reluctant to oppose the president’s moves, are beginning to unite.
www.nytimes.com
April 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Universities organizing to create a mutual defense pact. There are signs law firms are as well (tho sadly not the biggest). Maybe arts orgs ought to get together to form one? NEH, NEA, CPB, Smithsonian, IMLS are getting killed & maybe some collective support wd help?
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/u...
So dating apps are... dying. The tech has reduced human connection to a transactional ecosystem that feels gamified:
“It makes you feel like you’re connecting with people … you’ve got all this choice. But it’s not nourishing, there’s no actual … human connection.”
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
“It makes you feel like you’re connecting with people … you’ve got all this choice. But it’s not nourishing, there’s no actual … human connection.”
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Dating apps face a reckoning as users log off: ‘There’s no actual human connection’
In Australia, dating apps have been hit with lawsuits and new regulation, while their profits are declining worldwide
www.theguardian.com
April 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
So dating apps are... dying. The tech has reduced human connection to a transactional ecosystem that feels gamified:
“It makes you feel like you’re connecting with people … you’ve got all this choice. But it’s not nourishing, there’s no actual … human connection.”
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
“It makes you feel like you’re connecting with people … you’ve got all this choice. But it’s not nourishing, there’s no actual … human connection.”
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
So what is social media if it isn't about sharing? Meta said in its trial that SM has become traditional media, that time spent viewing content posted by ‘friends’ ” has declined in the past two years, from 22% to 17% on Facebook, and from 11% to 7% on Instagram.
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
Mark Zuckerberg Says Social Media Is Over
During testimony at Meta’s antitrust trial, the Facebook founder’s argument was, in so many words, that platforms like his are not what they used to be.
www.newyorker.com
April 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
So what is social media if it isn't about sharing? Meta said in its trial that SM has become traditional media, that time spent viewing content posted by ‘friends’ ” has declined in the past two years, from 22% to 17% on Facebook, and from 11% to 7% on Instagram.
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
Major arts foundations are pulling back funding support. “If the arts are a tool of democracy and a powerful safeguard against oppression, then—considering (inflation, corporatization, federal cuts)—the stakes of arts funding couldn’t be higher.”
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
The Show Can’t Go On
Funding shifts at three of the largest philanthropic foundations have brought turbulence and uncertainty to the intricate New York support system for the performing arts.
www.newyorker.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Major arts foundations are pulling back funding support. “If the arts are a tool of democracy and a powerful safeguard against oppression, then—considering (inflation, corporatization, federal cuts)—the stakes of arts funding couldn’t be higher.”
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Great piece in @theatlantic.com: The cost of hobbies impinges on our social interactions and culture. "They’re choices about whom I spend time with, what communities I invest in or extract myself from, what friendship networks to maintain and which to let wither." www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...
What We Lose When We’re Priced Out of Our Hobbies
For a lot of people, it’s getting too expensive to knit or fish.
www.theatlantic.com
April 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Great piece in @theatlantic.com: The cost of hobbies impinges on our social interactions and culture. "They’re choices about whom I spend time with, what communities I invest in or extract myself from, what friendship networks to maintain and which to let wither." www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...
Four supreme court justices seem to think not only is it okay for the government not to pay its bills for work that has already been contracted, approved and COMPLETED, but that it's OK for government to ignore a District Court ruling to comply with an order. Translation: laws no longer apply.
March 5, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Four supreme court justices seem to think not only is it okay for the government not to pay its bills for work that has already been contracted, approved and COMPLETED, but that it's OK for government to ignore a District Court ruling to comply with an order. Translation: laws no longer apply.
D.O.G.E Dangerous Oligarchs Grab Everything.
March 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM
D.O.G.E Dangerous Oligarchs Grab Everything.
Reposted by Douglas McLennan
How it started/How it's going
February 28, 2025 at 11:57 AM
How it started/How it's going
If you're known by the company you keep, look at today's disgraceful US dissent against the UN's resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine: The only countries voting with the US were Russia, Belarus and North Korea. Against the rest of the world.
February 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
If you're known by the company you keep, look at today's disgraceful US dissent against the UN's resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine: The only countries voting with the US were Russia, Belarus and North Korea. Against the rest of the world.
"Let’s dispense with the notion that the government is too big. It is not. As a share of the workforce, federal employment has declined in the past several decades. Civilian employees represent about 1.5 percent of the population and account for less than 7 percent of total government spending."
“We rely on public employees every day, usually not noticing how they” improve our lives, Donald Moynihan writes. “The costs of dismantling agencies … and demeaning the idea of public service will still be counted long after Trump has departed the scene.”
The DOGE Project Will Backfire
Trump’s war on public employees is bad for all of us.
www.theatlantic.com
February 22, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"Let’s dispense with the notion that the government is too big. It is not. As a share of the workforce, federal employment has declined in the past several decades. Civilian employees represent about 1.5 percent of the population and account for less than 7 percent of total government spending."
How do you get 28 drunk Canadians out of a pool? "Would you mind please getting out of the pool?"
February 22, 2025 at 6:41 PM
How do you get 28 drunk Canadians out of a pool? "Would you mind please getting out of the pool?"
So "almost half" (45%) means Democrats want a more moderate Democratic party? First - isn't that a minority? And second, what does the "center" or "moderate" even mean in this political environment? These kinds of polls are reductive and frankly, kinda dumb.
www.semafor.com/article/02/1...
www.semafor.com/article/02/1...
Democrats want a more moderate party, new Gallup survey finds
Forty-five percent of Democrats want a more moderate party, a Gallup survey conducted after Trump’s inauguration found, pointing to growing dissatisfaction among Democratic Americans.
www.semafor.com
February 13, 2025 at 3:50 PM
So "almost half" (45%) means Democrats want a more moderate Democratic party? First - isn't that a minority? And second, what does the "center" or "moderate" even mean in this political environment? These kinds of polls are reductive and frankly, kinda dumb.
www.semafor.com/article/02/1...
www.semafor.com/article/02/1...
Our legal system, built to move at the speed of the 1700s seems a bit slow to cope with the speed of 21st-Century life. Trump uses this to his advantage to delay and avoid consequences and speed up when he wants to overwhelm and knows the checks will be slow in cranking up.
February 5, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Our legal system, built to move at the speed of the 1700s seems a bit slow to cope with the speed of 21st-Century life. Trump uses this to his advantage to delay and avoid consequences and speed up when he wants to overwhelm and knows the checks will be slow in cranking up.