Browsing Youtube, I watched a couple of edits of The Nightwatch, the 2004 video piece in which artist Francis Alÿs released a fox into the National Portrait Gallery after hours (with the gallery's permission) and filmed its explorations with the location's CCTV cameras. The work was intended to be a statement about surveillance (the National ( Read more... )

On the way back from some errands this morning, I passed a poster for a performance of Mozart's Requiem, so naturally my thoughts turned to Peter Shaeffer's Amadeus. Leaving aside the story's fictional nature, it's a well-told story, enough to make the central premise believable; but now, when I strip that premise down, I'm not sure I buy the idea ( Read more... )