The Future of Culture

Robert Kennedy pointed me to an A.O. Scott piece in the New York Times, "A Golden Age of Foreign Films, Mostly Unseen":

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/movies/awardsseason/30scott.html

The article falls down for me because it diagnoses the problem, but doesn't get specific enough about the remedies. It is not enough to say that the best current cinema "is nonetheless available to anyone with the curiosity and patience to navigate the new, fast-evolving cosmos of V.O.D. and streaming Web video," and then offer no details about how to navigate that world. That would be useful information for his readers; the rest is grousing (a grouse I've had myself, I hasten to add; but it doesn't change anything).

I think we are only a few years away from being able to "attend" Sundance or SXSW on our computers. In fact, I'm rather surprised that no major festival seems to have taken that step yet, but it is inevitable; consider how it will increase the revenue stream for those festivals. Concerts and plays are starting to be available in live or taped feeds; the Metropolitan Opera, which has had surprising success with its "Live in HD" series in movie theaters, should take the plunge with Internet streaming as well. Google is starting to pioneer virtual museum tours with its Google Art Project. Soon, on your laptop, or your widescreen television via a Roku box, you'll be able to experience the cultural offerings of the entire world as they happen. I don't often get on the cyber-bandwagon when it comes to such predictions, but this is one occasion when I will. We have barely scratched the surface of what is possible. And it will all be capitalistically driven, because the worldwide audience for niche cultural offerings is huge compared to even the most robust local audiences. If I hear about a great performance of an Ibsen play in Auckland or Ljubljana, and for a few dollars I can take it in on my computer, with subtitles if appropriate, of course I will consider doing that. The problem will soon be that there will be an abundance of available product beyond anyone's ability to keep up with it, but as problems go, I'll take that one.

POSTSCRIPT: I will qualify, however, that technological changes are not always 100% to the good. One reason that your home film festival experience will be almost as good as your in-person experience is that even celebrated festivals and revival houses are now using projected DVDs sometimes (there have been complaints about this at the Rotterdam festival). Frankly, a projected DVD or Blu-Ray disk looks better in your home theater than on a really big theatrical screen. So why not just watch at home? It will save you a plane ticket, a hotel room, and a lot else besides. Live events could start losing their luster.