Link List #104: The Chinese Communist Party’s rebranding of Buddhism, a no-frills approach to male therapy, and an ode to the late and great performance artist Carolee Schneeman - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

Link List #104: The Chinese Communist Party’s rebranding of Buddhism, a no-frills approach to male therapy, and an ode to the late and great performance artist Carolee Schneeman

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This week we’ve been reading about how AI companies aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, how the Dalai Lama faces being replaced as the face of Buddhism, and the new statues to be erected in NYC to go some way to addressing the severe underrepresentation of women in the city’s monuments.

Links

    • 1 Artificial intelligence is definitely a hot topic right now with many companies jumping on the bandwagon, supposedly to benefit from the fifteen percent extra funding that AI focused startups receive. But a new study shows that companies are starting to bend the buzzword’s definition, as a shocking forty percent of Europe’s AI focused firms aren’t actually investing in any AI at all. The MIT Technology Review investigates.
    • 2 Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK, but a new initiative with a “no frills” approach to therapy and endorsements from the likes of Ricky Gervais and Danny Cipriani is seeking to cut the rate in half. The Guardian heads to an Andy’s Men’s Club meeting to find out more.
    • 3 The Dalai Lama has been the face of Buddhism for over sixty years, but the Chinese Communist Party are seeking to change that with a multi-million dollar project to sinicize and rebrand the religion, reports TIME.
    • 4 This week, Frieze informed us that of the 150 statues of historical figures in New York City, only five are women. But a new project erects effigies of the likes of Billie Holiday, civil rights leader Elizabeth Jennings Graham, and lighthouse keeper Katherine Walker is going to double the city’s count by 2022.
    • 5 After performing a minimalist, freestyle ski run in last year’s Winter Olympics, Hungarian team member Elizabeth Swaney suffered much criticism for wasting a chance that most athletes dream of. This recent article in California Sunday interviews the Oakland native, and posits that there may be more to her story than meets the eye.
    • 6 The visionary feminist performance artist Carolee Schneemann sadly died at her home in New York last week at the age of 79. Head over to The New York Times for a comprehensive summary of the life and work of “one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century”, or, if you want to hear about the artist in her own words, why not take a look back at this Art Practical interview with Schneemann from 2011.

Hopefully you enjoyed the reads from this week’s Link List, but if you’ve still got an internet itch to scratch, you can find more here.

Also, be sure to check out FvF Mixtapes for some tracks selected by our friends and favorite artists, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with FvF stories.

Text: Emily May
Photography: Shinji Minegishi

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