This study examines the contemporary landscape of Greek typeface design, focusing on the pivotal role of Greek designers in shaping and advancing this typography element. Utilizing various qualitative research methods, including comprehensive interviews and thorough thematic analysis, this study extracts rich insights from 12 prominent Greek typeface designers. Through this rigorous examination, it elucidates the designers’ perspectives, methodologies, and the various challenges they encounter while creating Greek typefaces. The findings illuminate a profound and notable progression within Greek typography, largely propelled by the dedicated efforts of contemporary Greek designers who actively contribute to crafting high-quality typefaces garnering recognition on an international scale. This research significantly enhances our understanding of the evolution of Greek typography and its intricate position within the broader global typographic landscape. By delving into the unique methodologies and creative processes employed by these designers, this study offers a comprehensive and nuanced perspective on the current trends and potential future directions within Greek typeface design. Furthermore, it provides valuable insight into the cultural and historical influences that shape the designers’ work, enriching the broader context of their contributions to the field. Ultimately, this research intends to contribute to the advancement of Greek typography and highlight its enduring relevance and profound influence within the global typographic landscape.

This paper explores the conceptualization and evolution of virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences, highlighting their distinctions and similarities. Virtual exhibitions, conducted online or through digital media, offer a platform for showcasing artworks to a global audience without physical constraints. They employ multimedia elements to engage viewers and provide flexibility in exploration. Conversely, immersive art experiences create environments that envelop the viewer, stimulating multiple senses and often incorporating advanced technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality. These experiences aim to evoke emotional responses and facilitate active engagement with the artwork. While proponents argue that virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences democratize access to art and offer new avenues for artistic expression, critics have raised concerns about their impact on authenticity, viewer engagement, and art commercialization. Philosophical and cultural perspectives, including phenomenology and postmodern theory, shed light on the complexities of these art forms and their relationship with reality and simulation. This paper, further, examines the social and business implications of virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences, noting their growing popularity and influence on the art market. It discusses the viewpoints of artists, critics, and scholars, both supportive and critical, regarding technology’s role in art and its effects on the viewer’s experience. Virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences represent an evolving landscape in the art world, offering opportunities for innovation and debate. Their impact on the perception and consumption of art remains a subject of ongoing discussion. The paper concludes with a review of successful virtual exhibitions, highlighting their role in expanding access to art and cultural experiences globally.

This study explores the nature, core features, and evolution of extended reality (XR) technologies in the 21st century, focusing on their potential in the museum context. It examines academic research and representative examples of cultural heritage enhancement from international museum practices. The specific characteristics and properties of each technology within XR’s broader scope, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality, are identified and analyzed. In addition, the study explores designs or case studies of these technologies’ application in the museum environment, including the emerging Metaverse, which blends VR and AR within the same broader conceptual framework. Furthermore, the study examines why these innovative technologies resonate with museums and assesses their impact on relational communication between modern museums and the public, particularly younger audiences. It also highlights limitations or obstacles to their widespread adoption of XR technologies in museums, while outlining future prospects for their integration. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive overview of XR’s use in museums, focusing on how these technologies enhance cultural values. It offers reflection and suggestions for authors and museum professionals regarding the design and implementation of XR technologies in modern museums.

Early Australian artists of European extraction had to wrestle with the vast, inhospitable climate of inland Australia, unfamiliar animals and plants, and harsh sunlight. To a greater or lesser extent, especially Boyd and Drysdale, they also considered the Aboriginal inhabitants and how Europeans’ grip on the land and their understanding of it always paled in comparison with theirs, leaving the Europeans the ones out of place, infringing on a complex culture. Here, I use Marxist theories of ideology and art to examine the work of Kenneth Jack, an Australian realist painter of rural towns. His reassuring images are not confrontational, unlike those of Boyd and Drysdale. They can be ideological by pointing to an apparently timeless and tranquil midday peace, free from urban stressors and manufacturing and architectural blight. As with poet Banjo Paterson, they create a discourse that raises up life in “the bush.” These images can function as ideology where rural communities and services appear to be underappreciated and under threat. It is a conservative vision as the absence of people and vehicles reminds us, perhaps paradoxically, of romanticized rural communities just out of the painter’s sight.

This paper examines the global evolution of resale royalties within the art market, with an emphasis on the transformative role of blockchain technology in enforcing artists’ droit de suite. It delves into the evolution of resale royalties and their enforcement through blockchain technology globally, analyzing diverse approaches in the European Union, the United States of America, Australia, and China, and the universal adaptation of blockchain in this context. Drawing on diverse practices, the paper reveals diverse practices and the complex interplay between economic, legal, and cultural factors in each context. The research underscores blockchain’s potential to offer transparency, security, and efficiency in managing and enforcing resale royalties, as demonstrated by the rise of non-fungible token platforms like OpenSea. The paper also delves into China’s distinctive approach to blockchain, which avoids speculative digital currency markets while fostering digital collectibles within a controlled regulatory framework. The paper concludes by offering strategic recommendations aimed at harmonizing legal frameworks, spurring technological innovation, and preparing markets for these advancements. It calls for a balanced ecosystem that fosters artistic innovation and ensures regulatory compliance, showcasing the enduring influence of early concepts in the current digital era of the art market.

This article examines the intersection of Boris Groys’ and Mikhail Bakhtin’s cultural theories, with the aim of elucidating how the concept of carnivalization informs Groys’ thought. It argues that engaging in a dialog between these two thinkers provides a framework for understanding pop culture as a significant place where market forces, consumer society, and mass media interact in complex ways, challenging traditional theoretical perspectives. The article reaches such an interpretation, suggesting that Bakhtin proposes a secularized view of popular culture, where meaning-making retains traces of religious significance. This hieratic dimension, marked by the persistence of fetishistic and cult practices, is also observed by Groys in his analysis of contemporary media culture, which is imbued with ritualistic and cultic imagery. Through documentary analysis and critical interpretation, the article contends that the ecstatic dissolution of individuality and the enduring sacredness of icons are key features of current pop culture, where a strong semiotic dynamic drives the continual mutation and transformation of signs. The conclusions highlight the importance of Bakhtin’s influence on Groys’ thought and his concept of carnivalization, proposing further research into its implications for the study of pop culture.

A sobering reality is that suffering is part of our human experience. The innumerable forms of suffering include physical pain, mental or emotional anguish, social injustice, economic setbacks, and profound loss. There is also suffering that is self-imposed, instructional, or sacrificial. Remarkably, music is indispensable during suffering and varies from individual to individual, even among those who believe in a higher power or God. This perspective paper explores how we choose the music to engage with while suffering in the context of theodicy: the study of why suffering occurs under the purview of a loving, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. The paper begins with describing the narrative in the Book of Job from the Tanakh and Bible as the foundation of theodicy. It then expounds on the definition of theodicy, reviews the literature on the relationship between theodicy and music, and presents four classifications for viewing God in relation to theodicy and music: no God-view, internal God-view, external/authoritarian God-view, and transcending/transformational God-view. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on theodicy and music, including comparing compositional devices to represent suffering from non-Western and Western music, exploring the relationship between truth and suffering, and challenging the four classifications of God-views discussed in this paper.

This reflective paper explores the unique relationship between cinema and urbanism, illustrating how films offer a rich and multifaceted lens for understanding urban environments. Reflecting on a range of films, particularly Blade Runner and The Truman Show, the paper demonstrates how cinema captures and critiques cultural and social norms, represents urban spaces, and influences perceptions of architecture and urban design, especially in pedagogical contexts within urbanism university programs. These two movies have also been chosen as they represent paradigmatic cases on which analysis of new and post-urbanism has been done in urbanism studios. The paper emphasizes the pivotal role of films in shaping and reflecting our understanding of urban environments. The main crux and objective of the paper is the exploration and highlights of the educational value of films in urban studies, particularly within two master’s programs, offering insights into cities’ spatial dimensions and reflections on urban forms’ social life. The study integrates key scholarly perspectives and new cinematic urbanism pedagogics (a seven-step methodology developed in the studios). By weaving together these perspectives, this essay underscores the multifaceted relationship between cinema and urbanism, demonstrating how films can serve as powerful tools for understanding and shaping urban environments and the complex social life of urban forms. The paper ends with general conclusions and recommendations for policy and practice.

International art exhibitions can lead to disputes between multiple parties due to their transnational and complex nature, unlike domestic art exhibitions. The “Kiefer” Chinese painting exhibition triggered a series of controversies that should not be overlooked. Professionals in the art industry should reflect on these controversies to gain insights and promote the development of the field. This article focuses on the “Kiefer” incident to discuss the major risk points in the international art exhibition process. The article is divided into three parts. The first part concerns the selection and application of the law, where parties must carefully consider which laws and international rules to apply. The second part addresses the nature of the contract and liability, examining how the applicable law affects the legal nature of the contract and the obligations of the parties involved. The third part deals with unauthorized disposition and judicial seizure, focusing on issues of good faith acquisition when a party receiving artwork illegally disposes of it without the owner’s permission, as well as the problem of judicial seizure and immunity from judicial seizure of artworks (including cultural relics) involved in litigation.

Little is known about the impact of racial inequity in dance contexts. This study aimed to investigate the effects of racial discrimination on the well-being of dance students from Global Majority backgrounds. A total of 150 students (109 from White backgrounds and 40 from Global Majority backgrounds) in professional training completed an online survey tapping into several domains of psychological well-being and experiences of discrimination. The analyses revealed that, although there were no significant differences in well-being scores between the two groups, Global Majority students scored significantly higher on all measures of discrimination except for threat/aggression. Furthermore, there were significant negative correlations between discrimination and well-being among Global Majority students. Discrimination at work/college and experiences of exclusion/rejection appeared particularly influential in relation to measures of life satisfaction, competence, expectations of future competence, autonomy, relationships, and body appreciation. Responses to open-ended survey questions indicated that Global Majority students were as ambitious as their White peers but often cited discrimination as a potential barrier to career establishment post-training. The impact of discrimination in dance is an important research area, and further research is encouraged with larger samples of dancers at a range of levels (e.g., recreational, student, professional). On a practical level, organizations and individuals must work to reduce inequity in dance training and beyond.