CAA News Today

Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.

Help Desk: Gallery Contract

I was invited to be in a group show outside my home state. I don’t know the owner (who found my work online), and I’d never heard of the gallery before, but it has a nice website and seems okay. I replied that I was interested and asked the owner for a copy of the contract, and he wrote me back and said he never uses one. I’d like to be in this show because my résumé is a little thin, but I am wary of just sending my work out. What should I do? Do most galleries work like this? (Read more in Daily Serving.)

Twelve Bloopers to Avoid in Job Interviews

In the course of my academic career, I’ve been interviewed for junior and senior faculty positions as well as for administrative posts like the provostship I now hold. I have also been on more search committees than I care to count. Over time, I’ve observed (at least) a dozen bloopers to avoid at all costs in job interviews. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

Finding the Right Context

Papers and books exist in the context of academic disciplines. As we work on projects, we are in conversation with those who have done similar research in the past. An important part of any writing is acknowledging work that came before it and placing the research in a relevant scholarly context. This serves several purposes, such as letting the reader know in what particular literature one is situating one’s work, clarifying what is motivating one’s specific questions, and also giving credit to others who have done work in the domain. (Read more in Inside Higher Ed.)

Does Increased Exposure to a Piece of Art Make Us Like It More?

The research challenges the idea that what people value in art is largely what they are used to, or that people will come to like any image if they see it enough times. Instead, the study’s findings suggest that increased exposure to artworks does not necessarily make people like them more and that the quality of an artwork remains at the heart of its evaluation. (Read more at Phys.Org.)

Lawyers Go to Cambodia over Statue

Two lawyers from the United States Attorney’s Office in Manhattan recently traveled into the Cambodian jungle to inspect an ancient, crumbling temple as part of their office’s effort to seize a tenth-century Khmer statue that Sotheby’s hopes to sell at auction. The unusual four-day trip is the latest development in a court case involving the auction house and US officials, who are trying to help Cambodia gain possession of the statue, which it contends was looted from the temple during the chaos of that country’s civil war. (Read more in the New York Times.)

Data Indicates Rapid Growth in Mobile Learning

Based on two interesting data sets shared by Apple and Cisco, it’s clear that learning on mobile devices—meaning smartphones and tablets—is gaining traction at a rapid pace. While the data shared by Apple is pretty straightforward and does not leave much room for interpretation, the data from Cisco is more general yet pretty astonishing. (Read more in Edcetera.)

Keeping an Eye on Online Test-Takers

Millions of students worldwide have signed up in the last year for MOOCs, short for massive open online courses—those free, web-based classes available to one and all and taught by professors at Harvard, Duke, MIT, and other universities. But when those students take the final exam in calculus or genetics, how will their professors know that the test-takers on their distant laptops are doing their own work, and not asking Mr. Google for help? (Read more in the New York Times.)

Digital Textbooks: Publishers and the Unrealized Promise

Is it any wonder that digital textbooks haven’t been widely embraced yet? Most digital textbooks are just overpriced, static versions of their printed counterparts. That hasn’t stopped the hype about digital textbooks. On one hand, it’s the promise of a new learning experience, with spinning molecules and interactive modules. On the other, it’s the long-awaited solution to the industry’s painful pricing practices. Maybe even both, if we dare to dream it. (Read more in Publishing Perspectives.)