Above: In Detroit, a large-scale video projection in which an artist’s paintings are brought to life through animation features a nearly life-size whale. Photo credit: Dlectricity.

Wow, Detroit. You completely blew us away. After receiving a record-breaking 1,400 applications to this year's Knight Arts Challenge, we weren't sure what to expect. And then we started reading...

What we found was a community bursting with creative, innovative and distinctly DETROIT ideas. Many of the ideas came from individuals and small collectives (something we hope you’ll see reflected in the list of finalists).  Several investigated the use of space/place and art. Some looked to marry Detroit’s past and its future. All were thoughtfully reviewed and considered by our panel of local reviewers and Knight staff.

Today, we’re excited to share the 84 finalists in the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Above, AOL’s CEO of Brand Group, Susan Lyne, and company CEO Tim Armstrong

AOL is deliberately steering away from the engineer-driven, male-dominated Internet culture spawned by Silicon Valley and focusing on creating the Internet programming that people really want, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told media industry leaders at a Knight Foundation-sponsored event Thursday in New York.

Armstrong, sharing a stage with top deputy Susan Lyne at the Media Minds breakfast, added that with women increasingly becoming the dominant users of online content and commerce sites, AOL's mostly female top management team represents a competitive advantage, “because they bring an understanding of the half of the world that our competitors lack.”

"People want quality content from trusted sources," rather than spending their time hunting for it in the wilds of the web, Armstrong said, explaining why he believed this strategy had broad general appeal. Lyne evoked the model of television, where franchises were built on programming, to argue that quality content brands represent the future.

Since splitting with Time Warner more than three years ago, AOL has acquired TechCrunch, Engadget, The Huffington Post and others, which combined attract 200 million monthly visitors, 100 million of those in the United States, Armstrong said.