University of California-Santa Barbara’s Visual Resource Collection Image News
While there are lovely bags, curtains and lampshades to be made from old slides, here’s a fantastic wearable project instead. The maker, Emily Steel, created the Little Slide Dress (complete with interior lighting) for the Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design for the Wearable Technology course.
via FashionablyGEEK (with a hat tip to Leslie A. Rahuba)
Who says you can’t take it with you: The Royal Collection revealed a new iPad app that offers zoomable high-resolution images of, and other nifty toys with, all 268 anatomical studies by Leonardo da Vinci in their collection. The app has been launched in conjunction with its current exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist (4 May-7 October, 2012) at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London. Alongside the images are interactive tools like 3D anatomical models, a “magic spyglass” that reverses the artist’s mirror handwriting, and a translation of his notes with just a tap of the finger.
Mark your calendars for the 17th Annual Los Angeles Art Show, January 18-22, 2012, in the LA Convention Center. This year promises to be the most comprehensive art experience on the west coast, with three distinct shows: the L.A. Art Show: Modern & Contemporary, the L.A. Fine Print Fair and the newly separate Fine Art Show: Historic & Traditional. All this translates into 200,000 square feet of paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photography, installation, and video from around the world.
There’s a mysterious new web presence called The Art History Jedi, who has a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and two videos on YouTube, all giving sage advice to current and prospective students of Art History. The videos talk through the processes of applying for graduate studies and internships using XtraNormal Movie Maker, software that converts typed text to voice, often with amusing results. Despite the humour, there’s a lot of helpful advice here:
Letters to a Young Art History Jedi, part I: Applying to graduate school
Letters to a Young Art History Jedi, part II: Applying for museum internships
Museum Day, an annual event sponsored by Smithsonian magazine, is fast approaching. On Saturday, September 24, hundreds of museums and other cultural venues nationwide open their doors to free admission — request the required ticket, good for the ticket holder and a guest, from the site. Local institutions participating in the event include Casa de la Guerra and Rancho La Patera & Stow House; to search for a specific venue, click here.
The Getty Museum has partnered with Google to encourage museum visitors to use the smartphone app Google Goggles™ in the galleries. The Getty created mobile versions of some of their collection Web pages, some including audio, which Google then incorporated in their visual search technology. For a sample page, click here. The app also allows you to snap a photo of a museum object label and translate it into over 50 different languages.
UCLA’s Hammer Museum is the latest art institution to launch an app that helps you plan your visit and explore the museum’s permanent collection and current exhibitions. The app is free and available for iPhones (must have iOS 4 installed) and Android (Android 2.2 and higher) devices.
More and more museums are now using social media and other new technology both to engage their existing audience in new ways and to bring in a new audience. Forward-thinking museums are creating iPhone apps and Facebook pages with interactive elements, and posting myriad content on their websites.
There are also interesting new partnerships among museums. One such collaboration is ArtBabble, a site with video content from 60 partner museums (including short curator talks, conversations with artists, full lectures, performance pieces, and more).
Some institutions, like the Guggenheim, are inviting video input which they post on their site YouTube Play. A recent call for content received 23,000 submissions!
If you want to read more, there’s a good profile in the New York Times of people directing innovative social media initiatives at the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
In anticipation of finals, or a diversion therefrom, try this online quiz that requires you to name the painters of important works of art. The quiz makers were kind enough to give a couple of examples for most artists to help you out. Answers can be found here.
Have you ever come across a print advertisement and thought something just wasn’t quite right?
Check out PsD: Photoshop Disasters for a collection of unfortunate, atrocious, and what-were-they-thinking examples of when Photoshop use goes horribly, horribly wrong.
