Resources for Creative Arts Students

On Hold

2010-02-14T20:17:00.001-08:00

Sharon's Electronic Resources Blogs are currently on hold while I focus on work projects.

Because I Am A Girl

2009-09-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in Website design and Flash presentations, this is a great site to look at:

http://www.becauseiamagirl.com.au/

A lot of sites begin with a Flash splash which provides some kind of introduction to the site and the company/organisation behind it, but if the Flash animation isn't particularly interesting or gripping it can be more of an annoyance than an introduction.

The Flash introduction to this site is nicely done, providing information in an interesting format that is likely to catch attention and keep it. The animations are deceptively simple and stylistic - mostly words - but the way the words move and play is eye-catching in a non-intrusive way.

The music is also interesting, but non-intrusive. You never feel as if this animation is shouting at you. The site has managed to avoid a number of the pitfalls of a Flashy introduction. For one thing, it isn't an introduction so much as a way of presenting the information. This is the text that would appear on a "normal" home page turned into something more interesting.

Additionally, the animation is actually communicating something - it's not just there to look good, but to inform and persuade.

All in all, it's quite well done (and presents a convincing argument). A great exercise in using digital design for persuasive communication.

IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana

2009-08-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

The Indiana University has a digital repository of sheet music from the late 19th and early 20th Century music - and they've made it publicly available!

IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana "is a search and discovery system for accessing sheet music from the Indiana University Lilly Library, the Indiana State Library, the Indiana State Museum, and the Indiana Historical Society."

Basically, its a co-operative effort from several libraries to make pdf copies of sheet music available online. It's a brilliant resource for musicians and music students (and it's all out of copyright, if you felt like performing it...)

Virtual Instrument Museum

2009-07-31T17:35:00.000-07:00

This is a brilliant resource for anyone studying music - especially anyone who's looking at traditional and folk music.

The Virtual Instrument Museum is the initiative of the Wesleyan University

It works on a simple basis of showing you an instrument and letting you hear it played using photos, video and sound-files - as well as offering brief descriptions.

The instruments can be sorted instrument type (chordophone, etc), geographic region or construction material. There is also a number of alphabetical indices, including sorting by genre and ensembles.

The selection of instruments available is far from comprehensive, unfortunately. The range given is also intriguing. For example, both plucked and hammered dulcimers are represented, but none of the banjos. The piano is included, but not the guitar.

Still it is a very handy resource, and well worth checking out.

Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration

2009-07-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration is another online display from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

It looks at a wide variety of works, held by the SIL, which showcase different reasons and methods for illustrating books.

Some are religious works, which have been illustrated to inspire the reader. Some are technical works in which the illustration aids explanation. Then there are also catalogues and manuals.

Interestingly, the exhibition focuses on illustrations in books for adult consumption, rather than picture books aimed at children.

It's an interesting display, although it must be said that you won't necessarily be able to get your hands on a copy of this books if you don't live near the Smithsonian.

World War Poster Collection

2009-05-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

The University of North Texas Libraries have put together a collection of war-time posters from the First and Second World Wars:

World War Poster Collection

It's a fascinating look at the artistic styles of the periods, the depictions of "desired" social norms and the use of propaganda.

The site offers brief descriptions for the posters, but no commentary - essentially it's a store of primary sources. Make of it what you will.

Fix-A-Frame - Reference Section

2009-04-02T02:55:00.000-07:00

This is a handy, practical resource for anyone who might be producing work that needs framing:

Fix-A-Frame is a Brisbane based company that not only frames works, but also offers advice and sells supplies to "hobby" framers.

If you wanted to know basic, practical information about framing a work, you could do a lot worse than looking at this site.

The Reference section gives solid, basic information about all aspects of framing - including some information on conservation and art history.

The only problem is it's very text based - there aren't a lot of pictures to illustrate the techniques.

I'd recommend the site to any Visual Arts or Photography student.

The Leonard Bernstein Collection

2009-02-24T18:26:00.000-08:00

Here's another wonderful collection from the Library of Congress:

The Leonard Bernstein Collection, ca. 1920-1989

Bernstein was surely won of the best loved American composers of the Twentieth Century, and this collection provides a lot of his writings and photographs. In this collection, we are looking more at his handwritten notes and scripts rather than his music, but the material provides an interesting insight into a very influential artist.

Poster Children

2009-01-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

This is a nice idea:

ReadyMade magazine asked five artists to create their own interpretation of the posters created by government sponsored artists during the the Great Depression.

Poster Children is a fairly faithful salute to the posters of the era. Each artist has taken the brief seriously, producing posters that are encouraging, edifying and within the style of the period.

There's an article explaining the project, and you can dowload PDFs of all five posters to encourage you to live a simpler, friendlier and more local life.

The layout of the page is a bit awkward, html wise, so you may have to scroll down to find the article.

Face to Face

2009-01-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how much quality information is ensconced in blogs these days.

For example: Face to Face is a blog from the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution.

Every Thursday evening the National Portrait Gallery presents a talk about a selection of portraits from the collection, called "Face to Face". Now, most of us won't get the chance to go to one of these talks, but this blog enables us to have a look at some of those portraits and read some of the information from the talks. You can also listen to recordings and interviews from the artists and people involved with the Gallery and its collections.

Isn't the modern age wonderful?

Back catalogue

2008-12-16T15:59:00.000-08:00

Sharp eyed readers might have noticed the back catalogue of this blog seems to have grown in the last couple of days.

One of my earlier blogs, SoCA Resources - Highlights and New Discoveries, is becoming redundant as it has been superseded by a blog catering to the entire faculty, rather than just the School of Creative Arts.

So, I went through and transferred a lot (but not all) of the posts from that blog into this one. Most of them are here. Some bored me, so I left them. If you were a reader of that blog, and you don't want to loose any particular resources, you might wish to consider saving your favourites now. It shan't exist for much longer.

100 Years of the Roundel

2008-12-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

It's true - the simple things in life are often the best.

The roundel logo has been around for 100 years. Surely, one of the most successful examples of graphic design in the Western World.

You not only recognise it instantly as a symbol of the London Underground, but the symbol has been "borrowed" by so many other artists and creators over the years that it has almost become symbolic of symbols themselves...

The London Transport Museum has an online display celebrating the roundel logo.

Take a look at a true success story.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

2008-11-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference that has been running every year since 1984

It's original scope was to bring together people from the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design, but over the years it has come to incorporate the fields of Business, Science, Culture and the Arts, as well as Global Issues.

Primarily, the conference is about "spreading ideas", and to that end the TED site makes a large number (200+) of the conference talks available to the public free of charge.

Speakers include the likes of Al Gore, Tony Robbins, Jane Goodall, J.J. Abrams, Richard Dawkins, Brian Greene, Caleb Chung (the co-inventor of the Furby)...

There's a real mix between artists and scientists, and it's very easy to loose a few hours watching these talks, but you hear a lot of great ideas.

You can also subscribe to have talks sent to you every week. Certainly worth checking out.

Malvern Star

2008-10-22T20:45:00.001-07:00

Here's another site which has used Flash Animation effectively for product promotion:

Malvern Star.

It's a very effective use of a single colour scheme (red and white), and cleverly plays on the fact that most people looking for a bike are at least as interested in where they intend to ride as they are in the bike itself.

Using subtle, yet effective movement, the designers of this site manage to evoke the life-style that Malvern Star would like to attach to it's product. The occasional kangaroo hopping in the background of an otherwise static image is also a nice and understated way of reminding people that Melvern Star is an Australian brand.

Another nice touch is the "blank space" surrounding the flash animation screen. It has a pattern that resembles a carbon fiber weave - kind of a bicycle in-joke.

This is a good example of effective graphic design in a commercial website. Well worth a look.

The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae

2008-10-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Here's one for the art historians:

The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae is a digitised collection of 994 prints taken from maps, engravings, woodcuts and other images published by Antonio Lefreri in 1540.

They look at the buildings, public works and monuments of Rome during his time living there. The images have been set out in the site in order to take the viewer on a virtual tour of Lefreri's Rome. The digitised pictures are high quality scans that can be zoomed in on for high detail.

An interesting look at a world documented by artists in the days before photography.

Vaudeville Nation

2008-09-16T22:48:00.001-07:00

The New York Public Library has put together an interesting display on one of the most influential movements in the entertainment industry of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries:

Vaudeville Nation

The site looks at the history of the art form, the kinds of acts involved and the relationship between Vaudeville and other industries - such as music publishing.

As one would expect from an online display by a library, it also contains a lot of pictures and resources from the library's collection.

Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in any form of performance. Vaudeville had such a profound and lasting effect on the entertainment industry that it really is hard to ignore, and this site is a great way to get an introduction to it.

The Shape of Fashion and its Underpinnings

2008-08-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun and useful site from the Museum of the Rockies at the Montana State University:

Shape of Fashion and It's Underpinnings 1870-1960 is a look at the way women's underwear has influenced and been influenced by the outer garments over the course of about one hundred years.

Costume designers should really take a look at this one, as the symbiotic relationship between under and outer garments is an important consideration when it comes to getting an authentic period 'feel'.

Actors should also consider taking a look, as you won't always be wearing a whalebone corset while playing a character who probably would be. Knowing that, in certain periods, your movements would be altered by your underwear, can significantly increase the authenticity you bring to the performance.

The Teacher Resources have been "coming soon" for over a year now, but the way the site shows how different looks and silhouettes were achieved through the use of underwear is still worth a look.

COLOURlovers

2008-07-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

COLOURlovers is a resource that will probably excite quite a number of artists and art students.

It's a resource for people who are involved with colour and looks across a wide spectrum of media and applications.

COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

One of the many great things this site does is show you colours that the users have "discovered" and the codes needed for use in html and computer applications. So, if you find a fantastic shade of eggplant on the site, there's a good chance you can feed it straight into a program like FireWorks on an html editor to have it appear in your work. Not bad at all.

KT Turnstall

2008-07-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

You see all sorts of great web designs out there these days.

Take the design for KT Tunstall's homepage for example.

The work of the Outside Line team, it takes art by Robin Footitt, which was created for KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic album, and turns it into something beautifully flashy, yet seamless.

Robin's black-and-white drawings are, by the way, worth seeing for themselves, even without Outside Line's digital jiggery pokery. Like the classic comic book artists from the fifties and sixties, there's a real depth to them that is often missed by many artist trying to capture the feel of old comics for pop-art purposes.

A fine example of graphic design and artistic collaboration.

National Quilting Association

2008-06-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

Take your textile arts seriously?

So does The National Quilting Association

Their Chapter Galleries have some wonderful designs on display.

MoMA - Documenting a Feminist Past

2008-06-26T00:57:00.001-07:00

This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art happened early last year, but you'll probably still find the accompanying material interesting:

Documenting a Feminist Past: Art World Critique

The exhibition was intended to draw attention to the way the feminist underpinnings of certain artists formed a driving force behind a lot of the work of the 20th Century.

"as these documents show, feminist artists of the late twentieth century mobilized intellect, principle, material skills and, often, considerable wit to create powerful public communications, from printed matter to videos to Happenings."

Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture

2008-06-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

This site is a must see for anyone studying Visual Arts:

Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture has been put together by the National Portrait Gallery (one of the arms of the Smithsonian Institute) and is chock full of fantastic posters from the last hundred years or so.

From posters as advertisements to pop-art at its best, you'll find a wealth of visual material.

Rocking Chair Origin

2008-06-04T20:23:00.001-07:00

Here's one for the Design students:

Rocking Chair Origin.

The site shows pictures of different rocking chair designs through the years, some of which are very striking and show a variety of takes on the theme (including the rather interesting "'Stella' rocking stool" by Achille and Castiglioni I've included with this post - surely a product for the person who simply refuses to relax).

The pages are put together by designboom - whose home page is bound to end up on your favourites lists if you're into design.

David Follett

2008-05-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I like to show case an artists who's out there making a living from his/her chosen craft.

This time it's David Follett. Australians might be familiar with his work illustrating for newspapers such as The Australian (particularly the Weekend Australian, where his work features in a number of the liftouts) and it's fellow News Ltd stable mate, The Daily Telegraph where, in addition to illustrating articles, he also contributes a number of comics to the Sunday Telegraph.

Why not take a look at his home page and see the sort of work he's done? You might find you've seen some of it before...

On a break

2008-05-04T21:19:00.001-07:00

I've been on holidays for a week, and I will be for another week yet. I'll start updating when I come back.

Recognize: Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture

2008-04-21T03:37:00.000-07:00

How about a spot of pop culture and intertextuality?

Recognize: Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture is an exhibition using photography and poetry to explore the world of Hip Hop through portraiture.

Just another interesting online exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution - this time the National Portrait Gallery arm of the S.I. octopus.

These guys are almost as cool as the Library of Congress when it comes to online resources.

Haristyles Designs

2008-04-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

This one is a tool for anyone interested in the hair and make-up side of theatre or photography:

Hairstyles Designs is basically the online equivalent of those hairstyle magazines you get to flick through while you're sitting in the salon.

I don't know how often it's updated, if you can find past hairstyles or at what point they start asking for money, but if you want some quick inspiration for a modern hairstyle, this could be a useful tool.

Visual Arts Data Service

2008-03-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

This could prove to be a very useful site for anyone who likes to take a look at image galleries to learn more about a certain style of art or gain inspiration for a new project (they can also be useful for teaching art lessons):

Visual Arts Data Service has an extensive visual catalogue of images ans well as a number of other resources worth taking a look at.

If you are studying or teaching visual arts, you'll probably want to bookmark this resource

Patriotic Melodies

2008-03-26T21:38:00.001-07:00

Ah, the Library of Congress. So full of fun stuff.

If you've ever found yourself humming The Star Spangled Banner, or wondering if there were ever lyrics to Hail to the Chief (which, I learnt, was originally a line from "The Lady of the Lake" by Sir Walter Scott - with nothing to do with America or its presidents at all), then this is a collection you might enjoy.

Proudly showing their American roots, the LoC has put together a collection of Patriotic Melodies, saluting the tunes that make us think of America (or, at least, make Americans think of themselves).

It's more a collection of short essays about the songs than anything else, but most of the entries have links to sound files (some have more than one recording), some have manuscripts and they all have a bibliography for further reading.

One of my big surprises was that Fanfare for the Common Man, by Aaron Copland, was written for soldiers returning from the Second World War. I've always heard it in connection with sport (the Olympics, television coverage of Australian Cricket during the 1980s, etc), so I assumed it was written in honour of athletes. Not so. 'Twas for the boys who took the count.

Dictionary of Australian Artists Online

2008-03-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

This resource is still gaining its feet, but it looks like it could prove very useful to anyone trying to find information about Australian Artists:

DAAO: Dictionary of Australian Artists Online is an open access resource with information contributed from a number of state and university libraries, as well as the National Library and National Gallery of Australia.

Basically, it's a freely accessible database that focuses solely on the biographies of Australian artists.

There's a slight element of wikipedia to it, as users are invited to add and edit to the database of information: "The DAAO invites art lovers and art researchers to search, discover and create Australian art history". However, as the project is overseen by the Australian Research Council, there's a good chance the information would be reliable.

It does lists the results of searches alphabetically, though, which can mean that the artist you want might be buried further down the list. I looked for "Lahey" and found an entry for Vida Lahey seventh in a list of twelve results (all of the other results simply mentioned her at some point during the discussion of another artist). However, the information it gave me on Lahey was worth seeing - a brief biography, lists of known associates, places she lived, books written about her, what her other careers were, which galleries hold her work... The only thing it didn't give me that I would have liked to know was a list of her works.

Museum Studies

2008-02-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

If you're looking towards creating a career in museology and the world of museums and galleries, the Smithsonian Institution has put together a page of resources which might be of use to you:

Museum Studies: Information for Museum Professionals and Scholars.

Most of it is very American-centric, but the section on selected readings and online references has a few sources worth following up by anyone in the world.

Ragtime

2008-02-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

Yet another great resource from the Library of Congress:

Ragtime looks at, what else, ragtime music.

You'll find essays, artists' bibliographies, some interviews and - my personal favourite - sheet music and instrumental parts.

The Library of Congress is truly the musician's friend.

Oh, and remember, while the music itself should now be in the public domain, the electronic copy that you download will belong to the Library of Congress, so you can play it as much as you like wherever you like, but don't try to publish it (at least, not without asking the good folk at the LoC first).

The Greates Duets of All Time (?)

2008-01-31T16:16:00.001-08:00

Just for a bit of fun:

Retrocrush's The Greatest Duets of All Time

You might not agree with all of his choices (there are some changes I could suggest), but I'll be very surprised if you don't find yourslef humming at least one of these tunes for the rest of the day.

Just for an extra bit of fun, see how many duets you can recognise as being covered by the Muppets.

Capture FX

2008-01-30T19:19:00.000-08:00

Capture FX is the home page of David Edwards, an artist working with Matte Painting and Visual Effects.

He's won a few awards for the competitions he has entered, and his work is fairly impressive. Definitely worth checking out.

It's also an example of an artists home page/gallery, if you were thinking of starting to establish one of your own and wanted to see what else is out there.

Artslynx - International Theatre Resources

2008-01-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

This is a nice page of links from around the world:

Artslynx Theatre Resources (one of the several Artslynx pages devoted to the Creative Arts) has webpages on a heck of a lot of theatre topics.

Stage craft, design, costumes, dramaturgy, mime, performance art...

You're bound to find something on your chosen topic. Definitely worth checking out.

Georges Seurat: The Drawings

2008-01-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

Here's another "flashy" site from the Museum of Modern Art:

Georges Seurat: The Drawings.

Content wise, it's kind of average, but the site itself is a design by Ralph Lucci's team, and it's worth taking a look at it - especially the way they've designed the sketch-books for perusal. Classy.

Actually, it's worth comparing and contrasting this particular "flashy" site with Shannon Darrough's work on the Richard Serra exhibition I reviewed last year, as it's interesting to see the way two different creative teams dealing with similar subjects for the same organisation have tackled their challenges.

MoMA is quite keen on its "flashy" exhibitions, and they're clearly trying to have a certain look and feel to them, but there are little flairs each team have brought to their designs.

You can look at Seurat's art, too, if it takes your fancy, but I picked this site for New Media and Graphic Design students.

The March King: John Philip Sousa

2008-01-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

I love the Library of Congress. They always have the most interesting online displays.

Like this one: The March King: John Philip Sousa, dedicated to the great marching band champion - the man who invented the sousaphone (which, aside from being a fabulous looking piece of brass all on it's own, is known for being a favourite brass instrument among unicyclists).

Anyway, the LoC site on Sousa includes such fantastic resources as sheet music (including instrumental parts), pictures, audio and print materials...

It's good stuff. Especially for bandmasters.

Some links from LII

2008-01-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some interesting looking links from this week's offering from the Librarian's Internet Index:

From Revolution to Republic in Prints and Drawings
This exhibition about the American Revolution "celebrates the deep and diverse holdings of early American prints and drawings in The New York Public Library." Features brief historical essays and images, including many portraits of George Washington. From the New York Public Library.
URL: http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/print/exhibits/revolution/

Sargent at Harvard
This is "a searchable database that makes available images and textual information relating to the American artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) in the collections of the Harvard University Art Museums and the Harvard University Portrait Collection." Browse all of the records, or search by keyword, subject, medium, location, and other options. Includes a list of other museums that house works by Sargent. From the Harvard University Art Museums.
URL: http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sargent/

The Sargent Murals at the Boston Public Library
"This web site focuses on the history, interpretation, and restoration of John Singer Sargent's monumental mural cycle, 'Triumph of Religion,' in the McKim building of the Boston Public Library." Features many images, panoramic views, a biography of John Singer Sargent, history of the commission, selected bibliography, and glossary. Produced by the Straus Center for Conservation at the Harvard University Art Museums.
URL: http://www.sargentmurals.bpl.org/

Copyright 2007 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII.

The Keys Press

2007-12-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

The Keys Press is a specialist music publisher focusing on Australian classical music - both historical and contemporary.

It publishes works by the likes of Geoffrey Allen, Miriam Hyde and Margaret Sutherland.

The aim of The Keys Press is "to provide a means to make scores of Australian classical music, contemporary and historical, available to performers and for preservation in libraries", and a very worthy and worthwhile aim it is, too.

If you are looking at adding a strong element of Australian content to your repertoire, you should cast a glance over their Australian Heritage Series (which is organised by composer) or Complete Catalogue (which is organised by instrument) and see what gems you can find.

Enotes.com

2007-12-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

E-notes.com is a collection of various sources that would be useful for students of various disciplines. Essentially, all of the sources they have are dictionaries or encyclopedias of some description.

The Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music is one of the resources for Arts Students, and provides brief (as in, very short) definitions of various aspects of music - instruments, movements, styles. Nothing terribly in depth, but it will answer your "what the heck is that?" questions.

Other resources on enote.com include Contemporary Musicians, which sort of acts as a cross between a "who's who" and an encyclopedia, and the The Oxford Dictionary of Art.

Could be worth consulting, from time to time.

Resources for Creative Arts Students

2007-12-06T21:44:00.001-08:00

Welcome!

This blog is designed to provide reviews of sites and resources of interest to Creative Arts Students.

If you study Visual Arts, Digital Arts, Graphic Design, Theatre, Music or Arts managment, then you should find something here to interest you or help you with your studies.

Some sites will be serious educational resources, others will be things I've found on the web that I think will be of interest to Creative Arts students. Either way, you're sure to find something worth checking out.

Stage Hand Primer

2007-12-04T20:55:00.002-08:00

Now this one is very useful for anyone thinking of getting a job as a stage hand:

Stage Hand Primer is put out by the professional stagehands of NE Wisconsin union.

It covers a range of basic, practical information such as what type of rope to use, which knots are the best for stage work, how to set up different types of flys, skills to use in the scene shop...

In other words, it's useful. A lot of the things I find on the net are more interesting than useful, but this one is definitely useful.

Overview of Careers for Stage Technicians

2007-12-04T20:55:00.001-08:00

Well, here's an interesting page from the Office of Career and Technical Education, Virginia and the University of Virginia:

Overview of Careers for Stage Technicians.

Aimed at high school students and people planning on going to college, the page gives short, succinct descriptions of what is involved in various careers back stage.

It covers education and certification (in America, of course), and specialisations including sound, lighting, management and costumes.

Doesn't mention video design or projections, though. They must not have caught up with the whole "convergence" thing yet.

The Speech Accent Archive

2007-11-21T20:54:00.000-08:00

So, you're playing a Jamaican for your Performance assessment piece and you want to have a bit of an idea how the accent sounds?

Try consulting the Speech Accent Archive.

In a rather simple, but interesting, concept, this site has people of various different nationalities and native languages read the same short passage. Next to the passage is the phonetic transcript of the sounds they produced, and underneath is a commentary on particular features of note (for example, whether the vowels are especially short, or if they use a labial fricative for w or a velar fricative for h).

You can just listen to the sound files if you want, but the transcripts and comments gives you a better idea of how to extrapolate what you hear in one paragraph to what you might apply to your script.

The site does assume you have a basic understanding of speech sounds and phonetics, so if you don't know what a labial fricative is (think f and v) you might want to consult some of the following pages to answer a few questions:

A Reference Glossary to Pronunciation Terms and Terminology from About.com gives a basic description of what the different terms used in speech description mean. Azu's Note's Archive for the ‘Phonetics & Phonology’ Category contains some charts and pictures lifted from various source books on the subject, but isn't terribly easy to work through. The UCLA Phonetics Lab has a few tutorials on phonetics and vowels and Consonants, including Peter Ladefoged's recording of every sound in the IPA chart.

Of course, you can always go straight to the International Phonetics Association and look at their charts and materials, but it's a professional organisation, so you'll find the charts aren't explained for the average mug.

Write a Brilliant Pantomime with Billy and Wolfy

2007-11-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

This looks timely:

Write a Brilliant Pantomime with Billy and Wolfy gives some basic advice on how to write your very own pantomime. Having taught pantomime in schools, I can tell you that it is a brilliant way to capture the imaginations of not only your students, but also your audience.

Audience participation, cross dressing, barely controlled chaos... what's not to love about a good panto?

Adolphe Sax

2007-11-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it's just me, but Sax seems to be in the wind lately (pardon the incredibly bad pun).

It seems as if every time I turn around I bump into another reference to Adolphe Sax - the made who invented the saxophone (absolutely no contention there) and claimed to invent the Sax Horn family (which ticked off other instrument makers at the time, who said he didn't "invent" the instruments to much as develop them from other, pre-existing models).

Say what you will about the man, he had a long lasting effect on the nature of the brass sections in orchestral and band ensembles.

You can read a nice summary of his life here, at the official City of Dinant's website, where they seem to be fairly proud of Sax and his achievements.

New look for the Mona Lisa

2007-11-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

The Mona Lisa has been in the news a bit, lately, due to the "unveiling", as it were, of her "true" colours and some details that had been lost through the ravages of time. She's not the only "new look" on the block, as there seems to be a steady stream of restored "classic masters" paintings coming out of museums, universities and galleries.

Courtesy of the Librarian's Index to the Internet (LII), here are a couple of articles you might find interesting:

25 Secrets of Mona Lisa Revealed at Live Science.

True Colors of the Mona Lisa Revealed at Lumiere Technology

And, just for good measure, here's the CNN online report:

High Resolution Image Hints at 'Mona Lisa's' Eyebrows

Pablo Picasso - Official Website

2007-10-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

This is apparently the official website for Pablo Picasso.

The website itself isn't terribly thrilling or informative, but once you get into the articles in the journal it gets interesting. If you want to learn a thing or two about Picasso, this would probably be a good place to go.

TATE ETC

2007-10-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

TATE ETC is a magazine put out by Tate to highlight the various artworks on display in the different branches and provide some extra information.

Free, full-text online. Worth checking out.

For an example, read the article on Hogarth: The Grandfather of Satire. Fascinating stuff.

Uncomfortable Truthes at the Victoria & Albert

2007-10-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

In honour of the bicentenary of the parliamentary abolition of the Slave Trade in England, the Victoria and Albert Museum is running a number of activities highlighting the impact of slavery on art and design: Uncomfortable Truths.

Eleven artists have contributed to this project, and the site will provide you with a range of information regarding the touring exhibition, including a reading list for anyone interested in researching the concept further.

Writing the Art History Paper

2007-10-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a handy guide from Dartmouth:

Writing the Art History Paper.

It highlights some of the things you need to keep in mind when writing an assignment in Art History and offers pointers on how to write about visual material.

Unfortunately, we don't have access to their online glossary, but you should be able to use Grove or CAMEO for most things.

You can also find art glossaries and dictionaries on the shelves at 703 in a library using Dewey or N33 in one using Library of Congress classification (JCU Library uses Dewey).

Art Education 2.0

2007-10-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

It seems like almost every thing's going 2.0 these days.

Art Education 2.0 - Using New Technology in Art Classrooms is a network "for art educators interested in exploring applications of new technologies in their classrooms".

You do have to sign up and join the network if you want to take part in the discussions, groups, blogs, photo/video sharing, etc, but some of the features on the homepage can be used by visitors - including a list of links to other resources that might be worth exploring.

An Ounce of Prevention

2007-10-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

How well do you take care of your family's treasures?

Where and how have you stored your artwork, photographs, clothes, diaries...?

The Institute of Museum and Library Studies have put together a nice, succinct "how to" guide for taking care of your 'treasures' for future generations and heritage purposes.

An Ounce of Prevention: Nine Tips for Keeping Your Family Treasures Safe gives practical advice on how to keep your stuff so that the amount of damage done to them over time is minimised.

Degas

2007-09-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka "the Met") has put together this overview of Edgar Degas, one of the key figures in the Impressionist movement.

This site gives you information about his life as well as images of his work and commentary on his artistic style.

Digital Blasphemy

2007-09-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

For those of you who aren't yet familiar with Ryan Bliss' work, you should take a look at Digital Blasphemy, one of the longest running and best known web-galleries of digital art.

Bliss specialises in digital artwork designed to be viewed on computer - most of his work is perfect for wallpapers, and a lot of it plays with the fact that computer screens are back-lit. Some of these are available free of charge, but you will have access to a wider variety of his work if you become a paying member.

He also offers links to tutorials and software providers for budding digital artists, and a list of recommended books.

Web Pages that Suck

2007-09-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Web Pages that Suck is a site by Vincent Flanders which is intended to point out what design elements in web pages make them difficult to navigate and more likely to repel than attract.

For the past 12 years Vincent has been highlighting 'bad' web pages and offering tips on how to avoid creating poorly designed pages. He particularly aims his advice at websites for non-profit organisations.

His own web pages are, it must be said, boring. It does look as if he has taken his own advice to the point of stifling any and all creativity. His pages also look somewhat dated, like the standard fare from the late 1990s. If I were to be unkind, I'd probably say he has spent far too much time finding bad designs and not enough time exploring good ones.

However, some of the advise contained in Does My Web Page Suck? (and the 'politically correct' version Is My Web Site Ineffective?) is well worth reading.

The checklists reminded me of a few basics that I had forgotten, which will hopefully result in some slightly better designs on my part. However, I wouldn't recommend following his advice blindly.

Vincent Van Gogh and Emily Carr

2007-09-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

A nice flashy site from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA Boston):

Collection Tour - Vincent Van Gogh takes you through MFA's Van Gogh collection, including the odd "lost" Van Gogh.

As flash sites go, it's relatively basic, so it's probably more relevant to Visual Arts students looking at Van Gogh than anyone else, but it's still worth a look.

The Vancouver Art Gallery, on the other hand, has a much flashier flashy site for their collections regarding the work of Emily Carr. Also a good resource for Visual Arts students, and a much better exemplar for New Media and Graphic Design students

Smithsonian American Art Museum

2007-09-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

While we're on the topic of the Smithsonian...

They've gone and put together a list of their Interactive displays, ranging from slide shows to flashy sites.

There are lots of gems among the collection, including Speaking of Pictures, in which a Thayer painting is given the roll-over treatment, and Campfire, which was designed to help middle school classes engage with early American history. Interesting stuff.

There's a good chance that other interactive displays in this collection will end up in this blog, but it's worth taking a look through them yourself, and see what gems you can discover.

Chinese Paper Gods

2007-09-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Chinese Paper Gods is a digital collection of images of Chinese Paper Gods (funnily enough) held by the East Asian Library at Columbia University.

It's an interesting look at an art form and a custom.

Smithsonian Global Sound

2007-09-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

One of the many resources available from the Smithsonian is a wonderful site called Smithsonian Global Sound.

It offers the chance to "download and learn about traditional music from all around the world". Included amongst the goodies on offer: Tools for Teaching (including lesson plans and activities), videos to watch and CDs to download (for a fee).

At the moment they have a feature on Throat-singing, and you can watch a few Quick-time videos on the subject. Fascinating stuff.

They didn't have anything on the dvorgrle, though. Looks like the Library of Congress is still the best source of information on the incredibly obscure folk instruments...

Music Australia

2007-09-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

The National Library of Australia co-ordinates the Music Australia project - a collaboration between the National Library and the State Libraries to collect a wide range of resources regarding music in Australia.

These resources range from Western Australia's WA Musical Memories Online, which provides PDFs of scores, to the NLA's picture resources.

If you study music, you should find out what Music Australia has to offer.

Some supplies - Theatre and Physical Performance

2007-08-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

Dubé Juggling Equipment has updated their website recently, and the result is rather dangerous, I must say. Beforehand, you could find the props easily enough, but the books and videos required a little extra work. Now, you can click on a product (say, knives or whips) and you can easily navigate to other pages which list books and videos on the subject, giving you the opportunity to spend far too much money at once.

For those of you who like to spend your money a little closer to home, there's always Juggle Art. They also offer packages for schools and the chance to buy wholesale, so there are plenty of reasons to check them out. Juggle Art has recently extended it's range, so now it offers a wide variety of circus equipment and props for physical performance. These include aerial circus equipment, like trapeze, tissu and cloud swing, as well as fire twirling equipment, clown supplies and a bicycle that can fit eleven acrobats.
Oh, and they also sell straight jackets. You never know when one of those will come in handy...

For those of you who just want a place where you can get half-decent theatrical make-up (including how-to guides and kits for special effects and particular character types), you should probably take a look at Mentone Educational Centre. While MEC is probably better known for their anatomical charts and models, they also have a good range of reasonably priced theatrical make-up, and you can buy for one, or for a class/cast.

The Calligraphic World of Mi Fu's Art

2007-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

Very nice. Possibly even cooler than the Bog People site.

The Calligraphic World of Mi Fu's Art is both an interesting look at a well known artist in a classical art form and a very flashy site indeed.

I'd recommend it for both Visual Arts and New Media/Graphic Arts students. The gallery lets you get up-close and personal with examples of Mi Fu's work, and the biography is a darn fine piece of digital design.

The use of hyperlinks throughout the site is *very* nicely done. It is really quite elegant. In the gallery you can double click on a character and it will show you different versions of that character throughout Mi Fu's papers, which will then link you through to those papers. If you click on any of the cities in the biography, it shifts the time-line to show you exactly when Mi Fu was there, and then offers a link to the gallery to view which letter he wrote in that location.

The only thing it doesn't have is a list of credits (at least, not in English), otherwise I'd gladly give you the name of the designer. Good stuff.

WPA California Folk Music Project

2007-08-23T21:50:00.001-07:00

What the heck is a misnice?

Well, since you asked, a misnice (also spelt mjersnice) is a kind of bag-pipe made from goat-skin that originated in Europe and made it to America during one of the gold-rushes.

I came across this interesting piece of information whilst taking a look at the Library of Congress's page, California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties. Amongst other pages of interesting stuff, it contains a Glossary of Musical Instruments, where one can click on the names of the instruments to find out all sorts of information: pictures, sound recordings - even some technical drawings.

This is probably one of the few places on the net where you'll find such a wealth of information about the folk music instruments that were brought into America from around the world.

See if you can find the picture of the misnice with the dvorgrle.

Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection

2007-08-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

The Brown University Library Centre for Digital Initiatives has taken on the ambitious project of digitising all 15, 000 prints, watercolours and drawings from Anne S.K. Brown's Military Collection.

They've made a start, which can be searched here. The focus of the collection is military and naval uniforms from the 17th Century through to the present.

CAMEO: Conservation & Art Material Encyclopedia Online

2007-08-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

This tool is worth a look for any artist, but it would be particularly relevant to art students. It's not the best in its field, but it's gaining a bit of attention from certain quarters.

CAMEO: Conservation & Art Material Encyclopedia Online is an initiative of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and it exactly what it sounds like - an encyclopedia of the materials used in conservation and art.

The search function could be a bit better. A search for 'watercolor' didn't bring up gouache, although it did bring up sumi, and when I tried to click on the link to watercolor from the article on 'gouache' it told me the material didn't exist in the database (which clearly wasn't true). Likewise, the search for gouache didn't bring up poster paint, although a search for poster paint did bring up gouache.

Also, the entries have a section for synonyms and related terms, but those terms aren't hyperlinked, so you have to start a new material search for each.

Note the fact that I used 'watercolor', not 'watercolour'. CAMEO does not do well with non-American spelling.

If you know exactly what term you want to look up, CAMEO will give you a nice succinct definition. From what I could tell, it's main purpose would be as an alternative to Grove Art Online if, for some reason, you could not get into it. Given the choice, though, Grove is the better reference resource.

Roman Portrait Sculptures

2007-08-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

Cedar Rapids Museum of Arts is the custodian of the Tom and Nan Riley Collection of Roman Portrait Sculptures. It's a simple little site which gives you pictures of the various heads and busts in the collection as well as commentaries on each (taken primarily from Richard Daniel De Puma's 1988 book, Roman Portraits).

National Museum of African Art

2007-08-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

The National Museum of African Art has an excellent web-presence. It really is one of those museums who manage to give you a lot to see and do at home, without needing to physically go to the museum itself. The virtual exhibitions are well worth a look - both for the African Art and for the design of the web-sites.

I quite enjoyed the Hats Off! overview of traditional tribal head-gear. Simple, yet effective.

Clown Conservatory

2007-08-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

When I taught High School Drama, I told one of my students he would make an excellent clown, and he should consider undertaking proper training. He thought a) it was an insult, and b) the idea of training to be a clown was ridiculous.

However, clowning is one of the oldest and most difficult skills in the history of performance, and something many of the best "dramatic" actors have difficulty with. If you have a talent for it, it should definitely be encouraged and honed with training, just like any other skill.

One of the most famous clowning academies in America is The Clown Conservatory, which operates out of San Fransisco and offers a First Year programme in Clowning.

In conjunction with the New College of California, the Clown Conservatory also offers BAs, MAs and MFAs in Experimental Performance Clowning Concentration, which seems to be an awfully fancy way of saying "clowning". It should probably be mentioned that the Experimental Performance Institute (which is the branch of NC that runs this course) has a strong focus on Queer and Activist Performance, and thus each semester deals not only with clowning but also subjects about Queer and Activist Performance.

Are the Clown Conservatory mob the only people in the world teaching clowning? Heck no. Check out the list at Clown Events to find some others (some of these links might be out of date). There are, unfortunately, a grand total of zero specialist clown training organisations in Australia, but some of the circus training organisations cover skills used clowning, so make sure you check out NICA's page of circus links to see if anyone is running a course that might be useful.

Keeping the Artist Safe

2007-08-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

A public minded post, this time.

I'm sure you're all aware that art is a dangerous business. At best, you only have to deal with the risk of RSI, at worst you're dealing with heavy-duty chemicals and/or serious power-tools.

The National Library of Medicine has put together a list of online resources for keeping safe while working with art and craft: Enviro-health links - Keeping the Artist Safe: Hazards of Arts and Crafts Materials

In includes information on hazardous chemicals and occupational diseases connected to many areas of arts and crafts, as well as consumer health information on a number of commonly used substances.

You can find out all sorts of information. For instance, do you know you need to eat several tubes of artists' watercolour paints before symptoms of poisoning occur, and that if (after receiving emergency care) you can survive past the first 48 hours you are likely to make a full recovery? You do now.

Smithsonian: Art and Design

2007-08-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Smithsonian (as it has come to be known, having mysteriously dropped the word "Institution" in almost all references to itself) has conveniently divided it's online resources into a number of different categories, Art & Design, History & Culture and Science & Technology.

The Art & Design pages give you the opportunity to check out their selected highlights (my personal favourite: the lunchboxes), but you can also search by subject. They even have a wonderful tool called Ask Joan of Art, where you can ask The Smithsonian's information specialists questions pertaining to American Art and they'll either give you a succinct answer, or help steer you in the right direction for your research.

The other resources are worth looking at, too, if you're interested in the many wonders The Smithsonian has to offer.

Hitchcock basic film techniques

2007-08-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Thinking of making a film? Even if it's only a minute long, I'd still suggest looking at this site: Hitchcock: Basic Film Techniques.

Now, Hitchcock didn't necessarily invent all of the techniques listed on this page, but he used them to great effect. This page provides a nice, simple overview of a hand full of techniques which will lift your game up a couple of notches.

It's also a great resource for high school students, if you find yourself teaching a unit on film.

Dramamuse and the Canadian Museum of Civilization

2007-08-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

I knew I remembered the Canadian Museum of Civilization had an excellent Museum Theatre programme.

Dramamuse has been running there for years (almost 20 years, in fact), and has been doing an excellent job of living up to its mandate "to interpret the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in a lively and exciting way".

Using mostly historical vignettes, interactive theatre and cameos, the Dramamuse programme gives visitors to the museum an insight into life in the past by performing it before their eyes (and dragging them into it on occasion).

They cover all sorts of era's from throughout Canada's history (and they do it bilingually as well). They tend to be as naturalistic as they can, though, so don't expect any of the performances in French to come with subtitles or English translations.

The website gives a very good overview of what Dramamuse is all about, as well as showing you some of their performances.

Seeing as Museum Theatre is one of the most exciting developments to happen in cultural institutions and performance in the last few decades, this is a great way to get more acquainted with this particular field of performance.

Mysterous Bog People - web page design/New Media

2007-08-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well this is just plain cool.

The Mysterious Bog People is a co-production of the Drents Museum, The Canadian Museum of Civilization (which runs an excellent Museum Theatre programme, if I remember correctly), The Glenbow Museum and at least one other institution, the name of which I have been unable to determine.

However, it's mostly Drents Museum's baby, and quite an attractive baby it is. A very good example of what can be done with Flash animation and a bucket load of information, the Mysterious Bog People is a highly engaging way to learn all about the archaeological finds that have been pulled out of peat bogs (particularly the peat bog near the village of Eelde).

A mixture of animation, film and sound, it is highly entertaining (in a documentary kind of way) as well as informative. Well worth a look for any New Media student.

Erth Visual and Physical Inc.

2007-07-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

Erth Visual and Physical Inc. is an Australian theatrical company that specialises in puppetry, mask and physical theatre (no, that's not a spelling mistake, it really is "Erth", not "Earth"). They have worked in a variety of different settings and locations, but are perhaps best known amongst the Museum Theatre circles, as they have worked with both the National Museum of Australia, and the Auckland Museum, where they were responsible for a rather unusual... er... mating programme.

Back in 2005, Erth created the Gondwana puppetry show for the National Museum of Australia, which featured a full-body, life-sized puppet of a male Dryosaur. At the same time, they created a female Dryosaur for the Auckland Museum (who was named Delaurus). After he had finished is touring duties in Australia, the male Dryosaur (now named Basil) moved to the Auckland Museum to join Delaurus, where they became the proud parents of two hatchlings, which took pride of place in the 2006/2007 school holiday programme at the museum. You can find out more about the happy family at Auckland Museum's Dinosours Alive! page.

However, Erth doesn't just specialise in dinosaur puppet mating programmes. They also dress as gargoyles and abseil down buildings, ride around parks with their heads encased in water tanks and get dressed up in giant puppets of former Australian politicians to hang out in front of Old Parliament House.

Have a stroll through their website and check out their various productions and designs. It's worth a look at this Australian Visual Theatre powerhouse - especially if you are involved with Theatre or Visual Arts.

Vent Haven Museum

2007-07-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

This one will be of interest to those looking at Creative Industries, New Media and maybe even Theatre.

Vent Haven is, as they say on their site, the world's only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism. Yes, it's one of the many little museums which dot the globe. Yes, like most little museums it seems to be a collection of stuff. From what I could see, the museum looked like any other doll museum you might wander into...

And that's why I've brought it to your attention. The website is so comprehensive that you can visit the museum from the comfort of your own chair. In the multimedia section you can see a vast number of the pictures that would be on the walls but, more than that, in the video section there are interactive 360 degree pans of the main rooms, so you can actually "stand" in the middle of the room and look around (see if you can find the copyright stamp on the composites). They are obviously constructed of composite pictures, but it's pretty well done for a "little museum". I'd love to see some of the bigger museums do this.

In terms of an online presence for a small arts institution or project, this is a pretty good specimen. It has areas where it could be vastly improved, but I'd still recommend checking it out if you think you might be designing web pages for (or working in) galleries, collections, museums and the like.

Also, I learnt that ventriloquists refer to themselves as "vents", and that large numbers of dummies staring somewhere past your shoulder is a bit odd. I wouldn't want to be stuck there after hours.

Museum Studies

2007-07-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

If you're studying for a Bachelor of Creative Industries, then there's a good chance Museums and Art Galleries are in your future. You should start looking at what sort of further studies and resources are out there in the field of Museum Studies, or Museology.

Here's a good place to start: The American Library Association's Internet Resources Page, Museum Studies: Online resources for students and practitioners. It's very American Centric, but you should still be able to find some good stuff.

Wooster Collective - ephemeral art

2007-07-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

The Wooster Collective website "is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world".

Some of it is graffiti, some is ephemeral art, some is just stuff painted/pasted on the sides of walls or left by the side of the road...

Museum of Arts and Design

2007-07-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Museum of Arts and Design, formerly the American Craft Museum, collects and exhibits "contemporary objects created in clay, glass, wood, metal and fiber".

At the moment they have an exhibition of small chairs. Well, George Beylerian (the collector) thinks it's interesting - there are over 350 of them on display at the MAD. Only a few online, though.

Zamzar - File conversion

2007-07-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Ever needed to change a file-type in order to suit your purposes? Zamzar offers free online file conversion for images, documents and sound files.

Sounds like something a New Media student might find useful...

Yiddish Sheet Music

2007-07-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

The Brown University Library has made available online a mess of Yiddish Sheet Music from before the 1920s (and you know what that means: Public Domain, baby!)

Now, the Brown University actually owns the images of the sheet music, so you can't reproduce the pictures without their permission, but you should be well within your rights to play the music wherever and whenever you want.

Each page has been turned into a jpg image - most of which are so crisp and clear you can see faint markings from the other side of the page.

The music is mostly for piano, with lyrics, so it isn't as useful as the LOC's African-American Band Music catalogue, which has instrumental parts, but it's still well worth a look.

African-American Band Music - instrumental parts!

2007-07-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

I told you the Library of Congress has some good stuff.

Its collection on African-American Band Music and Recordings, 1893-1923 has sheet music and sound recordings, as well as some educational material.

At its heart is a collection of "stock" music for bands and small orchestras written by African Americans. These include individual parts for the various instruments.

Looking for a score for you and your muso mates to play together? Why not grab a rag from the turn of the last century? As far as I can tell, it's all public domain.

Some pieces are a little misplaced (when I looked for the drum part for "Hot Chocolate Rag" the 1st Violin part turned up in it's place, with the drums lurking about where the cello was supposed to be), but it's still a fine resource for musicians.

Colour and Graphics

2007-07-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Here are four "short courses", or tutorials on the use of colour in computer graphics.

Lode's Computer Graphics Tutorial has quite a number of tutorials set out like a cross between a lecture and a how-to guide covering various topics, including colour, fractals and raycasting.

Pennsylvania State University has online notes for a seminar called Graphics Short Course 1: Color Theory and 2D Image Representation, which was presented by George Otto in 2000.

The ANU also has lecture notes for Color Topics in Computer Graphics, which includes lots of lovely scientific stuff about how the eye works (although, the fact that the Australian National University has persistently referred to colour as 'color' in this lecture makes me instinctively mistrust them).

And last, but not least, Standford University has a pdf to offer us: A Survey of Color for Computer Graphics, which clocks in at 86 pages and includes an annotated bibliography and a slide show (well, a print-out of a slide show).

Nothing terribly exciting, but worth a look for those of you undertaking digital design subjects. Theory is always handy.

Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years

2007-07-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

I hope you've got the latest and greatest Flash Player installed, because it's worth it to see this exhibition:

Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years

Richard Serra is a sculpturer with a fantastic sense of space, and MoMA's done a brilliant job of creating an online installation of his mammoth works. Click on the "Enter Site Full Screen" option for a very flashy walk through his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring photographs and video footage to give you a good sense of the artist's use of large spaces.

It's an impressive body of work, and my hat goes off to the designer responsible for the website, Shannon Darrough (with, no doubt, plenty of useful direction from Allegra Burnette).

This one is worth checking out if you're interested in sculpture or digital media.