Author: arybin

Assistant Director, Visual Resources Collection, University of Chicago
THATCamp Organizer

Categories
Innovative Technology Software

TechTalk: Geospatial Tools for Humanities Research

Please join us this Thursday (4/15, 12pm, Rosenwald 405) for a lunchtime TechTalk on “Geospatial Tools for Humanities Research.”

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools which combine current information with historical and modern maps for analytic and presentation purposes. VRC student staff member Helen-Mary Sheridan will present an overview of fundamental GIS concepts and present a range of current examples of their use in the humanities, including annotated atlases, a map for tracking geospatial components in literary collections, and (geo)spatial analyses of paintings.

Humanities Computing TechTalks are informal, brown bag style events for learning more about current technology topics relevant to the humanities. TechTalks are free and open to all university faculty, staff and students.

For a current list of future TechTalks, please goto the Humanities Division events calendar and search by sponsor “Computing.”

Categories
Architecture Images on the Web Innovative Technology Renaissance - Baroque

QuickTime Virtual Reality: The Sistine Chapel

Now you can (virtually) tour the Sistine Chapel via your computer screen, thanks to a project from Villanova University of Pennsylvania. Created in consultation with the Vatican, this QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) tour of the Sistine Chapel facilitates study of the frescoes and architecture in a new way.

“Villanova students and faculty from the University’s communication and computing science departments spent five nights in a closed Sistine Chapel, gathering images from every corner of the chapel, including Michelangelo’s famous artwork on the chapel ceiling and large fresco, The Last Judgment, on the sanctuary wall. This was the most extensive access ever granted by the Vatican to an outside group.” For more information, see the press release from Villanova University.

Categories
Architecture ARTstor Images by Subscription

New in ARTstor: Architecture by Le Corbusier

ARTstor has collaborated with the School of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Dalhousie University to make available approximately 250 images of architecture by Le Corbusier in the Digital Library. The images have been selected from a collection of slides donated to Dalhousie University by the family of Paul Jobin, which are housed in the School of Architecture’s Slide Library.

To view the Corbusier (Dalhousie University) collection, go to the ARTstor Digital Library (select on or off-campus here), browse by collection, and click on “Corbusier (Dalhousie University);” or search the keywords: corbusier dalhousie.

For more detailed information about this collection, visit the Le Corbusier (Dalhousie University) collection page.

Categories
Images on the Web Museums

NYARC: The New York Art Resources Consortium

In 2006, the Met, MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Frick Collection teamed up to create NYARC: the New York Art Resources Consortium, a system which unites the resources and libraries of these institutions and makes them more accessible to both scholars and the general public. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NYARC seeks to extend library and archive resources, services, and programming to a wider audience, and to facilitate collaboration between leading art research institutions.

Through NYARC’s website you can access the 800,000-record ARCADE database, which serves as a cohesive online source for the combined holdings of the Frick, MoMA, and the Brooklyn Museum. There is also a portal for WATSONLINE, the online catalog for the Museum of Modern Art. Finally, links to news posts alert you to current projects like the JSTOR Auction Catalog Pilot Project and new holdings in the NYARC museums.

To view the New York Times’ profile of NYARC, refer to this article from March 14th, 2010.

This blog post was contributed by student staff member Emilia Mickevicius.

Categories
Exhibitions Modern - Contemporary Museums

Marina Abramović Performance, Live at MoMA.org

MoMA is currently hosting a retrospective of work by performance artist Marina Abramović. The retrospective traces her career over the past four decades with approximately fifty pieces including photographs, video, and sound, as well as live re-performances of Abramović’s works by other people. The show also includes a new, original work performed by Abramović in the museum, marking the longest duration of time that she has performed a single solo piece. A live video stream of the new performance is available here. Abramović discusses the background of this project, and her desire to reach a new generation of viewers, in an interview available here.

Categories
Color

Test Your Color Acuity

X-Rite has developed an online test to evaluate color acuity based on the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test. Simply drag and drop the color blocks in each row, arranging by hue order, and then click “Score Test” to discover your problem spectrum areas.

Categories
Images on the Web Medieval

History of the Book Photostream on Flickr

The Chair of the History of the Book at the University of Amsterdam has created a Flickr photostream, including typographical material with a focus on the Netherlands from 1470-1800. The collection is a work in progress, created in collaboration with Special Collections, Amsterdam, and also with the Royal Library, The Hague and the Archive at Alkmaar. Over the coming year, project collaborators hope to extend the collection to more than 20,000 photographs of initials, ornaments and type. Descriptions to facilitate searching will also be enhanced through the use of the Iconclass database.

Categories
Architecture Innovative Technology Moving Images

JSAH Online to Include Video, Virtual Modeling and More

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has developed a new platform for its online journal. The online version of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historials (JSAH) will support video, dynamic images, virtual modeling, and digital mapping. JSAH Online will only be available to SAH members during 2010, with independent subscriptions beginning in 2011. A sample article showing some of the journal’s capabilities is currently online. See Inside Higher Ed for more information.

Categories
Images on the Web Innovative Technology Museums

Hidden Gems at the Indianapolis Museum of Art

The Indianapolis Museum of Art‘s website includes Tag Tours, or online tours by IMA staff that provide unique and unexpected connections to the museum’s extensive collection of art. These online tours include works that are not necessarily on display in the galleries. Examples include “Happy Hour” (works of art that feature wine, beer, and other libations), “WTF” (“What’s this for?” – works of art that are thought-provoking, quirky, odd, funny and potentially, from another planet), and “Impress my Boss/Grandma/Hot Date” (works from around the world and featured in the galleries so you can “study” before your next visit to the museum). You can also add your own tags.

Categories
VRC

Hold Your Horses

As finals week approaches, take a quick break from the stress by watching this clever video for the song “70 Million” by Hold Your Horses. How many works of art can you name?