Category: Images on the Web

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Images on the Web Innovative Technology

Changes to Google’s Image Search

If you’ve tried a Google image search over the past week, you might have noticed some changes. Google recently launched a “new dense tiled layout,” with larger thumbnails and the ability to scroll through up to 1,000 images on a single page. If you click on a thumbnail, you’re now brought to a “hover pane,” showing the image as it “hovers” above the original website (and thus how the image might look in its original context).

There are other less visible changes, too: more sophisticated technology powers both the “similar images” tool and “similar colors” tool. You can read more about these changes on the Official Google Blog.

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Architecture Images on the Web Islamic

Aga Khan Award for Architecture

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established in 1977 to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Islamic culture as expressed through architecture. The 19 nominees for the 11th cycle have been announced. The nominees, which include a textile factory in Turkey, a school built on a bridge in China and a wetlands project in Saudi Arabia, will be competing for the prestigious award. Visit the Award’s website for more information about the 19 nominees. You can also download high resolution images of each nominated building.

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Images on the Web Photography

Explore Printing Techniques with the Graphics Atlas

The Graphics Atlas from the Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology allows for dynamic exploration of printing processes, from pre-photographic to digital. Visitors can browse techniques visually, by name, or on a timeline. Detailed comparisons of different techniques help viewers learn to visually distinguish one printing process from another.

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Images on the Web Innovative Technology Photography

GPS Technology Takes History to the Streets

Two new projects utilize Google Maps and historical photography to create composite views of contemporary city streets. The Museum of London‘s free mobile application, Streetmuseum, combines GPS and photographs from the museum’s collections to create an interactive visual exploration of London history.

Hold your camera up to the present day street scene and the same London location appears on your screen, offering you a window through time. Want to know more? Simply tap the information button for historical facts.

Historypin, a web-based project created by We Are What We Do in partnership with Google, pairs viewer-submitted photographs and their geographical coordinates with Google Street View, allowing for multiple snapshots of the same space throughout time. Viewers can also submit personal stories about specific places.

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American Images on the Web Photography

Public Domain Images: Dorothea Lange

Happy Birthday, Dorothea Lange! Farm Security Administration photographer Dorothea Lange was born on May 26, 1895. Because she worked for the government, some of her images are in the public domain including those available from the National Archives.

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Images on the Web Innovative Technology Photography

One Moment Captured Across the Globe

The Photography, Video and Visual Journalism blog for the New York Times, Lens, has revealed their interactive mosaic of photographs which were solicited on Sunday, May 2nd, from readers around the world. The mosaic takes shape as a globe covered with stacks of the digital photographs, corresponding in location to where they were captured at a single moment in time. The globe can be “spun” in any direction to explore various locations, and pictures can be searched by topic: community, arts and entertainment, family, money and the economy, nature and the environment, play, religion, social issues or work. Image-specific URLs are also available so that you can return to your favorite photographs again and again.

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Images on the Web Photography

Where will you be on Sunday, May 2, at 3pm?

Wherever you are, we hope you’ll have a camera — or a camera phone — in hand. And we hope you’ll be taking a picture to send to Lens that will capture this singular instant in whatever way you think would add to a marvelous global mosaic; a Web-built image of one moment in time across the world.

Read more about this project on Lens, the Photography, Video and Visual Journalism blog for the New York Times. Submit your photographs here (link will be active after 15:00 on May 2nd).

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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.

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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.

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Architecture Images on the Web Medieval Renaissance - Baroque

Architecture of Fools

In honor of April Fools’ Day, here’s a look at the basilica dedicated to the notorious holy fool Saint Francis. Sacred Destinations–an online guide to sacred sites, religious art & architecture, and historic religious places–features a comprehensive virtual tour of the Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi, including frescoes by Giotto.