Category: Subject Areas

Categories
Ancient Images on the Web Museums

Visual Documentation of the Ara Pacis Augustae

Reed College has made available online a comprehensive guide to the Ara Pacis Augustae.

The Ara Pacis Augustae is a complex masterpiece, with elaborate reliefs including more than a hundred figures and voluminous vegetation filled with the details of nature. It is also a much damaged and reconstructed monument, making it important to distinguish original from later portions and more recent changes. This web site attempts to provide in-depth visual documentation in support of the in-depth scholarly publications that have so enriched our understanding of Augustan art and society.

Information on the website includes models, diagrams and photographs of the Augustan altar, maps and aerial views of the original site, published images, and photographs of the contemporary museum location.

Categories
Images on the Web Innovative Technology Modern - Contemporary Moving Images

Using GIS to Turn Movement into Art

Many of us have heard recent revelations about the kinds of geographic information stored on our mobile devices, including iPhones and iPads. On the lighter side of location tracking, some artists are using this kind of data to create art based on people’s movements and interactions. One such example is Maria Scileppi’s Living Brushstroke project. Her video Anthem includes visualizations from events like Burning Man and the 2010 Chicago Marathon. According to the project’s blog, a Living Brushstroke iPhone app will be available soon.

Via O’Reilly Radar.

Categories
Architecture Exhibitions

Geometry and Architecture at the Graham Foundation

The current exhibition at the Graham Foundation, Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry, explores the work of one of the first women to ever receive a fellowship from the Foundation, as well as one of the first women to receive a Masters of Architecture from Harvard University.

This exhibition presents the work of the visionary architect and theorist Anne Tyng. Since the 1950s, when she worked closely with Louis I. Kahn and independently pioneered habitable space-frame architecture, Tyng has applied natural and numeric systems to built forms on all scales, from urban plans to domestic spaces.

The exhibition will be on view in Chicago until June 18, 2011 at the Graham Foundation.

Categories
East Asian

Tonight! Japanese Magic Lantern Presentation and Performance

Directly influenced by Asian shadow and puppet theater, utsushi-e was a uniquely Japanese magic lantern show using multiple, hand-held lanterns.  Bearing some surprising similarities to the European phantasmagoria show, ustushi-e was a screen practice based on back-projection. Tokyo-based performance troupe Minwa-za has revived this 200-year-old multi-media spectacle, which they present in an evening encompassing history, techniques and a special performance of projections, live narration and traditional shamisen accompaniment.

Update: Tickets are now sold out. Event will take place at the Film Studies Center.

Via The Center for East Asian Studies.

Categories
East Asian Modern - Contemporary News

1001 Chairs for Ai WeiWei

Chinese artist Ai WeiWei is still missing after having been detained while trying to board a flight from Beijing to Hong Kong in early April.

A question posted on Facebook about what we, as an arts community, can do to support the safe release of Ai Weiwei sparked great ideas, including one by curator Steven Holmes to reenact Ai Weiwei’s project Fairytale: 1,001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs—an installation which was comprised of 1,001 late Ming and Qing Dynasty wooden chairs at Documenta 12 in 2007 in Kassel, Germany—in front of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world. This Sunday, April 17, at 1 PM local time, supporters are invited to participate in 1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei, by bringing a chair and gathering outside Chinese embassies and consulates to sit peacefully in support of the artist’s immediate release.

Via Facebook.

Categories
Architecture Modern - Contemporary News VRC

UofC Lantern Slides in the New York Times

Lantern slides that belonged to the University of Chicago Visual Resources Center were donated to Theaster Gates’ Dorchester Project, which was featured in a recent New York Times article.

Mr. Gates has combined a former candy store, a single-family house and a duplex across the street into a site of artistic and community change for a neighborhood that has suffered years of blight and cultural neglect. The installation is an entry in a growing art movement to create “hybridized” arts spaces that serve multiple functions, taking inspiration from installations in Houston and Los Angeles, as well as in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood in a community center called the Experimental Station.

 

Categories
American Architecture Exhibitions Museums

Department of Urban Speculation at the MCA

During the month of April an installation by Chicago architect Alex Lehnerer and his Department of Urban Speculation will be the featured UBS 12×12 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. This work, called Roadside Attractions,

looks at such ubiquitous and abundantly available urban elements, or “attractions” that are perpendicular to the road: doors, roofs, windows, lobbies, stairs, or walls. The exhibition examines how these can become protagonists, which, if exaggerated, over-extended, or misused, can form the urban between structure and situation.

The architect’s Department of Urban Speculation, founded in 2009,

was set up to create a link between Lehnerer’s work as practicing architect and urban designer and his academic role in the same fields.

Alex Lehnerer will give a free Artist Talk in conjunction with the exhibition on Tuesday, April 12th at 6pm. The “First Friday,” April 1st, marks the unofficial opening of the show. UBS 12 x 12 is a program at the MCA designed to feature new work by new artists. An archive of past exhibitions is available here.

Categories
East Asian Exhibitions

Tibetan Art & Culture: An Exhibition of Photographs and Drawings

Location: Regenstein Library, 1st Floor Lobby
Dates: Monday, March 28th to Friday, June 3rd (Spring Quarter 2011)
Public Hours: M–Th. 8:30am–7pm ; Fri. 8:30am–5pm; Sat. 9am–1pm; Closed Sundays
Guided Tour & Opening Reception: Tuesday, March 29th at 4:30pm

Presented by Eric Huntington, Ph.D. Candidate Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations

Categories
American Images on the Web Innovative Technology

PhilaPlace: Explore the City of Neighborhoods

 

PhilaPlace is an interactive Web site, created by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, that connects stories to places across time in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods. PhilaPlace weaves stories shared by ordinary people of all backgrounds with historical records to present an interpretive picture of the rich history, culture, and architecture of our neighborhoods, past and present. The PhilaPlace Web site uses a multimedia format – including text, pictures, audio and video clips, and podcasts – and allows visitors to map their own stories in place and time.

PhilaPlace creates a dynamic virtual view of a city, browse-able via maps, topics, and collection groupings. For example, clicking on the map view and then selecting “Verbal and Artistic Expression” from the left menu will bring up artistic sites throughout the city, plotted on a map. Click on each point of interest for more information including images.

Categories
Images on the Web Innovative Technology Modern - Contemporary Museums Renaissance - Baroque

Discover, Experience, and Share Art with Artfinder

Artfinder has partnered with over 400 museums worldwide to provide online access to hundreds of thousands of artworks. After creating a free account, Artfinder users can start building profiles in order to receive personalized recommendations. Users can “collect” favorite works and then share their virtual collections on Facebook or Twitter.

Right now Artfinder includes many Renaissance, Impressionism, and Baroque images. The selection continues to grow.

Via Deep Focus.