ArtBabble: New Videos, New Partners

Awhile back we blogged about ArtBabble, a website created by staff at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The site showcases art content in high-quality video format from a variety of sources and perspectives. Since our last blog post, ArtBabble has partnered with many more institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago and, most recently, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Click on the image above to watch a video documenting the installation of Catherine Opie’s photographic series Surfers and Icehouses, brought to ArtBabble by the Guggenheim.

PBS Arts Website

PBS recently introduced a beta version of its new arts website which covers theater, dance, visual art, film and music. Four virtual exhibitions are among the site’s initial offerings; one of these, called Ruin & Revival, explores creativity in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It includes works from the series “Storm Cycle” by artist Thomas Mann.

Another area of the website encourages viewers to contribute digital photographs of artwork to the PBS Arts Flickr group and tag works with keywords, grouping them into collaborative virtual exhibitions.

YouTube Videos in Powerpoint or Keynote

 

Here’s a quick way for PC users to add YouTube links to PowerPoint presentations:

 
Mac users have to download videos before inserting into a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. This is easier with free software like Tooble. Here’s how it works in Keynote:

  • http://www.totalapps.net/tutorials/embedding-youtube-video-in-keynote-in-3-easy-steps/

New Podcast Series from TateShots: Sound & Vision

TateShots is a podcast from the Tate Modern which presents a selection of short videos each month about modern and contemporary art. The next TateShots series, called Sound & Vision, will feature musicians who cross boundaries into visual art: Talking Heads front-man David Byrne; The Fall’s Mark E. Smith; Cosey Fanni Tutti of Throbbing Gristle; anti-folk singer and cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis; performance poet Lydia Lunch and the prolific Billy Childish – who will be shown interviewing himself. For a preview of the series, click here. To be sure you don’t miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast.

The Bayeux Tapestry Comes Alive

The Bayeaux Tapestry, one of the most important chronicles of its day, offers a vivid depiction of the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. A video available on YouTube from PotionGraphics brings the tale to life through animation and sound effects. The clip begins about halfway through the tapestry, at the appearance of Haley’s Comet, and ends at The Battle of Hastings.

Video discovered via Open Culture. The entire scroll is available to view here.

Vintage Television Commercials on iTunes U

More than 1,500 historic American television commercials from the Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in the Duke University Special Collections Library are now available on iTunes U. This collection is called AdViews. Videos are free to download, and can be viewed at the computer or on video-capable iPods.

Most of the 1,500 currently available videos date from the 1950s and 1960s. A keyword search for “coffee” brings up eight albums, including a Yuban Coffee ablum with more than seventy commercials.

The total collection comprises 12,000 commercials and librarians at Duke hope to finish digitization by the end of 2009. Click here for more information.