My First Gif

I have been tinkering and tinkering every now and then to create an animated gif!  Finally, success!  This animated gif of Charles Demuth's painting I Saw the Figure Five In Gold is also a comment on embedded metadata, because the cataloging information about the painting, the text of the poem, and the painting are all part of the gif.

(I am adding my gifs to a gallery page on this blog!)

The Public Domain Review

The Public Domain Review, a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation, is a fascinating resource!



Moose, "from the Austrian painter Aloys Zötl’s Bestiarium, a series of exquisite paintings of various animals undertaken from 1831 through until his death in 1887. He was relatively unknown until, decades after his death, his work was 're-discovered' by surrealist André Breton..."



The Public Domain Review publishes articles which focus on works old enough to have entered the pubic domain and which are available online in openly-licensed digitised form. In general, we encourage contributions which highlight material at the more unorthodox end of the cultural spectrum – curiosities, obscure theories, strange inventions, and so on. If on a well-known figure then we tend to favour an unusual angle or a focus on lesser known works. As well as pieces which focus on particular works, we also welcome articles with a broader historical focus, though they should be closely aligned with interesting material to which we can link.

Recent articles include: Still Booking on De Quincy's Mail-Coach, and The Forgotten Tales of the Brothers Grimm.  The review also "collects" public domain images, film, audio, and text, providing links to other resources as well.



Frontispiece and title-page of the of the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen illustrated by Ludwig Emil Grimm, younger brother to Jacob and Wilhelm. This second edition was the first to be illustrated and the first to omit texts found in the first – Source.





Temperantia | ARTtube

Temperantia | ARTtube

One of many awesome videos on this multi-media site from the Netherlands!  

It features the Print Room at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts

An interesting resource I ran across through the ARLIS listserv today!

Statue of Liberty postcards from Ellis Island

"CCAHA specializes in the treatment of art and historic artifacts on paper and provides preservation education, training, and consultation.  Established in 1977, CCAHA is one of the largest nonprofit conservation facilities in the country."

CCAHA is having a number of interesting events this fall, including a "Care and Preservation of Textiles" training program in September 2012 and a program in November called "The Next Chapter: Rare Books in Modern Times." Conservators from all over the US will participate, including participants from Winterthur, the New York Public Library, and the Morgan Library and Museum.

Mattress Factory, a museum in Pittsburgh

I ran across a really great museum on the internet recently: The Mattress Factory, which describes itself:

"The Mattress Factory is a museum of contemporary art that presents art you can get into — room-sized environments, created by in-residence artists. Located in the historic Mexican War Streets of Pittsburgh’s North Side since 1977, the Mattress Factory is one of few museums of its kind anywhere."

This piece by Sarah Oppenheimer is called 610-3356 and is an actual hole in the floor of one of the galleries.  It connects to a window in a gallery below, providing a view out that window.

The Mattress Factory also has a permanent exhibition of its own visitors called MF iConfess, a "confessional-like" structure in the museum lobby where visitors answer the question "What does the Mattress Factory mean to you?" (and other things!). 

One of the current exhibitions is called Sites of Passage which documents the performance artist Tavia La Follette's participation in an Artists Residency program in Egypt in the summer 2010.  

During her residency, she started a project called Firefly Tunnels, which she describes as "metaphorical passageways for the exchange of ideas through the language of Performance Art."   The multimedia collaboration project involves artists from Egypt and the United States and includes some fascinating images.

Library Science: The Art Exhibit!

Artspace, an independent visual arts venue in New Haven, Connecticut, has announced a new exhibition called Library Science, which will be on view through January 28, 2012.  The exhibition features the works of 17 international artists, exploring their intellectual and physical relationships to the library.

Chris Coffin: Hurricanes 551.55 D (2003)

One of the artists, Reynard Loki, visually presents his own classification system of his personal library, based on the first and last lines of his books.  Madeleine Djerejian's photographic portraits were taken at "the Grolier Club in New York, the nation’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and graphic arts enthusiasts."

Philippe Gronon: Catalog de manuscrits, Bibliothèque Vaticane, Rome (one of 5 panels), 1995

Unusual library!

Reanimation Library

"The Reanimation Library is a small, independent Presence Library open to the public. It is a collection of books that have fallen out of routine circulation and been acquired for their visual content. Outdated and discarded, they have been culled from thrift stores, stoop sales, and throw-away piles, and given new life as a resource for artists, writers, cultural archeologists, and other interested parties."

from the 1974 book Soft Sculpture and Other Soft Art Forms

from the 1927 Sixth Annual of Advertising Art

The library's website was created only with Open Source software (although they do admit to using PhotoShop as well).  The site is full of fascinating and somewhat crazy images.  The library uses social media, so you can friend them on Facebook.



Definitely worth a virtual visit!