Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Pathe News on Youtube


Pathe News Inc.
In 1895 Charles Pathé began his quest to document the historical events of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. By 1914, Pathé produced the first weekly newsreel.
British Pathé, the U.K. newsreel archive company, has uploaded its entire 100-year collection of 85,000 historic films in high resolution to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe

The collection, which spans 1896 to 1976, comprises some 3,500 hours of historical footage of major events, notable figures, fashion, travel, sports and culture. It includes extensive film from both World War I and World War II.
The Home page displays a choice of popular uploads, days that shook the world, disasters, inventions, animals, daredevils, celebrities and  compilations.  'Weirdest newsreels' includes a newsreel about a progressive school , a tall man marrying a short lady and  an obese three year old . In contrast you can also find footage from the Battle of the Somme , the SAS storming the Iranian Embassy in London and a documentary on the assassination of the American President John F Kennedy claiming the CIA killed him.

Thursday, 3 April 2014

Behind the Scenes of the Museum: Artists in Collections


10am – 4.30pm, Wednesday 14 May, 2014
National Museum Wales
Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NP

If you are interested in the ways artists have interacted with Museum collections then this is the event for you.
The event will include:
·         James Putnam, curator and writer, discussing shifts in the way that artists are working with museum collections and their role in activating engagement.
·         Andrew Renton, Head of Applied Art at the National Museum of Wales, in conversation with artist Sarah Younan about their collaboration and what artists can bring to the interpretation of collections.
·         Jon Monaghan, artist and animator, leading a workshop on 3d printing as a tool for creating user-generated content.
·         Artist Helen Snell, talking about collaboration and what it's like to work in the 'institution' of a museum.

·         Emma Price, independent art consultant, offering practical advice on developing projects that utilise museum collections.
This event is free to attend but places are limited so booking is essential

For more information contact Alicia Miller, Axisweb Associate in Wales: alicia@axisweb.org

Friday, 21 March 2014

Illustrating Heart of Darkness

                                                                Alison Bryant, UK


The  25 longlisted entries for this year’s Book Illustration Competition run by The House of Illustration have been published as a Gallery on their website here 
They illustrate Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. 
The winner and five runners up will be announced in September. The winner will be asked to provide a total of 9 illustrations for the final Folio Society book, as well as a binding design, and must agree to complete the commission within the given deadline


There is a  a gallery of past winners of the Book Illustration Competition here

Thursday, 6 March 2014

Copyright and images-advice sheet from the Intellectual Property Office

Apollo and Allegory of Painting, from the Loves of the Gods
Giulio Bonasone (Italian, active Rome and Bologna, 1531–after 1576) 

from the  Metropolitan Museum of Art 


With Flickr, Facebook and Instagram all becoming such a big part of everyday lives, people can often forget their legal responsibilities when using images and photos online. 

In order to ensure consumers have a better understanding of copyright law the government has launched a ‘copyright notices service’. 

The first notice published today, provides guidance about things to be aware of when uploading and using images on the internet. This includes advice for situations where you want to use photos taken by a professional photographer or what you need to consider before uploading images  to social media sites .

Copyright notice #1 can be found here: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/c-notice-201401.pdf


Friday, 28 February 2014

Data Visualisation: Beautiful Science



Exhibition at The British Library
20 February - 26 May 2014
The Folio Society Gallery; admission free
Turning numbers into pictures that tell important stories and reveal the meaning held within is an essential part of what it means to be a scientist. Beautiful Science explores how our understanding of ourselves and our planet has evolved alongside our ability to represent, graph and map the mass data of the time.
The associated events for the exhibition are listed here
Unfortunately  this event….
Andy Kirk, founder of Visualising Data will be holding his renowned Introduction to Data Visualisation course at the British Library to coincide with Beautiful Science: Picturing Data, Inspiring Insight.
…is sold out but fear not you can get to see what Andy is about by looking at his website

Students who came to my Visual Literacy workshop last term will already know about the King of Data visualisation  Hans Rosling Professor of Global Health, Karolinska Institutet. Edutainer & co-founder of Gapminder Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden · gapminder.org

Meanwhile as with everything and especially anything that is immensely visually attractive -beware of being misled!! Here is a warning article about taking care to question the veracity of infographics from John Burn-Murdoch of the Guardian

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Reel to Real

'Reel to Real' is a sound curating project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, designed to catalogue, digitise and  make available online, in gallery spaces and beyond, the Pitt Rivers Museum's unique archival field recordings. The content of the recordings ranges from spirits singing in the rainforests of the Central African Republic to children's songs and games in playgrounds throughout Europe.

The project website includes information about and playlists from all of the Museum's original ethnographic recordings, video and interview resources, ethnomusicology seminars, their SoundCloud account and much more. 

Reel to Real Project Website here.

Visualiser combining Bayaka sound waves and images

The related  SoundCloud account can be found here, and customised playlists and sets can be found here.

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

How we view Civil Rights, the images, the meanings and the roles of photography

Human Rights Human Wrongs 5.45pm 5 March 2014 at the National Museum Cardiff in the Reardon Smith lecture theatre

Bob Fitch, Martin L. King (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.),
Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America,
December 1965.
Reproduction from the Black Star Collection,
Ryerson University. Courtesy of the Ryerson Image Centre.

Using the 1948 Universal Declaration of human rights as a point of departure, Mark Sealy, MBE, RPS Hood Medal, Director Autograph ABP and Founding CEO of Rivington Place London, examines whether images of political struggle, suffering, and of victims of violence work for or against humanitarian objectives, especially when considering questions of race, representation, ethical responsibility and the cultural position of the photographer.
The talk will reflect on the imagery that has informed perceptions of civil rights, ranging from historic events such as the Selma to Montgomery March and Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech, to the independence movements in many African countries as well as more recent examples of injustice within wider global conflicts. Here the historical and contemporary roles of photography to validate and question the case for civil and human rights will be examined from different perspectives.

The event is FREE but booking is essential as places are limited.
This lecture forms part of a series accompanying a project by  National Museum Wales to work on its rich and diverse historic photographic collections
To reserve your place,  email: Historic.Photography@museumwales.ac.uk

with your name and contact telephone number.