It's the festive season where we may well find ourselves at parties dancing.
To get dance-move ideas you could always watch Ai Wei Wei do the Gangnam style.
But to see something more old-style go here where you can also listen to the entertaining NPR radio program that talks about Muybridge and his life and work.
Stephen Herbert has collected many more of these animations made from Muybridge's photographs and very much more (perhaps everything!!) on Muybridge and his work here
The BBC hosts a website that documents all paintings in public ownership-those paintings that lurk in council offices, libraries, and slide libraries as well as the ones we get to see in the major art galleries and museums! The portrait above that a recent Fine Art graduate painted of me is just one of the 212,000 piantings now online and viewable by location, artist name or title.
Here are the FAQ's that answer questions such as who is behind the project, why no watercolours and also crucially how many are on public display (20%)-a low figure which goes to show how valuable a service this website is...
Next time we have a Welsh Librarians' conference at the wonderful Gregynog Hall I am going in search of this fine specimen!
Wayne Gooderham buys secondhand books as they are cheaper than new ones. They also give him an added pleasure. For many years he has been collecting the inscriptions he finds within these bargain books. In fact he got so keen to collect more inscriptions that he now uses a network of friendly booksellers who alert him to particularly good ones when they come into their hands.Wayne blogs with images of the inscriptions here
an Example
To Robert, on his crucial 30th birthday -
hoping for a safe and speedy emergence from adolescence
1/9/1955
Frank & Jackie
One of his network of bookseller helpers from Skoob Books suggested to Wayne that he might be interested to see the collection of interesting things found left inside their second hand books. In their out of town warehouse Wayne was given permission to photograph some of Skoob Books' marvellously named 'Wall of Found' and you can read about them and see examples in another Guardian article by Wayne here
I have recently attended some very interesting side events for the Artes Mundi Exhibition. A small square leaflet lists these opportunities , there is a web page listing what's on and also the facebook page advertises Artes Mundi events. Following these information sources I was able to attend the National Museum this week when the police horses corralled the crowds gathered in the Museum foyer using crowd control techniques, I heard beautiful music in the space occupied by Sheela Gowda's empty tin drums for tar used by Indian roadworkers, I felt sorrow-full in the room with the memorials to the dead of Teresa Margolles as a Welsh Performance artist Kathryn Ashill counted in Welsh-was she counting the dead? When she stopped counting she whispered into our ears the words Memento Mori-'you too will die'.
I have also attended an artists parents evening where I was celebrated for my creation (an artist daughter) and talked with other parents of artists and Darius Miksys about art, science , child rearing and mermaids and I watched a play by Miriam Backstrom where 'a director' annoyed 'an actor ' beyond endurance in her efforts to make him be a character she could then reject. I watched two films by Phil Collins and heard him in converstaion about his work afterwards with his old friend Jason Bowman.
I am also signed up for the rest of my life to stand up for any immigrants I see treated badly and not to walk on by. I have a poster and a badge to prove it created by the artist Tania Brughuera.
This years Artes Mundi has afforded me the richest art experiences I have had for a very long time. The art in the exhibition is fascinating, affecting, and says important things. The side events have been stimulating and original. I recommend you go along and investigate yourselves. If you do go to the National Museum to see the work then try go round on one of the live guide tours. The live guides have all met the artists and know the work well and will engage with you in talking about what you see and what you think about it.Tours take place daily at 2pm.
Artes Mundi continues until January 13th 2013
The Special Collections at Cardiff University (SCOLAR) are a treasure trove worth exploring and . this year, SCOLAR is offering a pilot series of lunchtime workshops where you can do just that! http://scolarcardiff.wordpress.com/ SCOLAR holds much illustrated material including literary, scientific, medical, and women’s periodicals and miscellanies, newspapers, children’s literature, art and architecture, novel, plays and poetry, travel literature, ballads and almanacs, and prints, posters and propaganda. There is a workshop on women’s studies Decmebeer 6th or 7th, with sessions on historical travel literature and World War One sources in the spring. The workshops are intended to raise awareness of the breadth of material available to support research in these areas, and as a general introduction to using Special Collections and Archives.
"The workshop on women’s history sources will be led by Assistant Archivist, Alison Harvey. Topics will include: biography; children’s literature; conduct/advice manuals; crime; diaries and autobiographies; education; fashion; health and medicine; international affairs; journals and magazines; literature and journalism; music; newspapers; politics, suffrage and the labour movement; travel; University history; witchcraft; and women’s societies". What a great menu!!
Workshops will be held in Special Collections and Archives, on the lower ground floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library, Corbett Road, Cardiff. The women’s history workshop is scheduled for12-1pm on Thursday 6 December, and will be repeated at1-2pm on Friday 7 December.
Workshops are open to all, but places are limited, so if you would like to attend either session, you will need to emailHarveyAE@cf.ac.uk, stating your preferred time.
Girl Reading by Katie Ward comprises seven linked stories set over a period of over 700 years, from 1333 to 2060. Each is an imagined story behind a painting, photo or sculpture. The subject is always a girl, or young woman reading. The pictures are not shown in the book so I have given you the links below.
The stories are also concerned with the changing position of women and the choices they have had during those hundreds of years
Dutch art director Christian Borstlap created this film for the new Rijksmuseum project Rijksstudio. The film includes 211 artworks from the museum's online collection.
Video: Part of a Bigger Plan Music: 'Dreaming' by Allo, Darlin
The Rijksmuseum uses Rijksstudio to make more than
125,000 objects from the collection digitally accessible, free of charge. You can zoom in, share them,
and ‘like’ them. You can also create collections of your own, using your
favourite images and details. Not only that, but the Rijksmuseum is also
inviting you to use these images to create beautiful products.At this resolution, a single detail is still sharp
enough to decorate a car.
This pageshows some examples of other people’s creations and offers links to websites
that supply various forms of printing on demand. Using them you could order wallpaper
, decorate a scooter, have a vinyl foil for your phone, all of them featuring
works of art from the Rijksmuseum
