free light table-mix it up!!

Oskar Boethius Lissheim,  Icon for first Light Table app for iPhone.

I am going to be talking to students this year about digital images-where to find good quality legal images of art and design and other subjects. This is very much business as usual, but, as part of a workshop on Visual Literacy,I shall also be showing them slides (!!) These objects that took so much work and time to create, that were shown at pre-arranged times to large groups in dark rooms to the accompaniment of a whirring fan cooling the carousel on the slide projector. I won’t have loupes and light table with me in the teaching room-it’s all digital there-but I shall have a bag of slides and….an ipad. I also imagine some of the students will have iphones. We can view the slides on these digital devices by using a light table created by the self styled ‘one man think tank' Andrew Hake. If you want to see slides on your ipad or iphone go here!!

http://www.andrewandoru.com/lighttable/

And if you have iOS 4.2.1 you have built in Brightness control with a simple double-tap of the Home Button and a swipe to the left.

info at:  http://www.andrewandoru.com/2010/11/23/ipad-light-table/

The deluxe model is an app that costs $3, with all sorts of options, including choices of colour temperatures:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-soft-box-pro-hd/id407385101?mt=8

The Bible of Color Theory now an App

Josef Albers' Interaction of Color, was first conceived of as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, presenting Albers' ideas of colour experimentation. Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten representative color studies chosen by Albers. The paperback has remained in print ever since and remains one of the most influential resources on colour.

Last week, to commemorate the book’s 50th anniversary, Yale University Press released the Interaction of Color app for the iPad, a modernized, interactive presentation of Albers’ teachings. With fingers instead of paintbrushes and a touch screen instead of paper, users can move and manipulate over 125 color plates in 60 interactive studies. Concepts like colour relativity and vibrating boundaries come to life. The app’s developers used paper, scissors, and glue to complete the exercises, as Albers’s students would have done, in order to experience Albers’ process and methodology. The text was then meticulously translated into app form--they even preserved his original typeface and text columns.
Alongside the book’s full text are two hours of video footage including interviews with noteworthy practitioners such as textile designer Christopher Farr, graphic designer Peter Mendelsund, painters Anoka Faruqee and Brice Marden, product designer Brian Mullan (director of sourcing and production at Fab), quilt and fabric designer Denyse Schmidt, architect Anabelle Seldorf, and cultural historian Nicholas Fox Weber (exec­u­tive direc­tor of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation).
The free download allows you to view Chapter X, including text, commentary, and two interactive plates, and to experiment with all the features, including the color palette tool. The full version of the app includes the complete text, over 125 color plates, over 60 interactive studies, and a wide range of video commentaries, interviews, and additional features. The full version is available as an in-app purchase for $9.99.

Read more at

http://yupnet.org/interactionofcolor/

Alinari online-free to explore

"Dreaming of pirates", Terrazza Mascagni, Livorno

Photographer: Vestrini, Michele

Date of photography: 1958

Alinari black and white photographs were used by art historians before the days of good quality colour reproductions in books so that they could  view the representations of buildings and works of art that the Italian company photographed. Art history departments bought them for study-put on reserve and/or available for browsing always as representations of a building or a painting, not seen then as interesting as examples of photography.

Over 167,000 photographs have now been digitised and are available on subscription as Alinari 24 Ore to individuals and Institutions at a reasonable price.

Subject areas which would find these images useful as well as art and architectural history include cultural studies,  history, economics, sociology and science. It is also possible to search by photographer’s name.

You  may be interested in the free access for educational use. The database can be searched and images have a small watermark on them (as in the image above) until you buy the image or subscribe.

Look here for details.

The Night Watch

A sensitive reading of The Night Watch by Guardian writer Jonathan Jones has Rembrandt depicting democracy in action , the assortment of different types of people as night falls assembled to protect their community. Rembrandt's painting is once more on show after 10 years of renovation of the Rijksmuseum hindered access to their marvellous collection.
The Rijksmuseum used imagination and digital technology and the Internet to keep their works as visible as possible whilst the museum was closed. I blogged about one of the ways they used back in November (6th). It comes as no surprise to me therefore to see that, to advertise the reopening, the Museum staged a rather wondrous re-enactment of the Night Watch in a shopping centre.

And here are Jonathan's lovely words about Rembrandt's Night Watch, words that help keep alive for us the idea that art is important ...

"In the 21st century, as democracy and community are beset by menaces from climate change to the violent economics of austerity, The Night Watch ought to be cherished as political art. It portrays not only what the Dutch, but all democracies ought to hold dear – the courage of flawed human beings to come together while acknowledging one another's individuality and difference. It is an icon of tolerance, diversity and the magic golden light that makes a society work. While these ordinary people stand guard, we feel a bit safer in our collective defiance of the dark".

is pinning OK?

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, loops7


JiscLegal is a great support to Education when dealing with issues of copyright especially those coming up in the digital arena. It exists to 'give Legal Guidance for ICT Use in Education, Research and External Engagement'. The latest advice sheet on issues arising out of pinterest and image sharing websites is fabulously clear.
Pinterest
According to Mediabistro, users are spending more time on Pinterest than Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. Recent statistics show this social networking site has just reached 48.7 million users.

sweet and sour

First Taste was a video made especially for TEDxSydney 2013 by Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney. It shows  in slow motion an assortment of young children experiencing their  first tastes of  some very strong flavoured foods.  The Music is Earthspan Panoramic from Paul Mottram
You will find a huge amount of TV ads on YouTube. For some old shockers see TV Ark

what we thought in the 80's

Observing the 80’s

Insights into the social history and cultural change of those living in the 1980s give a fascinating overview of life in Thatcher’s Britain.

The Observing the 80’s project at the University of Sussex, funded by Jisc, collates first-hand accounts, written by volunteers, of their daily lives and views which were collected throughout the decade as part of the Mass Observation Archive. This material offers a unique and inspiring insight into the lives and opinions of British people from all social classes and regions during the 80s period.

Observing the 1980s brings together, for the first time, ‘voices’ from both the Mass Observation Collections and the British Library Oral History Collections. This material offers a unique and inspiring insight into the lives and opinions of British people from all social classes and regions during the 1980s.

The project is explained in the video above

A Guide to using the resources here

The infographics are particularly nice