GSA Library Art and Design News

National Collection of Aerial Photography

2009-11-30T14:10:00.002Z

Millions of aerial photographs chronicling military operations and intelligence efforts since the 1920s have gone online for the first time. The National Collection of Aerial Photography website discovered the vast archive of snapshots, including POWs in the central courtyard of Colditz prison and working on the famous bridge over the River Kwai, while cataloguing imagery from The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives.
Link: http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/
Access: Free

Peter Doig

2009-11-30T14:07:00.001Z

The Tate Britain's website provides this online resource to accompany a retrospective exhibition on the artist Peter Doig, which ran from 5 February to 11 May 2008. This online resource featured selected works displayed in each of the eight rooms of the original exhibition. The online exhibition begins with paintings from his time at the Chelsea School of Art 1989-1990, when his landscapes were unlike anything else in the London art scene at this time. It continues with selected works providing a comprehensive overview of his work to date, and tracing his recurrring motifs and his approach to image-making. A video is provided in which the artist guides the visitor around his exhibition, and other resources show the works by Doig in the Tate collection, and an article from the Spring 2008 issue of Tate Etc on Doig and his artwork.
Link: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/peterdoig/rooms/
Access: Free

MAK Posters

2009-11-30T14:05:00.001Z

The website of the MAK in Vienna has provided this online catalogue of posters in their collections of applied and contemporary art. There are over 14,000 images in this collection and they can be viewed via a number of subject headings, such as architecture, education, festivity, food, locomotion, politics and tourism. Many of the subject headings contain sub-headings enabling a more selective search. Information, such as title, designer, date and size, for each image can be found by clicking on the thumbnail picture. The information provided for each image is in German.
Link: http://sammlungen.mak.at/sdb/do/sammlung.state?id=1&langSelect=en
Access: Free

Design for a Living World

2009-11-30T14:03:00.000Z

The Nature Conservancy's Web site provides information on their project 'Design for a Living World'. Ten designers, including Ted Muehling, Kate Spade, Ezri Tarazi and Maya Lin, were invited to create new objects from sustainable materials sourced from around the world. Photographs illustrating how the materials used by the designers connect to real people and real places, and are included in the sections on each designer. The Web site is organised under place, ranging from Australia to China; materials used for each item and the designer. A slide show for the object or for the designer are accessed via hyperlinks. There are video interviews with each designer. The exhibition will be held at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York from 14 May 2009 to 4 January 2010.
Link: http://www.nature.org/design/
Access: Free

Research at ECA

2009-11-30T10:45:00.001Z

On 16 November 2009 the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) launched ‘Vision’, a new publication about its current and future research projects. ECA has a strong history of ground-breaking research producing work of national and international standing in ‘Art & Design’ and ‘Architecture and the Built Environment’. The publication can be downloaded online.
Link: http://www.eca.ac.uk/cms_assets/Research-work/FINAL%20eca%20Vision.pdf
Access: Free

German Language Comics

2009-11-20T13:26:00.003Z

The Goethe Institut has produced this online resource as an introduction to German graphic novels and comics. It presents important German-language comic artists and explains the different styles, genres and formats which have developed. Comic experts have written introductions to each section, and the portraits of artists include short biographies, publications lists and book and website tips.
Link: http://www.goethe.de/kue/lit/prj/com/enindex.htm
Access: Free

Graphic Novels at the Goethe Institut

2009-11-19T16:38:00.001Z

'Mining the Mundane': comics depicting everyday life. Meet the cartoonists MAWIL & Lewis Trondheim in conversation with Marc Baines.
Presentation & Discussion
Wednesday 25.11.2009, 19:00 - 20:30
Goethe-Institut Glasgow
English
Free event. Refreshments. Places limited.
Link: http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/gla/wis/en5107326v.htm

[leaves] by Mirjam Raen Thomassen

2009-11-19T11:17:00.003Z

To accompany the exhibition 'Raw Meat: Cut The Chiffon' held at the Bourdon Gallery, Glasgow School of Art from 20 November - 24 November, artist and GSA student Mirjam Raen Thomassen is displaying her artist's book [leaves] in the Mackintosh Library.
[leaves] contains photographs of words that were sewn onto autumn lime leaves whilst they were hanging on a tree in Kelvingrove Park. The leaves were sewn in situ by Mirjam on 13th October 2009. When she returned on 20th October, just one leaf remaining hanging; by the 22nd October, all had fallen. The book makes a beautiful and evocative reflection on nature, time, change and the seasons.
[leaves] can be viewed in the Mackintosh Library between 11 and 12 noon Monday-Friday, housed at 766.5.071 THO as part of the Library's extensive Artists' Books Collection.

Enid Blyton at the BBC

2009-11-16T13:13:00.003Z

BBC Archives have just launched this online resource on children's author Enid Blyton. "In 2008, Enid Blyton was voted the UK's best loved writer, beating J.K. Rowling, Austen and even Shakespeare. Yet, although characters like Noddy and the Famous Five still have devoted fans, Blyton has become a controversial figure, dogged by criticisms of her writing style and accusations of sexism and racism. In this collection, we hear from Enid Blyton herself, her family and friends and also her critics, as we discover the reasons for her success, and explore the difficult life of this prolific storyteller."
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/blyton/index.shtml
Access: Free

Shakespeare Quartos

2009-11-16T12:58:00.002Z

The highly-anticipated Shakespeare Quartos Archive has officially launched today with a complete digital collection of rare early editions of Hamlet. For the first time, all 32 existing quarto copies of the play held by UK and US institutions are freely available online in one place. This initiative is jointly led by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC.
Link: http://www.quartos.org/
Access: Free

Photojournalist Charlotte Brooks

2009-11-16T10:57:00.003Z

Resource from the Library of Congress on photojournalist Charlotte Brooks.
Brooks worked for Look magazine from 1951 until 1971. As a sociologist with a camera, she liked to document changes in American life, including politics, health and science, education, families, urban and suburban issues, entertainment, racial conflicts, and women's roles. New from the Prints and Photographs Division.
Link: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/womphotoj/brooksintro.html
Access: Free

Edward Burtynsky

2009-11-13T10:36:00.002Z

TED has just uploaded a video of photographer Edward Burtynsky: "In stunning large-format photographs, Edward Burtynsky follows the path of oil through modern society, from wellhead to pipeline to car engine".
Link: http://blog.ted.com/2009/11/photographing_t.php
Access: Free

Tramway's YouTube Channel

2009-11-10T15:22:00.002Z

The Tramway in Glasgow has now launched its own YouTube channel, providing a space to find out about the venue and its programme.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/GlasgowTramway
Access: Free

Attitudes in Drawing

2009-11-10T15:18:00.001Z

InfosmART Workshop, Weds 11 November 2009

2009-11-10T11:21:00.002Z

Need help on how to reference a source, write a bibliography, or set out an essay? Librarian Duncan Chappell will be providing a short session of the Library's InfosmART site TOMORROW WEDS 11 NOVEMBER 2009 AT 12.30 ON THE TOP FLOOR OF THE LIBRARY. InfosmART provides a set of easy-to-follow interactive modules in finding, evaluating and citing information. Hosted on the VLE, the InfosmART resource provides an easy one-stop shop for all your information skills needs. This workshop forms part of the Library's 20/20 workshop programme.

Siegfried Sassoon

2009-11-10T10:12:00.002Z

Oxford University is marking this year’s Armistice by launching the first ever online collection of the manuscripts of Siegfried Sassoon, focusing on his war poetry. This is the first time these have gone online and they present a comprehensive collection of his war poetry, reassembled from collections across the world. The work forms part of Oxford University’s First World War poetry digital archive, enabling online users to view over 12,000 previously unseen materials such as poetry manuscripts, letters, and original diary entries from some of the conflict’s most important poets including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Vera Brittain.
Link: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/sassoon
Access: Free

Poetry Pamphlet Fair

2009-11-10T10:10:00.000Z

The Bonefolder

2009-11-05T11:53:00.003Z

The Bonefolder vol. 6 no.1 Fall 2009 has just been released online. Contents include:

The Thread That Binds: Interviews with private practice bookbinders – Pamela Train Leutz
Sharing Something Beautiful for Free: Reflections on a public arts project – Regula Russelle
Follow-ed – Tom Sowden
Book Type Machine – Craig Saper
Successfully Creating a Single-section Pamphlet German Case Binding – Barbara Tetenbaum
Surface Gilding – James Reid-Cunningham
In Memoriam David P. Bourbeau – Barbara B. Blumenthal and Henry Lyman
The Hybrid Book: Intersection and Intermedia – A report by Alisa Fox, Dorothy Krause, and Shawn Simmons
Book Arts Education in Transition – A conversation between Steve Miller and Shawn K. Simmons
Freestyle Books – A review by Doug Spowart
Text/Messages: Books by Artists – A review by Karen Wirth
Book + Art: Handcrafting Artists’ Books – A review by John Cutrone
Ed Hutchin’s Book Dynamics! – A review by Miriam Schaer
Bind-O-Rama 2009

Link: http://www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder/vol6no1contents.htm
Access: Free

Tribal Cultures in South Asia

2009-11-05T11:16:00.003Z

Rare images showing rituals, festivals and everyday life for isolated tribes in the Himalayas are to be preserved online by JISC and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Highlights include the the shaman-led rituals and acrobatics of the Apatani tribe. These extraordinary moments were photographed by a professor of anthropology at SOAS, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995), who studied tribal cultures in South Asia and the Himalayas from the 1930’s to the 1980’s. His photographic collection consists of more than 20,000 images of which approximately half, from India and Nepal, are now online for people to browse, download and use non-commercially free of charge.
Link: http://digital.info.soas.ac.uk/
Access: Free

Radio News Archive

2009-11-05T11:12:00.000Z

The UK’s first online commercial radio sound archive has been launched, preserving over 5,000 searchable recordings including the first hour of UK commercial radio in 1973, coverage of five UK general elections and the end of apartheid. The collection is available online for researchers, lecturers and students at the LBC / Independent Radio News (IRN) radio news audio archive which gives access to the catalogue and audio of reports filed by some of the UK’s leading journalists including Jon Snow, the late Carol Barnes and Dickie Arbiter.
Link: http://radio.bufvc.ac.uk/lbc/
Access: Free

Scotland's History

2009-11-05T11:09:00.001Z

The Scottish Government announced last week the launch of an online portal which aims to raise the profile of Scottish history at home and abroad. Scotland’s History Online covers a range of subjects, from prehistoric through to 21st Century Scotland. With more than 200 topics that include links to over 1,000 other online sources and a wide range of interactive supporting materials.
Link: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/scotlandshistory/
Access: Free

Conceptual Art in Amsterdam

2009-11-05T11:06:00.001Z

The MoMA website has provided this online version of their exhibition 'In and Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976', which ran from 19 July to 5 October 2009. This online resource is accessed via a gallery floorplan, with a section for each of the ten artists represented, ranging from Bas Jan Ader to George and Gilbert, all of whom spent considerable amounts of time in Amsterdam, which was the nexus of intense art activities in the 1960s and 1970s. The website provides an introduction and offers a selection of the 75 works that were on display. A timeline is also provided.
Link: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/inandout/
Access: Free

Antony Gormley

2009-11-05T11:04:00.001Z

The Tate's website has provided this online resource about the sculptor, Anthony Gormley. This series of videos includes an introduction to Gormley's art by Dr Richard Noble, Visual Arts Department, Goldsmiths College. Four examples of Gormley's work can be explored in individual video files, 'Bed'; 'Natural Selection'; 'Sound II'; and 'Another Place'. Gormley also discusses his work in an online interview. Alternatively the video can be viewed in segments where Gormley answers individual questions: 'Is modern art for everyone?', 'What significance does the body have in 21st century art?' or 'Has being an artist been liberating for you?'
Link: http://www.tate.org.uk/btseries/bb/antonygormley/
Access: Free

Dutch Picture Books

2009-11-05T10:58:00.002Z

Dutch picture book covers from 1810 - 1950, via Bibliodyssey.
Link: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2009/11/dutch-covers.html
Access: Free

Marcus du Sautoy on Symmetry

2009-11-05T10:56:00.002Z

The world turns on symmetry, from the spin of subatomic particles to the dizzying beauty of an arabesque. But there's more to it than meets the eye. In the latest TED talk, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy offers a glimpse of the invisible numbers that marry all symmetrical objects.
Link: http://blog.ted.com/2009/10/symmetry_realit.php
Access: Free