Okay, so admit it. When your 10th grade English teacher announced that you'd be spending two weeks reading and discussing Homer's "Odyssey", there was a collective "Ugh" from you and your fellow classmates. What could possibly be interesting about 12,000+ lines of poetry that were penned some 3,000 years ago? Yes, "The Odyssey" had everything that should be interesting to a teenager--gore, self-loathing, personal discovery, lies and love--but the delivery of those concepts was unbelievably obtuse.

Fast forward to 2013, and the thought of retrieving your dusty copies of "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad" from the attic no longer fills you with dread. In fact, you realize that part of your collective cultural literacy is predicated on your knowledge of Homer's stories. It's time to read, to digest, to swim in the epic language that put the drama in dramatic. What could more compelling than words like this, from "The Illiad": "I beg you, Achilles, by your own soul and by your parents, do not allow the dogs to mutilate my body . . . And Achilles fixing him with a stare, 'Don't whine to me about my parents. You dog! I wish my stomach would let me cut off your flesh in strips and eat it raw for what you've done to me . . ."

Homer's characters reveal the spectrum of human emotion--from rage to passion and pride to love and loyalty. Perhaps that's one of the many reasons American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988) found inspiration in Homer's verses. He began visually interpreting "The Iliad" in 1946, and in 1977-78, Bearden created a series collages and watercolors based on "The Odyssey." Both groups of images are now part of the traveling exhibition "Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey." These works reveal Bearden's ability to take something familiar and make it fresh, unexpected, and modern.

That was our challenge too, when we wanted to make Bearden's works more accessible, not just to those visiting the exhibition, but to people everywhere, with interests in the humanities, art, literature, and music. The culmination of many hours of round table discussions, brainstorming sessions, writing, and testing is a new iPad app called "Romare Bearden: Black Odyssey Remixes."

Just as Bearden re-imagined Homer, we wanted users to remix Bearden and the themes in "The Odyssey", a process that the artist himself would  have appreciated (we think :-). The app allows users to select a canvas from one Bearden's "Odyssey" scenes and completely re-invent it by dragging pre-cut or custom-drawn shapes onto the canvas. Users can colorize those shapes, add textures via the iPad's camera, and add words to their creations.

To layer on an auditory dimension, the app includes an inventive sound mixer that allows users to mash up an accompanying soundtrack of hip-hop, ocean waves, birds, jazz, and myriad other sound clips. After all, Romare Bearden's works were infused with music--in their style and execution. In Homer's time too, music and storytellling went hand and hand.

In the end, the app is marriage of a user's own story, with Homer's and Bearden's. And, when that story has been perfected, users can publish their remixes into an online gallery, email their art, and share their works via Facebook or Twitter. Homer and Bearden, meet the epic storytellers in the  year 2013.

P.S. This collage app has just won both a Museums and the Web 2013 Honorable Mention and an American Alliance of Museums Media and Technology Muse Gold Award for 2013. Please check the collage app as well as the companion audio tour, a great introduction into Homer's classic story (also an award winner)!

 

 

We are mourning the loss of a wonderfully creative and supportive collaborator, Jane Nebel Henson, who passed away last week. SITES had the great fortune to have partnered with her on the incredibly popular traveling exhibition, Jim Henson's Fantastic World, on the road from 2007 to 2012. The exhibition celebrated the creative genius of Jane’s late husband and creative partner, Jim who is known world-wide as the force behind Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, the Fraggles, and so much more.

As we worked with Jane, it became clear that although she was promoting Jim’s legacy, his genius didn’t stand alone. She was by his side from the beginning. They met in a puppetry class at the University of Maryland and together preformed on the program “Sam and Friends,” a 5-minute series of segments that aired on Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate. Side-by-side they created characters and performed. Jane took a break from performing to raise their five children, but was never far from the action becoming a talent scout and training many of the puppeteers who would perform on Sesame Street and other productions. She had an eye for talent . . . something we witnessed at the opening of Jim Henson’s Fantastic World at the Atlanta History Center. A number of local puppeteers were performing at the event and Jane gravitated to one in particular whom she thought had something special. They chatted and she even picked up a puppet of her own to perform a little impromptu skit with him.

When you saw that twinkle in her eye and that warm smile grow, you just knew some great stories were about to be shared. And she shared those stories, with us here at the Smithsonian, with the nearly one million museum visitors who saw Jim Henson’s Fantastic World, and with the ever-growing millions everyday who are entertained and educated by the characters that she and Jim created.

Deborah Macanic, project director for Jim Henson’s Fantastic World, fondly remembers Jane Henson:

My first introduction to Jane Henson was through photographs. I was leafing through dozens of photographs, preparing for a meeting about a potential exhibition on the “Muppet man,” Jim Henson. One photo in particular held my attention—a brightly colored image of Jim and Jane Henson, wearing matching royal blue sweaters and surrounded by their first group of cloth hand puppets, on the set of the 1960 TV show “Sam and Friends.” Jim, obviously confident and looking every bit the future star,  stared boldly into the camera; Jane, her soft, shy smile in perfect contrast, held an early version of Kermit perched cross-legged on her shoulder. The hand-scribbled caption read: Puppeteer Jim Henson and his wife on the set . . . .

Months later, after finally meeting Jane Henson in person, I listened spellbound as she walked the exhibition team through a magnificent story of love and dedication that grew from  a dream shared by two young students at the University of Maryland into a world-wide phenomenon that has touched millions of lives. From that point on, I could not imagine Jim Henson’s Fantastic World without Jane in it. If she at times chose the background, it was a sweeping landscape for a grand parade of characters, human and “puppoid” to dance across. If ever there was a dream whisperer, she’s it. My high regard and respect for her will inspire me forever.

Last week I picked up one of many newspapers that ran articles about her passing. The headline began—“Jane Henson, co-founder of the Muppets . . ."

>> Jim Henson's Fantastic World video playlist

>> Traveling exhibition website