Toastkitten: August 2006 Archives

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August 31, 2006

Yea, pretty much...

August 27, 2006

Pics from The Smithsonian on the Web

The earliest known portrait of radical abolitionist John Brown,
made by Augustus Washington circa 1846/1847. The daguerreotype
is from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

On Friday The LA Times ran a small story on the Smithsonian's Photography Initiative. Nice piece and the Smithsonian's website is pretty cool, too. It's just too bad that the reporter couldn't get the website address right (it's actually here), or get Augustus Wasington's name right (and that they couldn't spring to reproduce his amazing portrait of John Brown ). But you can always see it online.

The Smithsonian's scrapbook
A new website provides access to 1,800 digital images from the institution's trove of photographs.
By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post

August 25, 2006

WASHINGTON — From its very beginnings, the Smithsonian Institution has taken and collected photographs. Masses of them.

John Brown's steely eyes were captured in a daguerreotype by August Washington in 1846. A now-extinct Tasmanian hyena, sleek and striped, attracted photographer Thomas Smillie in 1891. Harry Bowden went to Jackson Pollock's chaotic studio in 1949 and found an unintentional abstract of cans and brushes. As the 20th century ended, the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory Center recorded hot gas in the Milky Way.

Spread across the Smithsonian's 18 museums, nine research centers and the National Zoo are 13 million photographs. In the hallways and laboratories are about 700 collections of photos. Harnessing them into a form that gives researchers and the public some access has long been a goal for Smithsonian caretakers.

But like a lot of things at the Smithsonian, you had to know where to go to find what you were looking for. Some photos were locked away in the researchers' storehouses.

This week, however, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative launched an electronic means of looking at a small part of this vast collection. A website, www.spi.si.edu, provides access to 1,800 digital images, the work of 100 photographers, who used 50 different processes.

"The Smithsonian was born at the same moment as photography. Then, the Smithsonian was a very modern institution and quite naturally picked up the new technology," says Merry Foresta, director of the SPI projects. "Photography could bring back to the Smithsonian things from the world, and this gave the Smithsonian a way of disseminating itself back into the world."

The question, Foresta says, was how do you find what's important and artistic when there are photographs of every subject the Smithsonian touches, including archeology, marine science, space travel, celebrity portraits and presidents?

"Almost 2,000 images in the face of 13 million may not seem a lot. We have tried to create a good sample and an interdisciplinary sample. This allows us to test in a small way how this might work," she says.

For about 30 years, the idea of a physical institution, a Center for Photography, was debated. But that faded as fundraising became an uphill battle and the Internet provided new possibilities.

"In the early part of the 21st century, this seemed like a lot of work, to create a building. We decided to embrace fully the idea of the virtual world," Foresta says. Museums were beginning to digitize their collections, and many curators and scientists were very protective of their materials.

"Quickly we realized we would have a war on our hands if we were loading up the trucks and saying, 'Bring your photographs.' It would have destroyed what is unique about the Smithsonian. The photographers are embedded in the subjects," Foresta says.

The website was built with a $500,000 gift from the Comer Foundation, a Chicago-based family fund.

One test, now that hundreds of frames are quickly available, will be how people use the site.

In the first format, people can build their own scrapbooks; for example, portraits of Native Americans. The opening page has an interactive feature called "Enter the Frame."

The visitor can browse by name, photographer, Smithsonian museum, decade and other key search terms. Then they can string them together or go on to another topic.

But will people be looking for a cultural benchmark, a personal memoir or scholarly information?

"At first it seems free-form and gives people an opportunity to experience the interconnectivity of the images. So is that what they want to do?" Foresta asks.

The rugged majesty of the Great Pyramid was captured in 1858 by Francis Frith. A contact sheet of John F. Kennedy and his daughter, Caroline, shows their playfulness in the weeks before his inauguration.

There is a photo showing Washington's Addison Scurlock protesting outside a theater showing "Gone With the Wind" in 1939. Bob Dylan was snapped at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 by Diana Davies. And Sandra Raredon used digital radiograph to show the lines and bones of the surgeonfish.

This is a beginning, Foresta says. "The website is the first manifestation…. It's not complete. We have built the house with many rooms yet to be furnished."

Posted by lk at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

Top 5 shows to see on my week off - Bonus Round

Guess my artweek will kick off on Sunday with GLAMFA or the Greater LA MFA exhibition! The show will feature MFA Candidates from art schools in, well, the Greater LA area. It looks to be a lot of fun. Thanks! OC Art Blog for the heads up.

GLAMFA opens Sunday at CSU Long Beach 4-9pm
for more info check the site.

Posted by lk at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

Top 5 shows to see on my week off

02.10.jpg

Top Mark Bradford's Market>Place and Margaret Honda's Hideout from Consider This... at LACMAA LAB, next row: a page from the Strange New World website and Norman Zammitt's Opal (1966), last row: some airy architecture on view in Pasadena, and an image from Suburbia(1972) by Bill Owens.

1. MOCA Pac Design Ctr is weighing on New Topographics
2. The happs at LACMA LAB (scroll down to Consider This...)
3.Extrano Nuevo Mundo, that's Strange New World for my non-bilingual brothers and sisters and it's a perfect excuse to go back to San Diego! The show also has a website - hang in there, it takes a minute to load.
4. Translucence: Southern California Art from the 1960s and 1970s up in Pasadena
5. and since I'll already be in Pasadena, I check out Dialogues and Interventions: Recent Architecture Pasadena to L.A.

Posted by lk at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2006

Why did the computer nerd wear glasses?

To improve her website :)

I saw that joke in the West LA adult education catalog and I just had to include it – it’s soooooo corny! The truth is that I too need to improve my website. Well, actually I need to get off my ass and CREATE it first - then I can get the glasses and improve it, or whatever. I’m embossed to say that a whole year has gone by since I first thought about designing my own site, but my days of procrastination are over! I finally have the software, I have the manuals and now I also have the time. Kitty may have a new home this fall. I’ll keep you posted…

Posted by lk at 05:07 PM | Comments (1)

August 17, 2006

Happy Birthday Bobby!

Some interesting trivia on his imdb page:

*Finley Quaye mentions him in the song "Sunday Shining", in the line "I'm a hero like Robert De Niro".

*Limo drivers in Los Angeles joke about his less than generous tips by referring to him as "No Dinero".

*Was offered but turned down the role of Sal the pizza shop owner in Do the Right Thing (1989).

*He is the second actor to win an Oscar for portraying Vito Corleone. He and Marlon Brando are the only two actors to win an Oscar for playing the same character.

*Shares a birthday with friend and sometime-co-star Sean Penn.

*Early on, before Tim Burton was commissioned as director, was considered for the role of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

*He made $20,000,000 for Meet the Fockers (2004) and $35,000
for Taxi Driver (1976)

Not on his imdb page:

*Any indication that I am his biggest fan

Posted by lk at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)

Toast Post

Clear - Elium Studio.jpg
Elium's excellent design let's a kitty keep an eye on her toast!

Now I’ve seen a lot of toasters in my day, but this may be the coolest one around. I first saw it (and meant to do a post on it) about a month ago while flipping through Dwell at the local Barnes and Noble. But the summer has just been so busy and my “to do" list (which includes notes to myself like: POST ON YOUR STUPID BLOG ALREADY!) got buried under all manner of books, files and random junk. I have now spent the last two nights cleaning up my room and “Feng Shui-ing it up”, as my cuz likes to say. The room is now clean, the summer is winding down and I promise that more posts are on their way.

Note: while searching for a good snap of this futuristic toaster, I discovered a blogger that is even more into the transparent house wares than I am …That l.e.d. table looks amazing!

Posted by lk at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)