AAU Library Blog

The SFMOMA art museum in San Francisco has created a “visual browsing” tool called the ArtScope that allows users to wander through over 4,000 images from the museum’s collection. Use ArtScope to discover images by browsing or by searching for specific images using keywords such as artists’ names or titles of artworks. I keyword searched “Warhol”, which retrieved 7 images by Andy Warhol that SFMOMA owns in their collection. By selecting an image, users can zoom in and access information about the artwork on the right side of the screen.

SF Design Week… June 15-21… Sponsored by the San Francisco Chapter of AIGA (the professional association for design)

SF Design Week reaches out to a diverse community of over 20,000 Bay Area design professionals as well as local businesses, non-profits, entrepreneurs, students, the design-savvy public, tourists, and more. AIGA SF will be sponsoring a full week of events highlighting the diversity and professionalism of the design community around the bay. The goal is to raise public awareness of the impact that all design—graphic, product, interior, fashion, architecture, advertising, et cetera—has in the San Francisco Bay Area.

One particular Design Week event I’d like to highlight is Film Night on June 16, starting at 7:00 pm. AIGA SF will present Handmade Nation (USA, 2008), Faythe Levine’s documentary survey of the burgeoning movement that has emerged from the blending of historic technique, punk culture and the do-it-yourself ethos, and numerous local artists and advocates. More information about Film Night can be found at:
http://aigasf.org/events/2009/06/16/design_week_film_night

The film Handmade Nation is based on the book, Handmade nation : the rise of DIY, art, craft, and design, by Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl… a recent acquisition to the AAU Library collection! The authors traveled 19,000 miles to document what has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the D.I.Y. ethos. For Handmade Nation, they selected 24 makers and 5 essayists who work within different media and have different methodologies to provide a microcosm of the crafting community. Participants in this community share ideas and encouragement through websites, blogs, boutiques, galleries, and craft fairs. Together they have forged a new economy and lifestyle based on creativity, determination, and networking. Twenty-four artists from Olympia, Washington to Providence, Rhode Island, and everywhere in between show their work and discuss their lives. The book features photographs of the makers, their work environment, their process, their work, and discussions of how they got their start and what motivates them.

Come by the Library and check out this terrific book!

For more information about Handmade Nation… http://indiecraftdocumentary.blogspot.com

And for more information about SF Design Week, including workshops, lectures, gallery events, and more…
http://sfdesignweek.org/events.html

Huge THANKS to everyone who made this year’s Page One event a smashing success! We enjoyed a fabulous evening of creative writing and entertaining performances from talented Academy of Art students… an impressive spread of yummy food and beverages courtesy of CASE… and many, many laughs thanks to our exuberantly hilarious emcee, Claudia Holm!

Fifteen Academy students shared their literary compositions with a large, enthusiastic audience in the AAU Library on the evening of Friday, April 24th. Students could participate in one of three categories (Poetry, Fiction/Non-Fiction, and Spoken Word/Performance). A panel of judges evaluated the performances and declared first and second place winners in each of the three categories. CASE generously provided $100 to each first place winner and $50 to each second place winner!

Congratulations to the WINNERS!

(from left to right): Rebecca Castle (2nd place, poetry); Thomas Leigh (1st place, poetry); Mariscia Rodriguez (2nd place, spoken word/performance); Valentino Green (1st place, spoken word/performance); Santiago Casares (1st place, fiction/non-fiction); David Greene (2nd place, fiction/non-fiction)

Special thanks to all the event volunteers: Holly Gatto, Katie Williams, John Hodson, Masha Rumer, Allyson Ritger, Romalyn Schmaltz and Claudia Holm.

TinEye is a visual search engine that searches for images the way search engines like Google search for words or tags. By uploading an image or typing in a URL that contains the image you want to search, TinEye can retrieve thousands of images that exactly match the image you are searching for. You can then sort images retrieved from your search by best match, worst match, biggest image, and smallest image. Best matches show examples of images that are most true to the original image you searched for. The worst matched images begin sorting images that generally show extreme editing and reinterpretation of the original image you searched for.

TinEye is useful to search when you want to find out how images are being used, to find higher resolution or higher quality images, to see how images may be modified, or to begin the process of trying to identify an image that you may know little information about.

Check out TinEye’s Cool Searches Webpage to view examples of how users have used this useful search engine.

Try searching for other Mona Lisa’s in TinEye using this image:

Leonard da Vinci, "Mona Lisa", ca. 1500–1507, detail view.

Hey creative writers! Join us on Friday,  April 24th at 6:00pm for this year’s PAGE ONE event!

Page One is a literary performance competition held in the AAU Library where students can win cash prizes and recognition for their exceptionally creative submissions! Also, LA 108 instructors will be giving their students extra credit for participation. Cash prizes are $100 for first place in each category and $50 for second place in each category. CASE also provides free snacks and beverages.

The event works like this… Students write one page or the equivalent of 5 minutes spoken (before the day of the event) in one of three categories: Poetry, Fiction/Non-Fiction, and Spoken Word/Performance.  (No musical performances will be allowed.) A panel of judges will evaluate performances based on the following criteria: originality, language, presentation and clarity of subject. After all the presentations, votes will be tallied, winners announced, and prize money will be given out to the first and second place finishers in each categogy.

Ten people may sign up for each category, and sign-up sheets are available now in the Library at the circulation desk. BE SURE TO SIGN UP EARLY!!

Page One will take place on Friday, April 24th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm in the AAU Library.

For more information, email hopejohnson@academyart.edu

Don’t miss the Max Klinger exhibit at the Legion of Honor. It will be on display until July 5th 2009. The Legion of Honor is located in Lincoln Park near 34th Ave and Clement Street and has beautiful views of San Francisco Bay. With this great weather we are having, why not make a day of it?  Here is a brief description of the show from the Legion of Honor’s website:

“Drawn from the collection of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Waking Dreams highlights the dream-like etchings of Max Klinger (1857–1920), the German Symbolist artist best known for his enigmatic portfolio Paraphrases About the Finding of a Glove (1881). In addition to his activities as a painter and sculptor, Klinger was one of the most imaginative graphic artists of the late 19th century. He was a technical virtuoso who had the ability to literally transcribe his innermost visions, the daydreams, fantasies and nightmares of his highly creative and profoundly romantic soul. Waking Dreams presents Klinger’s graphic oeuvre alongside visionary etchings, lithographs and woodcuts by his precursors and contemporaries. Included are macabre and fantastic prints by French artists Charles Méryon, Rodolphe Bresdin, and Odilon Redon; the Belgians Félicien Rops and James Ensor; and the Norwegian Edvard Munch.”

Before heading to the museum, check out some of Max Klinger’s work in the AMICA digital image collection located on the library website. Here is a link to the Digital Images page on the website:

http://elmo.academyart.edu/tools/index.html

Select the AMICA Library Collection, the second collection from the top of the page and type in Klinger, Max as the creator name in the search field, select list,  and you will see 33 images of his work.

Here is an example:

Title: (Nacht) Vom Tode, Erster Teil (Opus XI)

The Museum of Craft and Folk Art offers free admission to their gallery every Tuesday in 2009. The museum is located at 51 Yerba Buena Lane at Mission between 3rd and 4th Streets.

The museum’s current exhibition is Inside/Outside: Artist Environments, which features “folk art environments” and “outsider” artist homes. The exhibition explores notions of how art is defined and how the gallery, as a physical space, contextualizes the boundaries of what art may be. Featured artists in this exhibition are Edgar Arceneaux and Watts House Project, Jacob Sockness, Merritt Wallace, Megan Wilson, and Mike Shine.

The featured installation in Inside/Outside: Artist Environments is Shine’s Art Shack.  Shine is a local artist who has re-created his own cabin in Bolinas within the museum itself. The “shack” features painted skateboard decks, painted driftwood art, a notebook that visitors can write in, a stuffed werewolf, visual references to Nordic mythology & A Clockwork Orange (Shine’s favorite book), and a 10 minute documentary by Stacey Peralta on Shine’s construction of the “shack”.

Inside/Outside: Artist Environments is on display until May 24.

Mike Shine, Shine Shack, Bolinas, California

The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair is happening this weekend, March 14th and 15th at the San Francisco County Fair Building, Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park.

Here is a brief description from the blog about this event. “In the main hall about 60 vendors (booksellers, distributors, independent presses and political groups, from the local area, the west coast and North America) will be displaying books, pamphlets, zines, t-shirts and other merchandise and information.”  Go here to learn more.

You can search for books on Anarchism in the Academy of Art Library catalog. Just use the keyword search term “anarchism” to find books on this topic.

Two anarchists of note are Emma Goldman and Sandra Cisneros. Check out this biography about Emma Goldman:  Living My Life or this video about Sandra Cisneros:  Sandra Cisneros.

Google recently digitized about 10 million images that were originally photographed for Life magazine. Many of the images found in this digital archive were never published. These images are high resolution and watermarked with “Life” on the lower, right-hand side of the images. To access the Life photo archive, visit the Website directly at http://images.google.com/hosted/life or search Google Images with keywords and “source:life”. For example, “hands source:life”.

Photographed by Allan Grant, 1947

Fashion majors studying designers and fashion illustration should check out the Fashion Design History Collection that features the American fashion illustrations of Claire McCardell (1905-1958), Norman Norell (1900-1972), and Mildred Orrick (1906-1994). McCardell was a great design innovator who created ready-to-wear fashions from jersey knits, denims, cotton, and wool pique. Her elegant designs were comfortable and functional, which supported the changing roles of women’s lifestyles pre- and post-World War II era. Some of her signature design elements were pockets, drawstrings, baby-doll dresses with high empire waists, hook-and-eye fasteners as ornamental and functional design elements, and leotards.

Dress, ca. 1950, Claire McCardell (American, 1905–1958), Black rayon jersey

The fashion drawings digitized for the Fashion Design History Collection are housed at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Archives Center at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. To access the Fashion Design History Collection digital image database, visit the Digital Images section of the Academy of Art University library Website.

The Academy of Art University library has two books that feature the designs of Claire McCardell:
Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism, call number TT505.M33 Y64 1998 (Circulating stacks)
Three Women: Madeleine Vionnet, Claire McCardell, and Rei Kawakubo, call number TT515 .T53 1987 (Circulating stacks)