~Yale Arts Library Blog~

Monet? Gauguin? Using art to make better doctors: new courses improve powers of observation Liz Kowalczyk Boston Globe 7/20/08

Katz’s class is one of a growing number of art courses offered to medical students nationwide and aimed at improving their observation and diagnostic skills at a time when doctors are increasingly relying on CT scans, Maris, biopsies, and other technology to do their work, even though it is far more expensive - and sometimes unnecessary to pinpoint illnesses.

Educators at other medical schools that offer art classes have similar goals. Weill Medical College of Cornell University has offered a noncredit art course in collaboration with the Frick Collection in New York City for eight years, while Yale Medical School runs an art observation course for medical students that is now a required class.

Posted by Chris

The Mayor’s Community Arts Grants Program has been designed to support the community by providing financial, marketing and technical assistance for arts and cultural related programs, projects and events which occur in New Haven neighborhoods.

Individuals who are presenting, teaching or practicing artists and non-profit arts organizations working with neighborhood-based community and/or youth or senior groups in the City of New Haven. Eligible activities include: festivals, parades, exhibitions, murals/public art, children’s activities, inter-generational programs, arts education, film, public performances, neighborhood collaborations and apprenticeships.

The application deadline is June 4, 2008. A total of $25,000 will be awarded through grants up to $2,000. The grant application package is available for download on the City’s website, visit this website. For more information about the program, please contact Kim Futrell at (203) 946-7172 or kfutrell@newhavenct.net.

Press release here.

Photograph: Karl Blossfeldt

After photographing flowers, buds and seed capsules for thirty-five years, Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) published his masterpiece Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature) in 1928. See a portfolio of the work here.

The German sculpture used his photographs of plants to teach students about design elements in nature. He once said, “The plant never lapses into mere arid functionalism; it fashions and shapes according to logic and suitability, and with its primeval force compels everything to attain the highest artistic form.”

More of his work here. Plus check out the Peabody Museum’s Manual of Leaf Architecture.

Posted by Chris

“We have seen four different interpretations of the pyramid - they are all interesting concepts,” Rem Koolhaas said.

“In the West, we have been very phobic about death, but because of demographics, death will be imposed on all of us.

“There is a constant ageing process - it’s important that this issue is addressed and it’s a very graphic way of dealing with the topic of death. I’m curious to find out what happens in the end,” Mr Koolhaas said.

Germany plans ‘cemetery pyramid’ Tristana Moore BBC News 3/12/08

Posted by Chris

Really good interactive collection of Al Jaffee’s fold-ins for Mad Magazine in the New York Times last week. They look kind of like certain e-books I’ve seen. This beta version, by Ruben Swieringa is nothing short of incredible.

Fold-Ins, Past and Present New York Times 3/28/08

And check out this article about Yale University Press and the free e-book movement.

Posted by Chris

Learning, Arts, and the Brain is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven top U.S. universities. Among it’s findings:

• An interest in a performing art leads to a high state of motivation that produces the sustained attention necessary to improve performance and the training of attention that leads to improvement in other domains of cognition.
• Training in acting appears to lead to memory improvement through the learning of general skills for manipulating semantic information.
• Adult self-reported interest in aesthetics is related to a temperamental factor of openness, which in turn is influenced by dopamine-related genes.

Does Art Education Make People Smarter? Scientific Blogging 3/4/08

Posted by Chris

“The definition of what constitutes art now apparently contains giant roving robots, terrifying autonomous skeletons and flaming metal snakes. These five pieces of art may sound awesome, until they’re killing you and everyone you love.”

5 Works of Art That Can Probably Kill You Robert Brockway Cracked.com

Posted by Chris

Via today’s New York Times:

To the Editor:

It’s odd and sad that Nicholson Baker, author of “Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization,” who takes second place to no one in his fetishism about all things ink-on-paper, should use Post-it notes as bookmarks in library books.

It is no secret that the glue residue they leave behind is harmful to paper.

John Sippel

Amherst, Mass., March 4, 2008

Posted by Chris

Yale University has agreed to return artifacts discovered at Machu Pichu to the Peruvian Government which were discovered by Hiram Bingham nearly a century ago. This move places Yale in the company of other cultural institutions who have been returning cultural artifacts obtained under hazy, and sometimes illegal, circumstances. Yale released an official press release on the matter late last week.

The New York Times also wrote about the agreement between Yale and the Peruvian Goverment.

Randy Kennedy. Yale Officials Agree to Return Peruvian Artifacts. New York Times. September 17, 2007.

Posted by: Ian M.

I recently learned about this neat website called Library Thing that enables readers to catalog their own books in a social catalog. Users of the site can tag books, write reviews, and create/join different groups (e.g. Atwoodians). Like Amazon, Library Thing also lets you see recommendations from readers with similar tastes.

Film archivist and all-around media wunderkind Rick Prelinger just posted on his blog, blackoystercatcher,  that Google has launched its own social catalog, My Library, which according to Prelinger, “looks a lot like a skeletal version of LibraryThing plus an anonymous corporate skin and minus community spirit.”

Bummer.

Posted by: Ian M.

State Increases Spending On Arts - After That It Gets Complicated
Biggest Groups Seek Separate Arts Funding
By FRANK RIZZO | Hartford Courant August 19, 2007

Posted by: Tanya

The National Archives and Records Administration has partnered with CustomFlix Labs, a company owned by Amazon, to digitize NARA’s Universal Newsreel collection, which will then be sold on Amazon. These newsreels include footage of the famous Nixon/Kennedy presidential debate and FDR’s funeral. To read the press release go here.

Posted by: Ian M.

A recent Washington Post article about visual literacy makes a strong case that today’s students need stronger skills for assessing visual culture. While the article breaks the issue down into somewhat facile old/young moieties, the core argument that students need visual literacy training in addition to more traditional information literacy that focuses on textual resources is irrefutable. The article also mentions a recent panel at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference on the topic. Coincidentally, Danuta Nitecki, Associate University Librarian, presented on the panel, which examined the intersection of information and visual literacy.

Linton Weeks, “The Eye Generation Prefers Not to Read All About It.” Washington Post. July 6, 2007.

Posted by: Ian M.

From the CLUI exhibit Loop Feedback Loop:
The Big Picture of Traffic Control In Los Angeles

The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) is, “Dedicated to the increase and diffusion of information about how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived.”

Additionally, “The organization was founded in 1994, and since that time it has produced over 30 exhibits on land use themes and regions, for public institutions all over the United States, as well as overseas. Public tours have been conducted in several states, and over ten books have been published by the CLUI. CLUI Archive photographs illustrate journals, popular magazines, and books by other publishers, and have been used in non-CLUI exhibitions, and acquired by art collectors.”

The site also includes The CLUI Land Use Database, “an on-line computer database of unusual and exemplary sites throughout the United States. It is a free public resource, designed to educate and inform the public about the function and form of the National landscape, a terrestrial system that has been altered to accommodate the complex demands of our society.”

See a list of CLUI exhibitions here.

Posted by: Ian M.

A recent article in the Harvard Law Review presents several fascinating and potentially scary problems with social tagging and photographic sites like Flickr. The article posits that new facial recognition technologies may pose serious privacy issues on public photo-sharing sites and that our current regime for privacy law is ill-equipped to deal with these emerging technologies. A must read! Download a PDF here.

“In the Face of Danger: Facial Recognition and Limits of Privacy Law,” Harvard Law Review; May2007, Vol. 120 Issue 7, p1870-1891, 22p.