Digital Urban is reporting on White House Redux, a collaborative architecture project that seeks to collectively redesign the White House in Washington, D.C.
From the project website: Analogously, the concept of Source Code is readily found in the everyday practice of architecture in forms of drawings, agendas, documentations, ideas, specifications, and material libraries. However, none of the above, with the seldom exception of ‘ideas’, are freely redistributable, publicized, or allow for criticism and input akin to what an open-source model offers. The architectural practice, today, is skewed towards personal benefit and gratification of individual architects. Thus, the laws protect creative property, on one hand, but are constricting and oppose collaborative creativity that could contribute more rapidly to architectural theory and practice.
Read about another collaborative architecture project taking place in Second Life here and here.
The Library Café is a weekly program of table talk with scholars, artists, publishers and librarians about books, ideas, and the formation and circulation of knowledge. It is hosted by Thomas Hill, and can be heard on WVKR FM 91.3 Tuesday afternoons between 12:00 Noon and 1:00 p.m. ET (16.00-17.00 GMT) during the academic year.
The Gallery’s Art Podcast, which successfully debuted in 2007, continues this spring with a series called “Art Talk.” Hosted by Yale undergraduate Christina Pryor, Art Talk episodes feature five- to fifteen-minute informal discussions about art.
Following in the footsteps of Alvin Lucier (please see the episode “LeWitt and Lucier”), the student music group IGIGI performed compositions in response to artworks at the Gallery. In this episode, Christina speaks with three of the participants about their music and chosen works: a painting by Richard Diebenkorn, an ancient lion relief, and the monumental “Stacks” by Richard Serra.
You don’t have to think it’s destroying our culture or that it’s igniting a cultural renaissance to understand that Wikipedia represents a major shift in how information is created and stored. Some opposing views:
“Doron Weber, a Sloan Foundation representative, said in a statement that Wikipedia ‘represents a quantum leap’ in the collection and organization of knowledge.”
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the
Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) have released a
new resource for architects and others planning higher education library
spaces. In response to frequent inquiries for information about planning
academic library buildings, ACRL and LAMA have partnered to develop a
basic framework for architects, planners and librarians embarking on
planning and design of academic libraries.
“In Stamford, Conn., the developer of a super-high-end condo tower is eschewing use of free classified-ad listings on craigslist.com to lure buyers, since ‘every mom-and-pop building these days is doing it.’”
“The building, set in downtown Stamford, was designed by Yale University’s dean of architecture, Robert A. M. Stern, and will offer fitness facilities, a wine cellar and tasting rooms, and an indoor pool with a retractable roof. “
This resource was recently posted on the ARLIS/NA listserv.
“The Database of Virtual Art documents the rapidly evolving field of digital installation art. This complex, research-oriented overview of immersive, interactive, telematic and genetic art has been developed in cooperation with established media artists, researchers and institutions.”
Becoming the latest academic institution to join in the Second Life craze, Princeton University has begun the construction of a virtual campus from which it plans on offering classroom sessions and writing seminars for the Schools of Architecture and Visual Arts. The campus will open to Second Life residents in September, but you can check out a brief tour and a collection of photos at Ambling in Second Life.
“…Behind you as you arrive is a simulation of Chancellor Green Student Center, which was originally the college library building and dates from the 1870s. It reeks of Victorian Gothic. Inside is a library (surprise!), which the college plans to build into a Second Life-based online resource, together with a couple of informal meeting rooms that would house around 6 people.”
More information on art and architecture in Second Life here and here.
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.
Over a decade in the planning, the new Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library in the Paul Rudolph Building reflects and meets the changing needs of teaching, research, and learning in the arts at Yale. Arts Library collections and staff, currently housed in a number of buildings across campus including the swing space at 270 Crown Street, will move into the Haas Family Arts Library later this summer in time for the fall semester. The Library will house the collections of the Art + Architecture Library, the Drama Library, and the Arts of the Book Collection, as well as staff and services for the Visual Resources Collection, and will become the physical and intellectual center for the pursuit of research, teaching, learning, and practice of the arts at Yale.
The Haas Family Arts Library will feature a variety of spaces for individual study, group study spaces, a large teaching space, and secure reading and teaching spaces for Arts Library special collections. The Special Collections Reading Room, a dramatic feature of the central two-story atrium, enhances interdisciplinary studies by realizing the long-planned consolidation of the many important special collections of the Arts Library, including the Arts of the Book Collection, one of the largest special collections at Yale and one of the most important book arts collections in North America. The Special Collections Exhibit area, which will continuously showcase exhibitions of the Library’s treasures, will feature a plaque recognizing a significant gift from William H. Wright, ’82.
More information on Arts Library services during the planned move period will be made available over the coming weeks on the Library's web site: www.library.yale.edu/art/.
