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insite : : kevan nitzberg

 

hanging with the masters in cyberspace

A new frontier accessible through the internet has made the connection to art, artists and artwork as easy as pushing a button, plugging into a phone line or simply turning on a switch.  No longer can the art world be seen as an exclusive, eclectic, highbrow, closed club for a rarefied stratum of humanity.  So much more communication, information and inclusion of a wider population, has now been made possible by virtue of the technology that is available to anyone with access to a computer and a modem.  Through the convenience of one’s own home, office, classroom, or library, an incredible opportunity has been created for viewing, sharing, discussing, and investigating the wealth of artwork that is such a significant part of the legacy of human achievement throughout history.

The ability to instantly traverse space, distance and time through one’s computer screen, provides not only the individual ‘traveler’ with a resource of unimaginable value, but also promises a major potential for enhancing the value that the global community places on art through an enlightenment that is only a click away. 

Artsconnected, the interactive, combined web site of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center located in the Twin Cities of Minnesota (USA), is an example of one of the gateways to this  impressive, borderless frame of reference.  State funded and supported through  MCI Worldcom, artsconnected provides access to not only extensive collections, archival information, links to other museum web sites, video and audio resources on artists and their works, but also provides a series of tools for  people to be able to interact with the information that is being made available.

Online activities for all age groups are made possible through Playground (http://www.artsconnected.org/playground/), that provides a series of opportunities for people to interact with the art.  The range of activities provided entitled: “Make It”, “Find It”, “Watch and Listen”, and “Explore It”, all contain a variety of opportunities from simple to complex, that allow participants to experience everything from the relationships and use of color and scale in art to working with and planning complex 3D environments.

Further interaction with artwork and artists is made possible through a function called Art Collector that is available through the Art Gallery screen (http://www.artsconnected.org/art).  Here one is able to construct their own collection of artwork that may be pulled from the over 5,000 digitized images from the combined collections of both museums and either write text or use established descriptive material to accompany each of the images selected.  An example of a completed collection that I assembled using the Art Collector feature, may be seen at:

http://www.artsconnected.org/pub/KevanNitzberg151.cfm

 There is an editor screen that also allows the user to incorporate detailed images of the artworks though using the zoom feature, allowing for greater investigation of the works being studied.  In addition, images in the collection can be moved into a different order than they were initially accessed in.  Amazingly, the collections that are made can be stored for an indefinite period of time on the site and can also be shown to others if the user wishes through the sharing of an assigned URL address designation.

Additional features in the Art Gallery include Art Sampler that allows the viewer to pull up random images from the museums’ collections that can be clicked on for further information, and Online Visual Arts Resources.  The latter presently provides connections to an international assemblage of museums with online sites, CyberAtlas (from the Guggenheim Museum in NYC), that utilizes a ‘skychart’ of links to various sites that are related to art and culture, and an online art dictionary, ArtLex, that boasts a collection of over 2,800 art terms and definitions.

The Libraries and Archives screen (http://www.artsconnected.org/library+archives/), allows one further access to and interaction with the material at hand.  Recorded interviews with artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Indiana may be listened to here as well as getting information about the restoration process of a work or art.  Direct links are also provided to all Minnesota libraries as well as the United States Library of Congress.  A search engine (also available in other locations throughout artsconnected), allows the user to access archival information stored at the museums and other online resources.

Further information and links are available through the For Your Classroom screen (http://www.artsconnected.org/classroom/), that not only provides access to teachers and students to programs at the museum and grade specific and cross curricular lessons, but also contains a downloadable teachers’ guide to using the artsconnected site. Further information for navigating one’s way through artsconnected is also available by accessing the tutorial online by typing the location http://www.artsconnected.org/tutorial. In addition, there are also more links provided to information on using technology in education, educational databases, ArtsNet Minnesota and opportunities to link with other art teachers for discussion purposes.  By clicking on the ‘online resources only’ box, links are provided to specially formulated programs that feature such topics as world ceramics, mythology, photography and the environment to name but a few. 

As if all that wasn’t enough, the site also allows visitors to the site to print the digitized images that are available from the 2 museums.  The process that was used initially to digitize the images involved the use of a highly sophisticated camera that allows for the amazing clarity one experiences using the zoom feature for exploration of the details and surface texture of the works.  There are, of course, copyright issues involved in the reproduction of images, but if personal or educational use is the primary function for the printing of images, then there is no problem in their being reproduced.  A simple laser jet copier (color or black ink), produces extremely clear images of the artworks that can then be laminated, shown on an overhead projector or simply left as is.  Of course, the technology that is available for use with computer based images also provides more sophisticated avenues for viewing the work such as using an LCD projector hooked up to the computer for large screen viewing.

Additional technological ‘goodies’ are available through artsconnected in order to maximize the use of the site.  A series of plug-ins may be downloaded directly from the site in order to be able to access all of the available functions.  More information on these plug-ins is available in the tutorial.

The amazing assemblage of all of the above mentioned tools help to set the stage for a whole new understanding and appreciation of art as a versatile and comprehensive vehicle for the exploration of how we perceive and define human experience. Through that exploration, we may even bring about a greater awareness of both the collective and individual views of the world that we seem to forever ponder over.  The mission of the fictional space ship The USS Enterprise on the television science fiction series, “Star Trek”, ‘to go bravely where no man has ever gone before’, exploring new worlds and civilizations along the way, may have found a new twist. As we look at a new electronic ‘space’ through which we can now explore artful expression in our own world, employing new ways and possibly gain an even greater depth of understanding for than has ever been attainable up until now. An analogy therefore may be made between the Enterprise and ‘art-themagazine.com’, as this literary vessel continues to pursue new avenues for exploration and discovery in its ongoing quest for novel and interesting vistas with which to open the eyes of its readers to the experience of art and all that that entails.

Kevan Nitzberg is an art educationalist and Minnesota Educator of the Year, 2000. To suggest a subject matter you would like searched, click here to send a message.

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