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Nikon Museum 100th Anniversary Special Exhibition showcases prototype cameras

12 Apr

The Nikon Museum has launched its second 100th Anniversary Special Exhibition called ‘Prototype Cameras — Developers’ Memories.’ This exhibit, which will be running from April 4th through July 1st, showcases about 40 of the maker’s prototype cameras spanning dates from the 1940s through the 1980s, including its notable Nikon Model I Prototype 1 unit.

This exhibition includes rare prototypes of cameras that never entered mass production, says Nikon, giving the general public a chance to check out cameras otherwise sealed away from public view. The museum is also offering special commentaries for the Nikon F3 prototype and the Nikon F prototype from 1975 and 1957, respectively. Those commentaries are by Nikon’s Imaging Product R&D Laboratory lab manager Tetsuro Goto.

The Nikon Museum is located in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Those unable to make the trip in person can check out photos of the museum and the prototype exhibition here.

Via: NikonRumors

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Learning Zeppelin: Wooden Airship Docked on Museum Roof as a Reading Room

01 Apr

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

airship 1

A wooden airship has seemingly crash-landed onto the roof of the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague, wedged between two white museum buildings for dramatic effect to serve as a new space for literature and reading. Conceived by Leos Valka, director of DOX, and completed by Hut Architektury, the Gulliver Airship measures nearly 138 feet long and features a basketweave-like construction open to the air, protected from the rain by a transparent roof.

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Taking inspiration from the zeppelins of the early 20th century, the airship aims to reflect the optimism, technological advancements and futurism of the era, inciting a sense of wonder when you gaze up at it from the ground level. Valka says he dreamed of “an absurdly fascinating organic shape” that would have a parasitic appearance, alien to the concrete and glass of the museum itself.

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The ‘ship’ is accessible from the museum’s roof, and takes advantage of plentiful natural light for a pleasant reading environment. Adding such an unconventional structure is in line with the museum’s hope to encourage innovative thinking and take risks.

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The DOX facility is a reclaimed factory, its renovation nominated for the prestigious Mies van der Role Award, and its purpose is “to create a space for research, presentation and debate on important social issues, where arts in dialogue with other disciplines encourage a critical view of the so-called reality of today’s world.”

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airship 10

“The shape of the zeppelin is symbolic,” reads a statement on the DOX website. “The early zeppelins represented the optimistic ideals of a new era of unprecedented technological advancements. With their remarkable monumentality and hypnotic dignity that would continue to fascinate generations to come long after they had vanished from the skies, they have always embodied the eternal human desire to fly, and have represented a certain utopian ideal.”

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Metropolitan Museum adds 375,000 scans of artwork to public domain

18 Feb

“[Advertisement for Sarony’s Photographic Studies]” by Napoleon Sarony (American (born Canada), Quebec 1821–1896 New York) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has added 375,000 images to the public domain, each showing a scan of copyright-free artwork in the museum’s collection. Every image has a Creative Commons ‘CC0’ license, meaning they can be used for both personal and commercial purposes, and can be edited or used as parts of other projects.

This photo release follows the Museum’s Open Access of Scholarly Content initiative launched back in 2014, which made 400,000 photos available for non-commercial use. This latest photo release represents a slight change in the Museum’s policy: that all of its photos of public domain works are now accompanied by a CC0 public domain license.

Talking about this move, Creative Commons CEO Ryan Merkley said:

Today, The Met has given the world a profound gift in service of its mission: the largest encyclopedic art museum in North America has eliminated the barriers that would otherwise prohibit access to its content, and invited the world to use, remix, and share their public-domain collections widely and without restriction. This is an enormous gift to the world, and it is an act of significant leadership on the part of the institution.

The newly released public domain photos can be located using the search tool on the Creative Commons website.

Via: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Chinsekikan: Japanese Museum of Found Stones that Look Like Human Faces

18 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

japanes-rock-faces

An unusual collection of found-object art in Chichibu, Japan is home to nearly 2000 rocks that naturally feature what appear to be facial expressions.

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japanese-face-stone

A jinmenseki (or: rock with human face) can look like anything from an abstract emoji to a famous figure, including ones in this array that are purported to resemble Donkey Kong, Nemo and Elvis Presley.

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japan-face-rocks

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The founder of the museum, Shozo Hayama, passed away after 50 years of collecting and left the space and its collection to his wife Hayama six years ago. The key criteria: nature is the only artist in the mix (no modified rocks allowed).

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Some of the rocks are named while others simply set on the shelves, left open to interpretation. Visitors can simply show up but are advised to call ahead since the hours of opening are not entirely consistent or predictable (h/t Spoon & Tamago).

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Small in Japan: Tokyo’s Unique Museum of Miniature Architectural Models

22 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

archidepot storage

The first of its kind, this Japanese museum focuses exclusively on showcasing architectural models through rotating displays of miniatures, treating these crafted works as their own subset of art. The Archi-Depot in Tokyo is a huge warehouse space with 17-foot ceilings and a dazzling array of models from everyday architects as well as famous designers alike.

model warehouse

architectural models

Each model comes with a QR code that provides information about the work, including blueprints, renderings and photographs of finished works as well as details about the architects.

model shelves

model storage

Special lighting and climate control features help preserve and protect the models, just like art in an ordinary museum. The institution is as much oriented toward maintaining these works as it is toward displaying them.

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model space japan

These miniature buildings can be fantastic in their details and visual expression, but are often only seen behind closed doors in architecture firms. This museum takes these carefully-constructed works and puts them on public display.

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Featured architects include Kengo Kuma, the designer selected to create the 2020 World Olympics Stadium, as well as Shigeru Ban, famous for his work with paper and cardboard.

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model racks

Not all of the models represent buildings either under construction or already completed. Some feature conceptual pieces or draft works that for financial or other reasons will never be built. Shelf space is also rented out to architectural firms needing a place to store their models (and, of course, wanting to advertise their skills to a broader audience).

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model making

“Most architects have a store room full of lovely models that no one gets to see. But the situation is worse in offices in Japan, where space is really at a premium,” explained Klein Dytham co-founder Mark Dytham. “So this initiative is really brilliant – it’s a win-win for the architect and Archi-Depot. You rent a set of tall shelves, display your models on the lower shelves, and store the boxes and cases on the upper shelves. Hey presto, an instant architectural model museum with works by most of Japan’s leading architects.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Art Exhibitionism: Neighbors Threaten Lawsuit Over Museum Voyeurs

15 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Visitors to the new panoramic rooftop deck of the Tate Modern are being told not to take pictures … and not just of artwork on display inside the galleries: voyeuristic snapshots inside neighboring apartments are now off-limits as well.

The neighborhood Neo Bankside apartments have threatened to sue the institution over this addition, an extension to the Tate designed by Herzog & de Meuron that opened earlier this summer. The problem: people are shooting zoomed-in photographs from the viewing platform then posting them online, exposing living rooms and bedrooms behind floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall glass facades.

tate extension

London politician Adele Morris calls it a “tricky situation” and notes that “residents were very distressed to suddenly discover they had no privacy at all in their homes. Nobody had anticipated that people would literally be hanging over the balcony and taking photographs of their rooms and then posting them on the internet.”

Architectural responsibility aside, solutions have been proposed to the situation. For the Tate, ideas like closing the deck or installing a screen of plants on it have been considered. On the Neo side, a film could be applied to the glass to deflect gawkers.

tate photo copy

One resident described the experience as “terribly intrusive” and said “I bought this apartment because of the view but now I have to keep my blinds down whenever the platform is open, otherwise you get people waving at you.If I had known what it would be like, I would never have bought a flat here. Now I think I would struggle to sell it.”

tate viewing platform

Of course, there is arguably a ‘buyer beware’ component to this fiasco – living in an urban condo with extensive glass (particularly in a vertically-growing city like London) means making certain concessions to privacy. Those who live in glass houses may need to be aware of the risks they are taking – having a room with a view means that people can probably view you, too. Meanwhile, the Tate defends the design.

tate privacy

“The viewing level is an intrinsic part of the free public offer of the new building, providing a 360-degree experience that is virtually unique to London,” said representatives of the museum in a statement. Realistically, if someone can sue over viewers in this case and place, it also opens the door to lawsuits between basically any set of urban buildings.

“Since the very first plans were drawn up in 2006 we have been through an extensive consultation and planning process, and have maintained an ongoing dialogue with local residents. At no point during this process were any concerns raised regarding the viewing platform. There is signage encouraging the public and visitors to use it respectfully and responsibly” (Instagram images by refik, ellarog and karen_1605).

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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MIT Museum exhibition ‘Images of Discovery’ highlights science photography

25 Jun

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MIT Museum has opened a photography exhibition called ‘Images of Discovery: Communicating Science through Photography,’ running through January 2017. The exhibition showcases photographs from Berenice Abbott, Felice Frankel and Harold ‘Doc’ Edgerton, all three of whom ‘explored a range of scientific questions’ through their photography while working at the university.

All three aforementioned photographers spent time working at MIT; Frankel is a research scientist and science photographer in the MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering; Edgerton was an MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering and is known, among other things, for his Milk Drop photograph; and Abbot worked for MIT in the late 1950s, contributing images for a physics curriculum.

Speaking about the exhibition, MIT Museum Director John Durant said:

“Wherever you look in science, you see the historical importance of finding new ways of visualizing things, leading to greater understanding of the world. From Galileo’s use of his own hand-built telescope to explain the movements of the earth and other planets, to the latest imaging technologies in everything from nanotechnology to neuroscience, the making of images remains central to our ability to make new discoveries.”

The exhibition includes half a dozen ‘Image Making Stations’ that give visitors the opportunity to better understand and make their own similar science photographs. Image Making Stations including ‘Water Drop,’ ‘Capture Movement,’ ‘A Bouncing Ball,’ ‘Water Waves in a Ripple Tank,’ ‘Photographing Ferrofluid,’ and ‘Zoom Scanner.’

The MIT Museum is located at 265 Massachusetts Ave, Building N51, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Via: wbur

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Google Art Camera uses robotic system to take gigapixel photos of museum paintings

19 May

The Google Cultural Institute, an online virtual museum with high-quality digitizations of artifacts from across the globe, recently added more than 1,000 ultra-high-resolution images of classic paintings and other artwork by Monet, Van Gogh and many others. A new robotic camera system Google has developed called ‘Art Camera’ has made it possible for the organization to add digitizations faster than ever before.

Previously, Google’s collection included only about 200 digitizations, accumulated over approximately five years. Art Camera, after being calibrated to the edges of a painting or document by its operator, automatically takes close-up photos of paintings one section at a time, using a laser and sonar to precisely adjust the focus. This process results in hundreds of images that are then sent to Google, where they’re stitched together to produce a single gigapixel-resolution photo.

Instead of taking the better part of a day to photograph an item, as the old technology did, Art Camera can complete the process in less than an hour; speaking to The Verge, Cultural Institute’s Marzia Niccolai said a 1m x 1m painting can be processed in half an hour. Google has built 20 Art Cameras and is shipping them to museums around the world for free, enabling the organizations to digitize their artwork and documents. The resulting gigapixel images can be viewed here.

Via: Google Official Blog

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Horror at the Met: Psycho House Replica on Museum Rooftop

23 Apr

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

psycho house main

Set against the New York City skyline, the house from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho has never looked more out of place, elevated high above the treetops on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. British artist Cornelia Parker faithfully recreated the home from the 1960 horror classic as a summer addition to the Met’s rooftop garden, using wood and steel roofing reclaimed from a rural barn to give it that authentic dilapidated feel. The ‘PsychoBarn’ exhibit opened this week and will be in place through October 31st.

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psycho house 3

The artist took inspiration not just from the film, but also from the paintings of famed American artist Edward Hopper, whose ‘House By the Railroad’ is thought to have inspired Hitchcock’s vision for the Psycho house. Contrasting the charm of rural landscapes and vernacular architecture with one of the most modernized cities in America, Parker chose to keep the house a mere facade rather than fleshing it out in additional detail.

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“I was very excited to find the original set from Psycho was only two flats, all propped up from behind, like a stage set would be, and it was filmed from a particular angle so you only saw the house, side on,” she says. “I’ve built the house in the same angle. I’ve tipped it into the corner, and then if you go around the back, you can see it’s all propped up and you realize it’s a facade. But I wanted it to be believable from this angle. So the roof garden becomes the garden of this house. So I like the idea of the private hedge around the Met roof. And then hunkering in the corner in this sinister house.”

original bates mansion

bates motel

The original Bates mansion still stands on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot, but it has been expanded, renovated and rebuilt several times over since its original construction. There’s also a replica in Florida, and another in Nevada. The A&E television series ’Bates Motel’ that’s currently in its fourth season films in British Columbia, where there’s yet another version of the original set – also just a facade.

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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When Art Attacks! Giant Spherical Sculpture Escapes Museum

21 Apr

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 2.43.25 PM

How do you stop a 15-foot-tall, 250-pound ball when it’s rolling down the street, running over cars and treating the city like a giant pinball machine? Employees at the Toledo Museum in Ohio had to figure out the answer to that question really quickly one day last August when a storm swept through the city, dislodging the giant sculpture from its perch on a downtown rooftop and sending it barreling through the streets as if it had a mind of its own. It even pauses at an intersection and then makes a left turn, as if trying to determine the best escape route, as the frantic museum workers run after it.

An observer who happened to be on an adjacent rooftop captured much of the ensuing chaos and put the clips on Instagram and YouTube. Luckily, the ball is inflatable, so there was no risk of it actually crushing the cars it rolled right over, though it did bend a few street signs and freak out a few drivers. The ball itself, created by artist Kurt Perschke, sustained a little bit of damage on its adventure, but returned to the museum to finish out its residence in Toledo.

redball paris BART Station Market St.

redball project 3

The sculpture has traveled around the world, lodged in every imaginable urban nook and cranny, from alleyways in London and bridges in Paris to the Montreal Biosphere and Chicago’s Grant Park. It’s currently en route to Memphis, Tennessee to begin its next residency.

Bopiliao St in Taipei.

redball project

“Through the RedBall Project I utilize my opportunity as an artist to be a catalyst for new encounters within the everyday,” says Perschke. “Through the magnetic, playful and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us. On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it. It opens a doorway to imagine what if?”

redball proejct 2 redball chicago

That last statement is especially true when the question is, “What if the ball gets loose and runs around the city?” It’s kind of a shame it didn’t get to travel farther before it was captured and returned.

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Museum’

Nikon Museum 100th Anniversary Special Exhibition showcases prototype cameras

Learning Zeppelin: Wooden Airship Docked on Museum Roof as a Reading Room

Metropolitan Museum adds 375,000 scans of artwork to public domain

Chinsekikan: Japanese Museum of Found Stones that Look Like Human Faces

Small in Japan: Tokyo’s Unique Museum of Miniature Architectural Models

Art Exhibitionism: Neighbors Threaten Lawsuit Over Museum Voyeurs

MIT Museum exhibition ‘Images of Discovery’ highlights science photography

Google Art Camera uses robotic system to take gigapixel photos of museum paintings

Horror at the Met: Psycho House Replica on Museum Rooftop

When Art Attacks! Giant Spherical Sculpture Escapes Museum

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