The Time Ice Cream Castles 4 min 12 sec LA 139 5:23:84 Limelight Inc Re...

This November has five Wednesdays.

Right.... I forgot...  This November has five Wednesdays..

Where there's a wig, there's a way.

SmartPhone Video Producer [Complete Training]

 I'd been looking for a series or a course for teaching smartphone videography for about a year now.  There is a course over at Udemy that looks promising, and a short article at good old Videography that but for a series of videos that could be remixed and reordered for one of my classes, this looks really good.  The only problem is that the hardware and software keeps changing so quickly, some of the videos will be outdated the moment they're posted.  Well, that's life in digital media.



And I'd like to know if there are any 'course designers' in Higher Ed, or do they all work in K-12?  Because there are some very clever modules, that could work just as well for undergrad courses.

Formalism, Realism & Museums

For the last few times I've facilitated and taught an online class in Art History, I've been thinking a lot about how the display of art in Museums works on us as audiences -- particularly Egyptian art.  I'd spent some time in Cairo about 15 years ago, and noticed that while the museum there is very impressive, so much of the best known works aren't there, but instead have been scattered across museums in Europe.  And they have been for several centuries.  The Egyptian collections in Rome go back way before 19th century colonisation.

Not to say that many of the collections of Mesopotamian and Egyptian art held in Europe weren't straight up demonstrations of imperial power.  (the Egyptians and Persians did the same thing at their heights)

During weeks 3 and 4 of the most recent course I was teaching, I was visiting Berlin with my family and we'd taken an afternoon to visit the "Museum Island" and a very similar collection of Egyptian art to that in Rome.  Once again, that interplay of realism and formalism became very apparent.  I was gobsmacked by this depiction of a man's head:

Which contrasted so much with the more formal elements common to Egyptian Art:

I was struck by how even at it's more formalised, the Neues Museum in Berlin had chosen to show off the more realism-driven side of Egyptian art -- probably because it lined up with something they culturally valued when the museum was originally built in about 1850, and is still a deep part of thier culture as a modern, multi-cultural city.  Without a doubt, the most famous example, that's almost become a icon for Berlin is the bust of Nefertiti.  (photographs weren't allowed, so here's a link)

http://www.egyptian-museum-berlin.com/c53.php

The artwork resonates so well with the city, that they created a 'Vegas-style' laser-show with 

acrobatic dancers based on it.  (really, not kidding)

And as silly and cliche as it is, it shows how museums (and art history) can have a profound effect on the broader culture.  This is where we go to learn about form, theme and content, but it's also where we go to learn about our connections to earlier cultures -- and that we take these artworks and continue to make new artforms based on the forms, themes and content that resonate with us.  The museum in Rome is focused on the abstract formalism of beauty (early dynasty art), the museum in London on the writing (Rosetta stone), in Berlin on realism of Beauty (Nefertiti bust), in New York on the architecture (Temple of Dendur).  While each of these museums has a representative collection of artifacts, their place in time and culture highlighted something that resonated with the people there.  That's why travel is such a great way to educate yourself.

A city of architecture and a city of words:

           

Aside from out global multi-media Internet, we still see the vast majority of the art we experience in galleries, salons and art museums.  This is an incredibly important part of the context of each of the artworks we view.  Museums have been with us for at least 2,500 years, but their position in society has changed; it continues to change in our fast-evolving and hybridising media-driven world.  I believe that they will become increasingly important as we become more of a virtual society.  The ability to visit a place in real-time, and real-space will become more and more important.  In many ways, museums help us return to the real.

Catchin' the Sun

There was a vinyl LP that my father would play on the weekends, it was called Catchin' the Sun – an instrumental jazz-funk-pop-fusion album that seemed to have whole worlds in its catchy sax refrains and synth solos.

I must have been about eleven or so.  The songs rolled one into another, weaving complete complexity.  This was nearly an unfairness that those of us who grew up in the late 20th century have to deal with... ...this hermetic perfection of near-perfect pop music.  Emotional experiences triggered by slick production that could make your own attempts feel so clumsy in comparison. Younger and older generations ran in, where Gen-Xer's feared to tread.

Still, we're all trying to be that compiler, that artist, that writer who is – Catchin' the Sun.

The self-publishing we've got at our fingertips retrieves the essence of those 18th century pamphleteers who caught ideas, re-molded them to fit changing times, used a messy technology, a gossip-network, and changed the world.

All energy comes from that Sun of ours.  Energy from tens of millions of years ago burst from that star, fell on some plants on the surface of our world, those plants soon died, and spent eons below ground turning from funk to slime to gunk to thicker gunk, to gas.  That gas pulled from the ground, burned, and electrified, passes through a near-incomprehensible grid of power, and into the battery of a slim, glowing tablet — on which I write, and you read — and if our ideas line up with each other's, and if our electrons line up from sun to funk to gas to light again.  Maybe we can change the world.

Then maybe, just maybe, you and I are – Catchin' the Sun.

From the Bottom to the Top

Many of my students use Wikipedia as a source for online discussions and even within their answers for quizzes, tests and exams.  I've given this mini-lecture on "From the Bottom to the Top – or how to read a Wikipedia Article." so many times, that I've decided to copy and paste a written version that I'd recently used as a response to a student who had copied and pasted from Wikipedia.  Fittingly, the article chosen was the article on 'Homage'.  So, I consider this a meta-homage to meta-homage; while at the same time being a light-hearted, pedantic "learning opportunity" for a new kind of digital hyperlinked style of education.  ...or perhaps something else altogether.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Good extrapolations. From your wikipedia quote: "a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something by simple declaration", but the quote continues: "but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic."  And here's where things get complicated.  But we'll return to this 'problematization' in a while.  

I frequently say that the best way to read a Wikipedia article is from the bottom up.  You'll notice that at the very bottom of this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage) lists the topic-structure that this article is organized withing: 

Categories: 

• Film techniques
 
• Intertextuality
 
• Literary concepts
 
• Narrative forms
 
• Art stubs
 
•  
 

• 
  

• Above that you'll find a collapse-able table around a much more sophisticated study of this by amatuer and professionals in this field — particularly Art Historians:

Appropriation in the arts

If you click on that word 'Appropriation', you'll open up an amazing array of ideas that are very applicable to this course, which we will discuss when we begin critiqing your draft art reports.  Above that you'll find the most professional citation in the article, the References

References[edit source]

1. Jump up^ "Homage", Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages 2
2. Jump up^ Robin M. Derricourt, An author's guide to scholarly publishing
3. Jump up^ Umberto Eco, The limits of interpretation
4. Jump up^ John Shepherd, "Rock Homage", Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World
5. Jump up^ Richard Grusin, Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory

 Obviously, each hyperlink will take you to the full text of the referenced citation.  I've actually read a good portion of Umberto Eco'sThe Limits of Interpretation, and while it can get a little overwhelming, it's  a great primary resource for discussing the meaning of what's 'real' and what's 'fake' or 'a mere copy' in art and art history.  If you click on the links for references #1 and #4, you'll find that the majority of the content of the article is taken from the Encylopedia of the Middle Ages and Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World.  This allows us to track back your quote through the Wikipedia page to an earlier source.  The next section up from the bottom is similar to the 'categories' section, but was placed by several of the Wikipedians because there are very strong thematic links to three other articles on Wikipedia. 

See also[edit source]

• Allusion
• Intertextuality
• Pastiche 

How are these ideas similar and different from the idea of Homage?  Try clicking through to learn more about this idea.  These particular links are the most 'curated'.  By that, I mean that a series of Wikipedia authors have reached a consensus that these ideas are so interconnected that they deserve to be tied together by the very hyper-textual nature of Wikipedia.  Again, these authors are both professionals as well as amatuers (as well as fanatics and even occasionally vandals or hired P.R. hacks)  But over time, the most-trusted professionals decisions about content and links are the ones that remain.  All of this finally brings us to the least consequential part of the Wikipedia article, the part that sadly gets the most attention: the "content."  

Homage (/ˈhɒmɨdʒ/ or /ˈɒmɨdʒ/) is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic.

It was originally a declaration of fealty in the feudal system (see Homage (medieval))—swearing that one was the man (French: homme) of the feudal lord.^[1] The concept then became used figuratively for an acknowledgement of quality or superiority. For example, a man might give homage to a lady, so honouring her beauty and other graces. In German scholarship, followers of a great scholar developed the custom of honouring their mentor by producing papers for a festschrift dedicated to him.^[2]

The concept now often appears in the arts where one author shows respect to a topic by calling it a homage, such as Homage to Catalonia. Alternatively, creative artists may show respect to a veteran of the field or to an admired practitioner by alluding to their work.^[3] In rock music this can take the form of a tribute album or of a sample.^[4] As of 2010, the digital techniques used to generate many forms of media make it easy to borrow from other works and this remediation may be used in homage to them.^[5]

Don't get me wrong, the "content" of this article is actually very good, and covers some of the very different meanings and contexts that both the word and its meanings have had across time.  Obvioulsy George Orwell and The Sugar Hill Gang were working in different media, times and contexts but both use the idea of Homage.  So there may be considerable confusion as to what this word means to begin with.  This brings us up to nearly the top of the page with a funny-sounding word. 

For other uses, see Homage (disambiguation).

Yes, it means to make-less-vague.  As we've noted many times during lectures, group discussions and quizzes, if you're so vague that you can't be wrong, you also can't be right.  So right at the top of the page, Wikipedia is giving you the tools you need to make sure that you're being precise with your language and your words.  If you were to click this link you would find a new page: 

Homage may mean:

• Homage, a show of respect.
• Homage (feudal), the medieval oath of allegiance.
• Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony
• "Homage (Magni Nominis Umbra)", a song by Hollenthon from their 1999 album Domus Mundi
• "Homage" (song), a song by And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead from their 2002 album Source Tags & Codes
• Homage, a 2008 DVD/CD combo by violinist James Ehnes
• Homage Comics, a comics imprint.

So, yes, you did find the correct page.  All of the other pages are very specific uses of the word.  Which, of course is at the very top of the page.

Homage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But wait!  There's some more stuff above that.  And this is actually the least-important for you as a consumer or Wikipedia, but very important to you as a professional (whether that's as a professional student, a professional art historian or professional acadmeic) 

• Read
• Edit source
• View history

You're currently looking at the 'Read' version of this article.  If you click the next link you enter the 'Edit' version of the article.  And yes, you can make changes.  In fact, if there's a minor error (e.g. typo, spacing problem, etc.) you're encouraged to fix it and click "minor edit".  In some upper-level courses in some universities, students are assigned to write articles for Wikipedia.  So you may get to know this function in the future.  Lastly, you can enter the 'History' version of the article and see all of the edits that have been made, and by whom.  This particular page has been edited over 500 times since 2003.  
So we see that Wikipedia is an evolving resource, not bound by the strictures of printing and distribution.  This doesn't make it any more or less valuable in terms of its content.  Like any secondary resource, you must be aware of the people who are writing and quoting to create it.  Where Wikipedia does excell is in linking ideas together, giving readers multiple pathways through ideas.  This is a big deal, and you can take advantage of this ability in a Wikipedia article if you learn to read each page from the bottom up.

Good luck!