miscellaneous

Under “miscellaneous” we have included a number of websites that cannot be included in any of the other categories but that cover a broad range of interests and fields. For example, here you learn about a directory of artists of the last millennium, a graffiti related web site with photographs from all over the world, a university’s historical records describing various aspects of everyday life through the centuries, the sites of international organizations preserving and disseminating indigenous cultures, the sites of art events or art conferences and many more. Share your links and contribute to the creation of a wide and continuously expanded unique directory.

• Digital Theatre

  It is one of those things that we ourselves have frequently thought –and most probably we are not the only ones, especially after the recent popularity of television series and their immediate distribution in digital format as soon as soon as a season is over: why doesn’t someone do the same thing for theatrical performances? Actually a British company did: they videotape the performances in high definition video and consequently they offer them for sale on the Internet while at the same time they run another specialized web site which aims to educate students (of theater and in general) and help them understand better the technique behind a theater performance. 

  Performances are available in three formats: the first costing 4,5 euro allows the user to watch (but not download) the video as many times as they like within a period of two days, the second costing 13 euro makes the video available for downloading and the third costing 18 euro allows for a high definition download. The only downside is that for now titles are very few (at the time of writing, just 19) but we hope more will be available in the future. 

  URL: http://www.digitaltheatre.com/

• Submarine channel

  The term transmedia is used to describe a creation that expands in more than one medium; for example, a documentary which is partially on video and partially on text, a comic which in part appears in the form of video or a literary text which also contains audio material.  Submarine Channel is a web site that aims to be a medium for the expression of such works of art and is the Internet extension of the studio with the same name which is based in Amsterdam and has been producing such transmedia works since 2000.

  In the web site, visitors can find a profile of the artists whose works are featured; this profile contains a brief resume and a video with the artists themselves talking about their work. There is also a section with the five best works from 22 different categories –this section is the best introduction to the genre for the uninitiated- as well as a section containing all art works classified by subject. Submarine channel also incorporates two mini-sites  one for films and one for music.

  URL: http://submarinechannel.com/

• European Cultural Foundation

  ECF is an organization based in The Netherlands and promotes the cultural characteristics and the creative expression as observed in Europe; it was created to provide a platform for exchange of ideas and provision of support between and for artists from various European countries and it supports said artists by sponsorships and long term programs in collaboration with other European cultural bodies. It was founded in 1954 in Geneva and among its founders were Swiss philosopher Denis de Rougemont, politician Robert Schuman and Netherland Prince Bernhard who all shared a common vision about culture becoming a catalyst in Europe’s effort to reconstruct after the war.

  In the organization’s web site, visitors can find information about the various sponsorship programs and about the prerequisites for participation in them as well as about the varied actions it is involved in as they materialize through certain long term initiatives. Also included is a section with news related to the ECF’s various events and a second web site that functions as a communication forum among artists.

  URL: http://www.eurocult.org

• Art Babble

  ArtBabble has been called “a YouTube for the arts” and it is a web site with videos from various art exhibitions, created by the Indianapolis Art Museum  and operating since 2009 (it was operating for a year before that but on a pilot basis) as an alternative way for other museums and cultural bodies to promote their exhibitions. Among such organizations one can find names such as that of the MoMA, the Smithsonian, New York’s Public Library etc.

  The initial idea for ArtBabble was to show the backstage work during the exhibitions’ preparation phase; from the packing of art works for transportation from the artists’ studio to the space they will be exhibited to the conversion of that space (all these steps are accompanied by comments by the artists themselves describing each phase and providing information about their demands and expectations from the exhibition). After the site’s gain in popularity though, the video posted can be quite diverse: information about famous art works, public discourses with both artists and public participating etc.

  URL: http://www.artbabble.org/

   

• Culturenet

  Culturenet is Norway’s official web site on culture. It is an attempt to document all the cultural bodies in the country including foundations, galleries, individual artists etc. from a wide variety of media such as dance, painting, cinema, photography, literature, theater etc. Overall, it includes information about more than 10,000 artists and 400 cultural organizations.

  Information is accessible through a variety of ways: for starters, there is a very well designed tag cloud which includes a minimum amount of tags (this makes it particularly practical). Also, there is a map of the country that allows visitors to search in particular geographical areas, directories of artists and organizations as well as a listing of art exhibitions. A weakness that we came across and which is very common in international sites is that the local version is much richer than the English one; in other words, more information is available to Norwegian readers than to those who can only read English.

  URL: http://kulturnett.no/

• 20x200

  20x200 is an e-commerce site, specializing in the sale of low-cost art reproductions; its name comes from the initial idea of selling two hundred reproductions of an art work for twenty dollars each. The idea was first put into practice in 2003 through a gallery and from 2007 it has been moved to the Internet; the low-cost model allows everybody to approach art by acquiring an art work and also offers an opportunity for young artists to promote their work.

  All art works are available in predetermined prices and dimensions; prices vary from $60 to $5,000 depending on the work’s size and the number of copies offered. Visitors can search using various criteria classified in four categories (theme, price range, basic color and available size) while for every art work there is a brief description by the artist who created it as well as other works by the same artist for sale (the site also offers suggestions about works from other artists based on thematic proximity to the work the visitor expressed interest for). Last, but not least, 20x200 also includes a daily newsletter with special, limited-time offers. 

  URL: http://www.20x200.com/

• Science for kids

  Society for Science & the Public is a non-profit organization founded in 1921 and publishing “Science News” since 1922; the magazine is considered one of the world’s top scientific magazines and its web site has more than ten million visitors every year. With a fundamental aim to educate the public in scientific matters, the Society for Science & the Public started in 2003 “Science News for Kids” which, as the name implies focuses on news about science but written in a more simplified way so they can be accessible to kids. The organization also organizes scientific labs where children try out various experiments under the guidance of scientific personnel.

  The news included in the site are classified into six categories: subatomic physics, environment, health, biology, technology and miscellaneous and even though the categories are being updated almost in a daily basis, the site does not focus on the documentation of each and every scientific development (as happens with its older sibling) but puts more weight on education; towards this goal, visitors can see after every article explanations for basic concepts like what is a particle, which fuels are called “fossil”, what is the ozone layer etc. 

  URL: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/

   

• Artbook

  ArtBook is an Internet bookstore specializing in art-related titles; its thematic categories include fields such as architecture, design, photography, music, cinema, fashion, literature, art theory etc. It belongs to Distributed Art Publishers, the biggest American publishing house specializing in art which was founded in 1990 in New York; DAP is the sole representative for the United States for books published by such illustrious museums as  MoMA,  Guggenheim, Walker Art Center etc.

  The superbly designed web site, allows visitors to search titles related to the various thematic areas; a very interesting category was “Curated Libraries” where the site offers various titles per thematic area (Surrealists, Dada, German expressionism, independent cinema, Bauhaus movement, architecture etc.) giving the visitor the opportunity to approach a particular field through suggestions by specialists.

  URL: http://www.artbook.com/

• Leonardo

  Leonardo magazine was first published in Paris in 1968 by artist Frank Mallina; its creators wanted it to be a communication channel between members of the international artist community and especially the ones using for their work science and new technologies. In 1981, the organization with the same name was founded; Leonardo is a non-profit organization that targets the global community of thinkers, scientists, artists, researchers and intellectuals.

  In Leonardo’s web site, visitors can find information about the organization’s impressive publishing work; besides the magazine, the organization publishes a music magazine, an electronic calendar recording important cultural events, a specialized web site with book, conference and exhibition criticism and many books (these are published in collaboration with MIT Press). Finally, there is a section with current projects as well as a call for papers for interested parties that would like to submit their work for possible publication.

  URL: http://leonardo.info/

• Art Sumo

  ArtSumo is a service that offers visitors the opportunity to buy low cost paintings from young and/or unknown artists; the site gives emphasis to artists from developing countries adding an element of charity to the whole enterprise. The service operates mainly through email and everyday a painting is presented; ArtSumo calls this, “A painting a day”. The paintings are hosted by the site for a limited time frame and interested parties can see the works that are still available or others that have been sold in the past.

  Ta art works come from various artists from all over the world and anyone can buy them; there are no limitations other than the shipping costs that vary from $9 for shipment within the US to $50 for international destinations. As for the site’s name, we assume it was inspired by a similar service named AppSumo; this one offers daily bargain deals for computer applications.

  URL: http://www.artsumo.com/