Art History Library

[Nathaniel Berger]

Dear OLPC Library List,

My name is Nathaniel Berger, and I am personally interested in participating
with the OLPC project by way of content support in the category of Art
History. For weeks I have been talking with faculty members here at Ohio
University about how we might best participate in the project, and in all
honesty, after reading though the library digests, and much of the wiki, we
are still left unsure. However, we have started to form legitimate questions
concerning construction and implementation of AH related contributions.
Below I am listing the questions & concerns in order gain any type of
response to help us determine if what we are envisioning is feasible.


   - The Simple Vision
      - Teach Children about Art History, i.e. AH, (duh) through the
      use of digital imagery & relevant curated text.
      - Overcome the high-brow stigma that Fine Arts has garnered, and
      present the content in a clean, concise manner that keeps kids interested.
      - Present works that are relevant to the specific region,
      country, and/or culture in which the child lives. (Appalachian children
      immediately gain access to Appalachian art, and are presented
with how that
      art is relevant to other art, and the world in general.)
      - Emphasize the 1st extremely important concept of different
      perspectives by utilizing both screen modes, displaying
different visual &
      literal aspects & ideas when viewing in monochrome mode as opposed to
      normal.
      - Emphasize the 2nd extremely important concept of discussion by
      utilizing the mesh network, allowing children to discuss a
particular piece
      or set of works among each other in real time while
simultaneously viewing
      the work/s.


   - Content Related


   - What is the review criteria for Fine Arts work?
   - Do we have one?
            - What is the process?
            - Does this question fall under a jurisdiction of a
         OLPC curator?
      - How does/should local culture impact the content?
         - Would specific content perspectives be based by
         continental movements, regional movements, artistic
movements, all of the
         above, none?
         - Would/Should I, as an American, only be able to
         contribute content from my native local, or may I contribute from my
         field/location of specialty, cultural perspective, etc..?
         - Would/Should current political and social climates
         direct the works chosen, or should this be strictly historical? (some
         governments have policies/laws/regulations against specific
         works/artists/movements...)
      - What guidelines are there to regulate size/quality of content
      for OLPC projects?
         - Is anyone yet utilizing SVG, or is the focus on PNG?
            - Does OLPC have an SVG viewer?
         - Is there a set of guidelines discussing specific file
         sizes for specific types of content?
            - AH, being a visual study foremost, Vs. History,
            with visual studies seemingly being supplementary.
            - I would the reason that AH imagery would be
            allotted more file space for images...


   - Support Related
      - Is there support, financial or other, for educators interested
      in participating?
         - How does the OLPC Grassroots Learning Innovation offer
         support?
         - How can we reference OLPC when we apply for grants to
         work on an OLPC project?


There are many more questions to pose, but for our interests & circumstances
here at Ohio University, these seem to be the most relevant. Thank you.


-- 
Sincerely,
Nathaniel Berger
Operations Coordinator
The Aesthetic Technologies Lab <http://www.ohiou.edu/atlab/>

p.s. While it hopefully is not directly relevant for participation with
OLPC, my position at Ohio University allows me to work with the entire
College of Fine Arts (Art, Dance, Film, Interdisciplinary Arts, Music,
Theater) along outside schools such as Computer Science, Electrical
Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Astrophysics, Astronomy, Health & Human
Sciences, and so on. Interacting with these different disciplines allows
projects, such as the above, to bring together talents of all types at a
local level, and more often then naught, overcome most hurdles. I only hope
that we are able to gather enough support locally to move this project
forward, and I think that any answers supplied will hopefully allow us to do
just that. Thank You.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.laptop.org/pipermail/library/attachments/20070406/6f5864f5/attachment.htm