Blog Archives
Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance, Multimedia Tour Acoustiguide
Made in 2009, the Asian Art Museum gives a series of videos and an acoustiguide tour of Bali’s cultural arts from sculptures to dance. Furniture, weapons, instruments, and architecture figure heavily in the acoustiguide. When downloading this podcast, you will see reproductions.
Maharaja: The Splender of India’s Royal Courts Multimedia Tour Podcast
Asian Art Museum Press Release
Put together in 2011 by the Asian Art Museum. On any reproductions found in the downloads, I have good news and bad news. They do have photos, but it consists only of a promotional poster. Only one, A Ruler At Worship, has a different picture.
Phantoms of Asia Multimedia Tour Podcast from the Asian Art Museum
Made in 2012 over a period of three months that showcases artists. No reproductions found in the downloads, but they do have videos. This series focuses on contemporary art with interviews with artists from multiple cultures. As mentioned in the introduction, the artists focuses on influences from the traditional and the modern, plus grand questions such as how to capture the universe and space in art. In fact, this podcast teaches you about the relationship between the universe and Buddhism worked. The results prove rather expansive and diverse.
Further into the podcast, artists focus on ideals to pessimistic futures. One example of pessimistic futures comes from Heman Chong’s photographs empty spaces courtesy of a fictional apocalypse. Looking at this wall to wall tableau of photos, it struck me on what kind of context Chong used. On their own, these photos would not evoke sadness and melancholy, but resembled nondescript stock photos. Sure, some could evoke the same feeling that the painting Nighthawks would have made, but nothing would compare to seeing hundreds of photos of spaces that overwhelm the viewer with a sense of evacuation and desertion. Other artists such as Sun K. Kwak create some very imaginative work that go beyond the usual structure of murals and brushwork with her use of black tape. Sort of references ink drawings found in Asian calligraphy. Kwak even mentions line drawing. She created this illusion of painting with everyday work tools. Choi Jeong Hwa’s “Breathing Flower” will leave you with feelings of breathlessness and whimsy. The “Palden Weinreb on Process and Facades” shows the past and contemporary with ancient South Asian statues and contemporary art dealing with abstract issues on the wall both complement each other.
The longest podcast last about five minutes and fifty-five seconds.
“An image can hide another” Podcast
Click here for more information
It amuses me when an acoustiguide/podcast does not disclose which museum/gallery it came from. They make you work to find out where the series came from.
Rookwood Sculpture Walk Podcasts
In the 2009 and 2010 podcast, these acoustiguides revolves around the Rookwood Cemetery and artists who installed art in this historical place. The common subject? Death. Each artist creates something out of their view of death and everything surrounding this inevitable end. The artists do capture a range of subjects involving the culture of death ranging from the darkly funny, to how one copes with loss, and the outright horrifying (I.E. suicide bombings in Afghanistan).
Intriguingly, some try a different such as comment on people’s preference for simulacra objects in place of nature. In relation to that, many contributors submitted art with a theme on how people treat the environment. As with any typical contemporary artists, they create art not meant to have a type of permanent setting. Fitting in a cemetery. In the acoustiguide, artists talk about why they did this, describes it, what it represents, their inspiration, and their influences. It can go from something personal to something inspired by pop culture. On any enhancements, one featured background music and another featured sound effects of nature, which made me wonder what kind of discussions happened that resulted from that, because others narrated their section in silence. Hilariously, one podcast had a skit involving a tea party. Listen to it yourself, I dare not describe it even if I tried. I loved it though, so precious.
When I first subscribed to this podcast, I originally thought this podcast involved the Arts and Crafts Movement because of the name Rookwood. Shows what I know.
In the 2009 series, they give directions on where to go next. In the 2010 edition, they do not use it at all.
As usual, no photos in the download.
Going through the Art History Portion iTunes University Podcast: In Progress
With the immense collections found in iTunes University, I decided to do something beyond the podcast reviews.
So many podcasts, so little time. Some act as an introduction to an era, artist, or medium, some throw you in and expect you to know already know the basics. Still, I love it. All this free information available, given by experts who devote their lives to their respective fields. The ability to go beyond the usual Western Art History sections just leaves me giddy. On that, I feel that going through lectures helps strip away notions on the Exotic Other and makes the past closer. For those who want recommendations, I have mostly subscribed to podcasts from the Asian Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you love footage of dance, I recommend checking out the Asian Art Museum. Their concert footage go from traditional to contemporary performers. However, both museum provide great and fun video lectures. They all range from high quality with good use of technology to somebody not able to use their equipment successfully.
Depending on the podcast, I will devote it to a blog entry.
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Arms and Armor Podcast
The art of armor in a 2006 podcast courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. On that, I must ask, at what point will art history include every form of wares that humans can create? Centuries from now, people will go to museums and see projectors originally found in high schools. I watched a podcast series on British public telephones, and I seriously considered reviewing it for my blog.
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Constantine Tapestries Podcast
Philadelphia Museum of Art 2007 podcast/acoustiguide
This podcast devotes itself to all things Constantine and the history of who owned the tapestries. Who did them? Peter Paul Rubens, Pietro di Cortona, and multiple patrons. The acoustiguide describes scenes and gives historical truths behind them. However, you will not see them yourself if you download this podcast.
Picasso and the Masters podcast
From 2009 and made in Paris, France in the Gallerie National, Louvre, Dorsay, and the Musee Nacional Picasso. The show itself came from a “Cultural Initiative” that helped put it together. While learning about his paintings, the listener receives a profile on him and his reputation as a rebel. At the same time, as we go from his student days to the 1960s, we learn about his influences. This acoustiguide revolves around how much of a wunderkind the man was during his lifetime, especially the dark moments. On that, you will learn what inspired Picasso’s Blue Period and he had a fear of blindness. The presence of war and people dying acted as a somber subtext of Picasso’s life and work. The series also showed how the man constantly changed as he grew older. In other words, his art represented more than co-founding Cubism.
According to the podcast, Cezanne, El Greco, and Velasquez figured heavily as Picasso’s influences. This acoustiguide shows a man wrestling and celebrating his influences. However, given how they show the influence seen in his painting, wouldn’t that make Picasso a Post-Modernist? I’m not the first one to ponder this. I read a bit of The Myth and Originality of the Avant Garde and the author Rosalind Krauss pointed the Post Modern feel of Picasso’s work. The reputation of Modernism feels so tenuous at times when one learns more about the lives of these people who influenced this era.
The longest one goes over two minutes. As usual, no reproductions found in the downloads section. On any musical accompaniment heard in the series, they use a piece of orchestra in the beginning. However, they add some Spanish style guitar music in other parts. In one other podcast, I heard some John Cage style piano music.
Podcasts from the SKD
An English translation of an acoustiguide from 2009 courtesy of SKD. It has no reproductions and no introduction beyond that this exhibition revolves Renaissance and Baroque eras. This acoustiguide does provide information behind the exhibited art, but still, pretty jarring. The description box explains that the podcast labels it the Green Vault, made by King August the Strong. In short, They sort of throw you in headfirst.
The series does describe the rooms and how well-preserved they are, even surviving World War Two’s onslaught. Listening to it, the narrator’s descriptions reveal a study in wealth and indulgence put together by August the Strong. His love of jewels pervades everywhere. Even the narrator describes it as “overwhelming”. I felt amusement of a sculpture by this person named Dinglinger who took commission to render a Moor, but sculpted a Native American. Oy.
I found another SKD podcast known as the Gemaeldegalerie Alte Meister, which had only two downloadable podcasts. One on Raphael and another on Peter Paul Rubens. The two consists of profiles on each artist, which German purchased it, and the painting they created (Raphael’s Sistine Madonna and Ruben’s portrait of Prince Ferdinand for those wondering).
