A hot topic at the moment is museums, particularly in new museums and the curation of new exhibits, is the idea of the Virtual Museum. My first contact with this idea came while I was at my new job; the online tool department transformed the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) into a Second Life platform. That means those who are registered on Second Life with their own digital self, or sometimes called an avatar, can virtually walk through the museum and view digitized works of art!

At first the idea struck me as disappointing; why would someone look at a mini-copy of a work of art on his or her computer screen instead of going to see the actual work? But then again this goes back to the issue of movie theaters having problems with viewers streaming movies online…

The advantage to digitizing museums has one crystal clear advantage; education and research. Although many museums still have The other interesting idea behind the Second Life museum is that it differentiates itself from online museum archives, which have already been around for a few year, in spatial aspects, presentation, and pedagogical strategies. Welcome the birth of digital curation…

I read an article in the New York Times (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8.Feb.2010) entitled “Online, It’s the Mouse That Runs the Museum.” The article explores the advantages to digital museum presentation and curation. Because of the general knowledge of social media platforms (a.k.a facebook and Twitter), web users are becoming more accustomed to having influence on subject material. At the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which will open in Warsaw in 2012, a virtual platform allows web users to support the collection by sending their own photographs, videos, etc. Even more exciting is the French project for the Museum of Afghan Civilization, which only exists in digital form. Its goal is to allow people in Afghanistan to share photographs that are taken there in areas where computers are scare. A new way of communicating culture! The founder of this museum stated, “Curators are starting to realize that they can be challenged by the audience.”

What a wonderful idea! I’ll have to admit, I’ll be excited if at some point I cross paths with a digital curating project!

My trip to Paris with “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” was from March 22 to the 27.  The first day we arrived in Paris, via TGV (an express train) was a Sunday, and already fairly late in the day.  We were welcomed by two of our professors and received an introduction to the week at one of their apartments, which included a small introduction to French cheese! I think I liked the cheese a little too much!

Afterward, once we had checked into out hotel and the sun had set, we set out on a introduction to the city of Paris and wondered the dark and mystic streets. Here’s a picture of our exploratory posse:

You can already see in the background of this picture what our next destination was. Actually, it was food…we were looking for a specially tasty falafel stand, but it just happened to be in the direction of the Pompidou!

Here you see the Pompidou lit up by night. It’s the famous art museum with the piping on the outside. There was an exhibit on Alexander Calder there that I would have very much liked to see, but the purpose of our excursion to Paris was to learn more about Symbolism, an art movement that took place at the end of the 19th Century. In the following blog posts I will get more into the details of the movement, the artists involved, and the museums we visited in their reference.

After finding food, we headed in the direction of the Île de la Cité, where Notre Dame is located. The night lighting and the bridges on the way were gorgeous:

We took a short stop outside the Notre Dame, and then a few from the company came up to me to tell me about the wonderful English bookstore on the south bank.  So many knew of it and like it, that we decided to detour over there. So we reached the Rue de la Bucherie:

The Street of the Bookshops! There was a lovely antique bookshop there as well as the English bookshop, where I contemplated purchasing Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray…it seemed befitting; the only novel written by one of  my favorite playwrights as well as a literary work of Symbolism…but in the end I shied away from either antiques or relevant literature, considering the additional weight on my back while traveling. However, as we were leaving the Rue de la Bucherie, I did find something quite close to my heart:

I just love this! It’s like a deja vu of culture…a moment of complete and total juxaposition completely out of left field…in a street in FRANCE…a sign in ENGLISH…selling cheap GERMAN books…wonderful!  I loved the subtlety of it was well, a very inconspicuous and cheap cardboard box!

We then slowly began our saunter back to the hotel…crossing back over the river Seine and catching our first glimpse at the Eiffel Tower. One of us wanted to wander off in that direction, but we decided to save that for a later night. From a bridge, I took two pictures:

Tried from the train ride and walking through the streets of Paris (no knowing what was in store for the next few days) we winding through the maze back to our hotel.  On the way we went through an underground shopping mall, the Forum des Halles (picture below) and then crashed into bed.

My room, which I shared with two other girls, was on the fifth floor of our quaint little youth-hostel like hotel.  The following morning we were surprised by tasty instant coffee in milk and a large baguette with butter and jam…the same breakfast we had the following four mornings, but which never got old! It became the morning fuel for what I’m starting to call “Art History Bootcamp”…but more on that in the following posts!

The last time I was in Paris was in the summer of 2000…believe it or not, 9 years ago!  When I was there, I had a picture taken of me in from of Picasso’s former studio near Montmartre.  9 years later I found myself in the same street and was surprisingly able to recognize the door after all that time! So here’s a Parisian time-warp for you:

About a month ago I went on an excursion with “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” (my Master’s program) to academically celebrate the end of the semester.  First we had a project seminar in Höchstädt (actually in the palace there!) and then we continued on a overview adventure of Baroque churches in Bavaria, particularly those from Dominikus Zimmerman and his brother Johann Baptist Zimmerman. I don’t think I’ll go into detail about each church (could be a little over the top and most definitely repetitive), so I’ll list them all now, in case you care to google them: Kloster Maria Medingen, the Frauenkirche in Günzberg, Kartause Buxheim, Residenz and Kirche Kempten, Steingaden, Steinhausen (yep, that’s somewhere else!), the Wieskirche (you may have heard of that one…it’s protected by UNESCO), the beautiful library and church in Bad Schussenried, Ottobeuren (a name I’ll never forget), and the Johanneskirche in Landsberg an der Lech.

The thing I liked most about this excursion was the spectrum in which we explored, which allowed me to finally understand the difference between Baroque and Rococo architecture. Apparently the transition mainly took place in none of than the (then) country of Bavaria. I’ll get to that more specifically in just a bit…

Here’s the palace in Höchstädt where we spent about 10 hours a day in a workshop:

I have to say, I can’t really complain about the location! We also had a few breaks during the workshop in which we were given tours of the palace, which is partially restored and still undergoing the remaining restorations. In this wing we saw the restored frescoes:

I actually quite liked this restoration, as it did not have the goal of bringing the works back to their original quality by adding what was missing, but instead restored what was there and nothing more. It leaves the frescoes with a very rustic and authentic look. I was also quite amused that this wing of the palace actually housed a chapel for weddings! I was quite appealed myself, until it was pointed out that the frescoes in the chapel portray the Fall from Eden! Yikes! Get married and you’re thrown from Paradise! Actually, come to think of it, maybe the irony is, in fact, a good omen. Sort of a way to ward off those demons from the start.

Here’s the center of Munich, Marienplatz, with a touch of snow! The little white roofs in the square are booth for the Christkindlmarkt, a.k.a. Weihnachtsmarkt, a Christmas market with arts and crafts and many yummy things to eat!  Here’s another picture from the other side of the square:

This one is at night, when all the lights are on!  A friend of mine and I were comparing this to Rockafeller Center in New York (although I’ve never been there, she has…) and we both liked the subtleness and modesty of the lights in Munich.  Munich, being much smaller than New York, has it’s ice rink at another location…Karlsplatz, just down the street called the Fußgängerzone.

Also at the Christmas markets, one can enjoy a warm cup of Glühwein, a mulled wein that is vital to the German Christmas identity.  Here’s another picture:

I’ve already had about 5 cups this winter so far…and tonight we’re having a big late Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner out our place, so more will be for the drinking!

And last, but not least, because it’s so very cute, I have a small holiday greeting for all of you!

]]> http://darbalina.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/schnee/feed/ 0 darbalina munich-snow christkindlmarkt gluhweinacr xmasdgtailwagsa2 http://darbalina.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/the-hofgarten/ http://darbalina.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/the-hofgarten/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:00:51 +0000 darbalina http://darbalina.wordpress.com/?p=361 ]]>

This is the painting that I finished yesterday in the freezing cold!  I actually started painting it last July.  I gave myself the goal (since I’m not traveling, but in the city where I live) to not hurry myself and take as much time as I needed to do the painting.  I’m quite proud of it…but since I took the time, I spend about 2 hours in July and didn’t get around to doing more until 5 months later!  So, that explains why the trees are green, even though the painting was completed in winter.

This is a view from the Hofgarten, the royal garden behind the Residenz, looking southwest towards the Theatinerkirche (the mustard colored building) and the Frauenkirche.  I think it’s a beautiful skyline of Munich that many people don’t usually see…so I hope you enjoy it! (and spiffy…a German flag is in the background too!)

Don’t know what a Jackalope is?  Basically it’s a rabbit or hare with horns or antlers, looks like this:

Here’s the funny thing…from Jiggs, Nevada to Mittenwald, Bavaria, not much has changed in the mythology! (Although they are 5,564 miles/8,954 km apart as the crow flies.)  In this little corner of Bavaria, up in the Alps, the people of Mittenwald believe in the ferocious Wolpertinger, not quite unlike the Jackalope, however, with wings and fangs:

Here comes the best part!  When I wanted to find out more about these small and strange beasts, I discovered something quite amusing for Art Historians!

(All pictures are clickable for a larger version.)

The first of these rabbits is actually a famous work from the German artist Albrecht Dürer from 1502.  Apparently over time people have independently taken Dürer’s work and re-interpreted it for their own cultural mythology!  Talk about comparative visual culture! *giggle*

On another tangent…

Oddly enough, it seems as though Jiggs, Nevada has more than one connection to Germany.  At one point there was a commercial filmed there for the VW, in which “the entire population of Jiggs can fit into a Volkswagen Bus”!  After much time spent googling, I found the following photo:

That concludes my random blog post!  And all because my uncle asked me for a schnitzel recipe…

-William Blake

(I wish I had time for some painted art…but here is a little photography mixed with photoshop)