Database Aesthetics examines the database as cultural and aesthetic form, explaining how artists have participated in network culture by creating data art. The essays in this collection look at how an aesthetic emerges when artists use the vast amounts of available information as their medium. Here, the ways information is ordered and organized become artistic choices, and artists have an essential role in influencing and critiquing the digitization of daily life. Contributors: Sharon Daniel, U of California, Santa Cruz; Steve Deitz, Carleton College; Lynn Hershman Leeson, U of California, Davis; George Legrady, U of California, Santa Barbara; Eduardo Kac, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Norman Klein, California Institute of the Arts; John Klima; Lev Manovich, U of California, San Diego; Robert F. Nideffer, U of California, Irvine; Nancy Paterson, Ontario College of Art and Design; Christiane Paul, School of Visual Arts in New York; Marko Peljhan, U of California, Santa Barbara; Warren Sack, U of California, Santa Cruz; Bill Seaman, Rhode Island School of Design; Grahame Weinbren, School of Visual Arts, New York. Victoria Vesna is a media artist, and professor and chair of the Department of Design and Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Database Aesthetics examines the database as cultural and aesthetic form, explaining how artists have participated in network culture by creating data art. The essays in this collection look at how an aesthetic emerges when artists use the vast amounts of available information as their medium. Here, the ways information is ordered and organized become artistic choices, and artists have an essential role in influencing and critiquing the digitization of daily life. Contributors: Sharon Daniel, U of California, Santa Cruz; Steve Deitz, Carleton College; Lynn Hershman Leeson, U of California, Davis; George Legrady, U of California, Santa Barbara; Eduardo Kac, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Norman Klein, California Institute of the Arts; John Klima; Lev Manovich, U of California, San Diego; Robert F. Nideffer, U of California, Irvine; Nancy Paterson, Ontario College of Art and Design; Christiane Paul, School of Visual Arts in New York; Marko Peljhan, U of California, Santa Barbara; Warren Sack, U of California, Santa Cruz; Bill Seaman, Rhode Island School of Design; Grahame Weinbren, School of Visual Arts, New York. Victoria Vesna is a media artist, and professor and chair of the Department of Design and Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.

From full-text article databases to digitized collections of primary source materials, newly emerging electronic resources have radically impacted how research in the humanities is conducted and discovered. This book, covering high-quality, up-to-date electronic resources for the humanities, is an easy–to-use annotated guide for the librarian, student, and scholar alike. It covers online databases, indexes, archives, and many other critical tools in key humanities disciplines including philosophy, religion, languages and literature, and performing and visual arts. Succinct overviews of key emerging trends in electronic resources accompany each chapter. The only reference guide to electronic resources written specifically for the humanities Addresses all major humanities disciplines in one convenient guide Concise format ideal for students, librarians, and humanities researchers

In the past thirty years biodiversity has become one of the central organizing principles through which we understand the nonhuman environment. Its deceptively simple definition as the variation among living organisms masks its status as a hotly contested term both within the sciences and more broadly. In Eden’s Endemics, Elizabeth Callaway looks to cultural objects—novels, memoirs, databases, visualizations, and poetry— that depict many species at once to consider the question of how we narrate organisms in their multiplicity. Touching on topics ranging from seed banks to science fiction to bird-watching, Callaway argues that there is no set, generally accepted way to measure biodiversity. Westerners tend to conceptualize it according to one or more of an array of tropes rooted in colonial history such as the Lost Eden, Noah’s Ark, and Tree-of-Life imagery. These conceptualizations affect what kinds of biodiversities are prioritized for protection. While using biodiversity as a way to talk about the world aims to highlight what is most valued in nature, it can produce narratives that reinforce certain power differentials—with real-life consequences for conservation projects. Thus the choices made when portraying biodiversity impact what is visible, what is visceral, and what is unquestioned common sense about the patterns of life on Earth.

This familiar guide to information resources in the humanities and the arts, organized by subjects and emphasizing electronic resources, enables librarians, teachers, and students to quickly find the best resources for their diverse needs. Authoritative, trusted, and timely, Information Resources in the Humanities and the Arts: Sixth Edition introduces new librarians to the breadth of humanities collections, experienced librarians to the nature of humanities scholarship, and the scholars themselves to a wealth of information they might otherwise have missed. This new version of a classic resource—the first update in over a decade—has been refreshed to account for the myriad of digital resources that have rewritten the rules of the reference and research world, and been expanded to include significantly increased coverage of world literature and languages. This book is invaluable for a wide variety of users: librarians in academic, public, school, and special library settings; researchers in religion, philosophy, literature, and the performing and visual arts; graduate students in library and information science; and teachers and students in humanities, the arts, and interdisciplinary degree programs.

This companion volume to Delivering Digital Images: Cultural Heritage Resources for Education includes nine essays by project participants highlighting their experiences and recommendations. It covers the impact of digital image availability on teaching and classroom interactions, on university and museum infrastructures, and also speculates about legal issues, including the site licensing model.

Successful costume design requires a solid foundation in general artistic principles and specific knowledge of how to apply those principles. Cunningham presents readers with just such a foundation and develops it to expose beginning costume designers to the myriad skills they need to develop in order to costume successful stage productions. She begins at the most basic conceptual level—reading plays from a costume designer's perspective. She then follows through with the practical considerations that must be considered at every stage of the costuming process—research, development, sketching, and costume construction. Cunningham has built on the long-standing success of the outstanding first edition with new figures and updates throughout the text, including 24 pages in full color. Examples have been selected from a wide range of stage productions representing a variety of designers, styles, and approaches. Interviews with award-winning designers from stage, film, and other media show the practical importance of the book's concepts. Every chapter incorporates material reflecting the ever-increasing impact of technology, especially computers, on costuming. New to this edition is an ancillary download package (available here), giving students a selection of basic figure drawings to serve as the base layer for digital renderings, ready-made forms and checklists for assembling and organizing costumes for shows, and a list of research and reference websites with easily clickable links.