September 3, 2020, Filed Under: Featured1, Research + TeachingWhat is Research? An exercise in Slow Research On September 11, 2001, the BBC World Service reported the start of a performance titled Organ2/As SLow aS Possible (ASLSP). Originally composed by John Cage in 1987, the posthumous recital in Germany was planned to contribute to “a revolution in slowness”—to be performed chord by chord—over 639 years.
August 13, 2020, Filed Under: Conservation, Featured1Preserving fragile phonographs of T. S. Eliot, Paul Bowles, Norman Bel Geddes, and others Recordings of T. S. Eliot, Paul Bowles, Pablo Picasso, and other notable 20th-century figures have been preserved after the Harry Ransom Center recently digitized 2,800 unique sound recordings in a variety of formats (read more here). Unlocking Sound Stories, a project funded in part by a generous grant from the National… read more
July 10, 2020, Filed Under: Featured1, Photography, Research + TeachingWhat makes a good picture? Trends in photography are most noticeable when they’ve recently passed out of favor. Overhead shots of lattes or potted succulents may seem like good pictures, until suddenly they’re the only things you see on Instagram. Although trend turnover is accelerated by social media, popular photographic styles have followed the same… read more
July 8, 2020, Filed Under: Cataloging, Conservation, Digital Collections, Featured1Unlocking sound stories In part one of a two-part blog post series, NEH Audio Digitization Project Coordinator Katie Quanz chronicles the progress of Unlocking Sound Stories, a NEH grant funded project digitizing and preserving more than 2000 rare recordings.
July 6, 2020, Filed Under: ArtLooking at Frida Kahlo In London, the Victoria & Albert Museum extended the run of its 2018 exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, remaining open for 48 hours straight in order to accommodate demand. In Mexico City, lines regularly snake around the block for entry into Casa Azul, the birthplace of Frida Kahlo… read more
June 26, 2020, Filed Under: Exhibitions + Events, Featured1, FilmAll hail The Queen! An interview with drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys Inside the spring 2020 Stories to Tell exhibition, Ransom Center film curator Steve Wilson explores the archive related to the recently restored film, The Queen, which documents the 1967 “Miss All American Camp Beauty Pageant” held in Manhattan. The New York contest was a parody of the Miss America pageant… read more
