Reviews
THE THIRD & THE SEVENTH
While Avatar has changed expectations for CG rendering in major Hollywood blockbusters, the following short film “The Third & The Seventh” obliterates limitations placed on independent and solo animators. It is 100% computer generated, yet many elements are utterly lifelike. Quite simply, it is the most photorealistic CG animation I have ever seen, and it was produced by one man, the Madrid-based Alex Roman. And it prominently features libraries.
Roman’s goal was to highlight architectural art through CG rendering, but his effort far exceeds that limited ambition, with his use of movement, music, simulated timelapses, changing light, and shifting focus lifting this work into the realm of genuine art itself. Of particular interest to librarians and archivists are the library and institutional spaces he highlights, internally and externally. One such example used is the Shiba Ryōtarō Memorial Museum in Japan — its awe-inspiring spaces are stunning even in the stills contained in Roman’s online portfolio. The video then brings this towering space to life.
The film features recurring themes of analog technology — film and film cameras play a narrative role, and the tone of the piece is established by early shots of fluttering polaroids and card catalogs. The images and music serve as a beautiful requiem for the passing of the old into the digital world of the new. There is an empty concert hall, then towering library stacks — full in one library, empty in another. Each space is highlighted in a breathtaking way. The wordless film is not without an arc; perspective and light shift as the film goes on, and ultimately the heightened reality moves into a certain magical surrealism (that seems to be an inspirational nod to René Magritte).
Please make use of the “Full Screen” option on the embedded video to properly appreciate this artwork, and allow for the 12:29 running time. You will not soon forget watching it.
The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.
If you click through to Vimeo, you can also watch various previews and “behind the scenes” videos Roman produced.
Credit for turning me onto this video is due Adam Whitehead, British-based author of the outstanding speculative fiction, film and game review blog The Wertzone.
iMUSÉE?
Shortly after writing about “Digital Museums“, I came across a curious iPhone app called “Musée du Louvre“. Officially produced by the namesake majestic Parisian palace (the most visited museum in the world) it bills itself as a virtual tour and information source. Now, it hardly replaces a visit to France on your itinerary. It features text, videos, and photos of only a handful of the museum’s most famous works of art (such as the Venus de Milo, the Law Code of Hammurabi, Winged Victory, the Coronation of Napoleon, and of course the Mona Lisa). Still, since it includes floor plans, museum hours and historical information on each wing, it could make a nice companion to a physical tour.
While it’s ambition may be limited, it’s certainly a highbrow app to carry on your phone — it certainly looks better than the latest “Blond Jokes App” if you loan your phone to a friend (make sure to place it on the same screen as the Works of Shakespeare and New York Times for extra snob appeal). The price is also right — it’s free.
And of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t toss in this decade old photo of my wife doing her best Mona Lisa impression during our real life trip to the Louvre…
I do think this app shows a certain potential for individual institutions. Since programming applications for iPhones and Google Android products is relatively simple, many information institutions — museums and libraries — have the capability of designing their own apps.
Should larger public and academic library systems take the time to design and publish dedicated smart phone applications? What tools and capabilities might a library’s app feature? Are there existing examples?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: THE BURIED BOOK
Is it possible to review a book you haven’t even finished yet? I’m not yet halfway through The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh and it’s already among my favorite non-fiction works. Written by David Damrosch, an English professor at Columbia, it is a fascinating account, moving backwards through time, of the discovery and translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh, widely regarded at the world’s oldest known legend.
The Gilgamesh myth itself is something I’ve long been attracted to; I first read the Penguin Classics edition as a college freshman and more recently enjoyed the far more poetic (but less literally translated) version by Stephen Mitchell. My interest in Mesopotamia and Assyria extends much further back than my exposure to Gilgamesh, however. As a boy I was riveted by historical accounts of the Sumerian City-States and their successor empires, and I even named a cat Ashurbanipal for Assyria’s greatest King (and early library benefactor).
Thus, I was the perfect “demographic” for Damrosch’s account. But I believe this work could appeal to almost anyone. In describing the sometimes foolhardy efforts of the 19th century British adventurer George Smith, the Iraq-born archeologist Hormuzd Rassam, and the swaggering soldier Sir Henry Rawlinson, Damrosch captures the essence of an important Golden Era of Archeology, reviving names forgotten to all but the experts and revealing their fascinating lives. Each of those men, and others profiled in the book, had important, key achievements in unearthing Mesopotamia’s vital past. Each explorer also had significant faults, in either their attitude or their methodology, but Damrosch addresses these and provides a balanced account that avoids hagiography.
As a student of archival practice and research, the work also serves as an interesting window into my professional world: asides from Damrosch describe his own process of research, such as his exploration into the archives of the British Library.
I’ll continue reading The Buried Book, especially as it promises a literary analysis of the Gilgamesh myth in its later chapters. I’ll report back with my final thoughts.
