A day at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Interviews with the head of the restoring department, a lead restorer for 17th century paintings, a curator/art historian and a physicist. Most of the interviews took place in the atelier (workshop) building. This building was designed by Cruz en Ortiz, who will also be responsible for the new Rijksmuseum. The atelier building is rather white on the inside really. Some rooms have old wooden Cuypers' cabinets giving the clean white rooms character. I'm working on a first draft of an information architecture for the museum's collection: a very difficult job, but an honour to do! I mean, Rembrandt van Rijn's masterpieces will be disclosed by it. I'm enjoying it!

Library of Congres started a pilot on Flickr

1. Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee, 2. At the Vermont state fair, Rutland, 3. Retiring a locomotive driver wheel in the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway locomotive shops, Shopton, near Fort Madison, Iowa. The tire is heated by means of gas until it can be slipped over the wheel. Contraction on cooling will hold it firmly in p, 4. Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana, 5. Parris Island, S.C., barrage balloon, 6. House, Houston, Texas, 7. Southeastern Georgia?, 8. Typical southeastern Georgia farm with newly harvested field of oats, 9. Southern U.S., 10. Typical southeastern Georgia farm with newly harvested field of oats, 11. Georgia oat field? Southern U.S., 12. Harvesting oats, southeastern Georgia?, 13. Cabin in southern U.S., 14. Cabin in Southern U.S., 15. Cabin in Southern U.S., 16. House in southern U.S., 17. Spreading fertilizer from 4-mule team wagon, Georgia, 18. Commuters, who have just come off the train, waiting for the bus to go home, Lowell, Mass., 19. Factory buildings in Lowell, Mass.?, 20. Brockton, Mass., Dec. 1940, second-hand plumbing store, 21. Headlines posted in street-corner window of newspaper off[ice] (Brockton Enterprise) ... Brockton, Mass., 22. Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Mass., 23. Detail of industrial building in Massachusetts, 24. Street in industrial town in Massachusettsz, 25. Lowell, Mass., street, 26. Railroad cars and factory buildings in Lawrence, Mass., 27. Detail of industrial building in Mass., 28. Street scene, possibly in Brockton, Mass., 29. [Children with adult in the tenement district, Brockton, Massachusetts], 30. Industrial buildings and a town in Mass., possibly Brockton, 31. [Train and several sets of railroad tracks in the snow, Massachusetts], 32. Massachusetts farm, possibly around Brockton, Mass., 33. Skating, vicinity of Brockton, Mass., 34. Near the waterfront, New Bedford, Mass., 35. Street corner, Brockton, Mass., 36. Industrial area in Massachusetts, possibly around New Bedford

CIVR2007

What Was Where?

Today the Beta version of www.watwaswaar.nl was presented in Utrecht. The site's back-end was built by Toutatis. Wat Was Waar?, meaning "what was where?" is a website for the broad public showing the map of The Netherlands with all places clickable leading to a list of contents linked to that place in a certain period of time. From 1932 'till today. Currently the contents are aerial photo's, old city designs and information about house or land owners. The map viewer shows really clear and detailed maps, based on vectorized maps. Toutatis developed a smart pre-load mechanism, ensuring maps are shown really fast. Lots of ajax is used. Compliments to Toutatis and WatWasWaar.

Le cabinet de curiosité de Bonnier de la Mosson

Early libraries, or wonder rooms to be more specific, are intriguing. Being in such a 'cabinet of curiosities' must be inspiring, impossible not to be triggered by the plethora of things around you. Jacques Bonnier de la Mosson was a collectioner and had his own cabinet. Having one of your own, that sounds incredible to me, a dream. The image depicts Jacques cabinet with 9 rooms, painted by Jacques de Lajoue in 1734.

Le cabinet de Bonnier de La Mosson est "un des plus spectaculaires des cabinets scientifiques du XVIIIème siècle, dans lequel, en dépit de sa spécialisation, l'esprit du cabinet de curiosités reste bien vivace" (I. de Conihout, 1998). Le catalogue distingue neuf cabinets : un cabinet d'Anatomie, un cabinet de Chimie, un de Pharmacie, un de Drogues, un "cabinet de Phisique ou cabinet des Machines", "le cabinet du Tour et des Outils", et trois d'Histoire naturelle. Plus un herbier et une bibliothèque.

Wilfing away on a lazy afternoon looking for information about Buffon (George Louis Leclerc, 1707-1788, visionary biologist) lead to de Lajoue's painting (Albert Beit collection Russborough, Blessington, Ireland), which lead to Bonnier's cabinet. The museum of natural history in Paris exhibits one of the cabinets of Bonnier de la Mosson, I will certainly have a look when in Paris.

New book on AudioVisual Archives

Available from: SAP Publishing Chapter 3: Catalogues

• Arnold W.M Smeulders, Franciska de Jong en Marcel Worring, Multimedia information technology and the annotation of video
• Timo Kouwenhoven, Zoeken + Navigeren = Vinden! Over zoekers, zoekgedrag, zoekmachines en hun interfaces bij het zoeken naar audiovisuele content.
• Arjo van Loo, iMMix: multimediacatalogus