Web and mobile
We review the latest websites and apps
Website
Art UK
Public art clicks with Jonathan Knott
The Art UK website showcases over 200,000 artworks from the UK’s national collection, most of them not on public display. The works are mainly oil paintings, although there are plans to expand the range of media to include watercolours, pastels, drawings and prints. If the Heritage Lottery Fund is willing, a four-year programme to digitise all the sculpture will begin in 2017.
The paintings could previously be viewed on Your Paintings – part of the BBC website, the result of a partnership between the broadcaster and the Public Catalogue Foundation (Art UK’s old name). The site now has an independent address, with a different design and structure.
Each artwork has its own page, typically including a large digital photo alongside date, medium, measurements and information on usage. Some entries have more detail, such as a basic text description; but others don’t actually include images (that goes for the pages for all of the site’s 24 Picasso paintings, and a large number of works owned by Tate).
Alongside the artwork entries are pages for artists and venues. Again, the level of information ranges from comprehensive to minimal.
The search function is mostly effective, allowing visitors to enter text and filter entries by categories, but it makes no allowances for human foibles: entering “jmw turner” in the Artists section yields no results, because the painter is listed as Joseph Mallord William Turner.
The site boasts many additional features, some geared towards increasing active visitor participation. It is integrated with the information crowdsourcing initiatives Tagger and Art Detective, and you can sign up to create your own albums and add private notes to works.
The “Artwork shuffle” on the home page, which shows a random selection of six works and their location, and the editorial features offer good starting-points for exploring. This site is a useful resource for anyone who wants to find out more about the UK’s public art.
Website
The Met
Fifth business
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has refreshed its website to coincide with the opening of its new building, the Met Breuer, which will display modern and contemporary art.
The new site unifies the old desktop and mobile sites into a single responsive design. It is easy on the eye, using images effectively, and provides clear visitor information on the museum’s three locations (the main venue on Fifth Avenue, the Met Breuer, and the Met Cloisters – which displays the institution’s medieval Europe collection), including opening times, exhibitions and events.
A particular strength is the learning-focused information for all ages and abilities, including family maps and guides. The site still displays online records (most with images) for over 400,000 objects from its collection.
One area with room for improvement is the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. It contains a large amount of information, including essays and timelines – but its sheer volume is daunting, and the sometimes dense design does little to help.
The Met’s app, including an “artwork of the day” feature, has also been refreshed, and ties in with the new look.
Overall, this new web offer confidently takes the venerable museum into the digital age, increasing its accessibility without reducing its authority. JK
Microsite
Building the brutal
Jonathan Knott on a unique insight into the construction of a major building
Peter Bloomfield was commissioned to shoot the Barbican Centre in London during the final stages of construction and shortly after opening. The photos cover the period from 1979-1982.
Bloomfield recently gifted the negatives (over 1,400) to the Barbican. Over 100 of the photos can be viewed on this website (more than 70 appear in a book of the same name).
Together, they convey the excitement as the building came to fruition. Highlights include shots of the walls’ textured effect being hand-drilled and lakeside fountains “emerging from the concrete”.
The blend of black-and-white and colour photos is particularly poignant when it coincides with the chronology, creating a “before and after” effect.
This collection makes clear the ambition of the vision behind the Barbican Centre, and the optimism and hard graft that enabled it to be realised.
Art UK
Public art clicks with Jonathan Knott
The Art UK website showcases over 200,000 artworks from the UK’s national collection, most of them not on public display. The works are mainly oil paintings, although there are plans to expand the range of media to include watercolours, pastels, drawings and prints. If the Heritage Lottery Fund is willing, a four-year programme to digitise all the sculpture will begin in 2017.
The paintings could previously be viewed on Your Paintings – part of the BBC website, the result of a partnership between the broadcaster and the Public Catalogue Foundation (Art UK’s old name). The site now has an independent address, with a different design and structure.
Each artwork has its own page, typically including a large digital photo alongside date, medium, measurements and information on usage. Some entries have more detail, such as a basic text description; but others don’t actually include images (that goes for the pages for all of the site’s 24 Picasso paintings, and a large number of works owned by Tate).
Alongside the artwork entries are pages for artists and venues. Again, the level of information ranges from comprehensive to minimal.
The search function is mostly effective, allowing visitors to enter text and filter entries by categories, but it makes no allowances for human foibles: entering “jmw turner” in the Artists section yields no results, because the painter is listed as Joseph Mallord William Turner.
The site boasts many additional features, some geared towards increasing active visitor participation. It is integrated with the information crowdsourcing initiatives Tagger and Art Detective, and you can sign up to create your own albums and add private notes to works.
The “Artwork shuffle” on the home page, which shows a random selection of six works and their location, and the editorial features offer good starting-points for exploring. This site is a useful resource for anyone who wants to find out more about the UK’s public art.
Website
The Met
Fifth business
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has refreshed its website to coincide with the opening of its new building, the Met Breuer, which will display modern and contemporary art.
The new site unifies the old desktop and mobile sites into a single responsive design. It is easy on the eye, using images effectively, and provides clear visitor information on the museum’s three locations (the main venue on Fifth Avenue, the Met Breuer, and the Met Cloisters – which displays the institution’s medieval Europe collection), including opening times, exhibitions and events.
A particular strength is the learning-focused information for all ages and abilities, including family maps and guides. The site still displays online records (most with images) for over 400,000 objects from its collection.
One area with room for improvement is the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. It contains a large amount of information, including essays and timelines – but its sheer volume is daunting, and the sometimes dense design does little to help.
The Met’s app, including an “artwork of the day” feature, has also been refreshed, and ties in with the new look.
Overall, this new web offer confidently takes the venerable museum into the digital age, increasing its accessibility without reducing its authority. JK
Microsite
Building the brutal
Jonathan Knott on a unique insight into the construction of a major building
Peter Bloomfield was commissioned to shoot the Barbican Centre in London during the final stages of construction and shortly after opening. The photos cover the period from 1979-1982.
Bloomfield recently gifted the negatives (over 1,400) to the Barbican. Over 100 of the photos can be viewed on this website (more than 70 appear in a book of the same name).
Together, they convey the excitement as the building came to fruition. Highlights include shots of the walls’ textured effect being hand-drilled and lakeside fountains “emerging from the concrete”.
The blend of black-and-white and colour photos is particularly poignant when it coincides with the chronology, creating a “before and after” effect.
This collection makes clear the ambition of the vision behind the Barbican Centre, and the optimism and hard graft that enabled it to be realised.