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VIRTUAL RUSSIAN ART GALLERY Françoise Rosset

Abstract Please note: Because this Techlearn project represents the second phase of an ongoing project, and because Phase I was funded as well by a techlearn grant, the present report follows the earlier report for Phase I, and is in fact an edited version thereof. My Techlearn project was to create Phase II of a virtual Russian Art Gallery. The main purpose of the Gallery is to be a resource for students in several classes in the Russian Department, reflecting our committment to teach culture as well as language and literature. It is specifically a resource for visual materials. The Gallery has been and will continue to be used for student assignments and research, as well as occasionally for class lectures. Phase II as completed to date consists of a series of pictures of Russian art in three major categories: Icons and Medieval Artifacts, The Wanderers, and the Russian Style. These categories represent broad artistic movements or periods. They are further subdivided into specific sections. These sections are organized into "slide shows," and visitors navigate the shows from each section-menu, either: (1) in order, by using a hyperlink indicating the start of a slide show, or, (2) individually , using linked thumbnail pictures on the menu for each section. Each work of art is presented on its own page, linked to the previous and next work as well as to the section-menu. There are constant links between categories, between sections, as well as to the Gallery home page and Wheaton College. When added to Phase I, the Gallery now provides six linked browsable broad categories of Russian art, out of a projected seven so far. The six cate-gories range from pre-historic petroglyphs to the Russian Avant-Garde. Special thanks go to Jenni Lund of Wheaton and Wellesley Colleges, who helped with the structure of the project on Phase I. Distribution: Ultimately the Gallery will be linked to the Department Home page. Because most of the art works were scanned from copyrighted material, the Gallery will be password protected, and not fully published on the Net. In the long run, I may seek permission from the copyright owners to publish the entire Gallery on the web. But first I want to complete the Gallery as a whole, which requires one last phase. A. Pedagogical goals My Techlearn project was to create further portions of a virtual Russian Art Gallery. The main purpose of the Gallery is to be a resource for students in several classes in the Russian Department, reflecting our committment to teach culture as well as language and literature. These classes include the following: Russian 281, Russian Arts and Culture; Russian 200, Russia from Icons to Revolution; Russian 284, Russian Women; and Russian 203, Russian Drama. It is specifically a resource of visual mate-rial, not to replace text or analysis but to provide access to several important movements in Russian cultural history in one systematic source. The Gallery can be used for student assignments and research and occasionally for class lectures. Specifically, I want students to have access to a core of Russian art materials which they normally have to study on reserve and in a series of books. Studying visual materials is not the same as studying texts, from which you can easily take notes. Short of sketching or photo-copying, it is difficult to take adequate notes for visual material. In addition, the material may be used for class lectures in other Depart-ments, and can be made available to the Art Department as well when the Gallery is completed. This would not even require publishing on the web. B. Technological strategies The structure of Phase II follows patterns set in Phase I to create a consistent whole. Each work of art is presented on its own page with minimal written information (the main purpose of the Gallery is for students to study and analyze the specific art works), and ample navigational options. Each individual artwork is usually linked to the previous and next work in the category, to the menu for that category, and, very occasionally, to a close-up or detail page. In essence, once the student or interested visitor has arrived at the particular movement or period s/he seeks, s/he may choose to see specific pictures individually or to view the entire movement in order. There are several navigation options at all times. Internal links connect all sections of the Gallery from both phases I and II, and each and every menu is also linked to the Wheaton Russian Department and to Wheaton College. Students will be expected to study these works and to respond, either verbally in class, or through short or large papers, or through e-mail-linked questionnaires -- to be added at a later phase of the Gallery. This spring students in the advanced Russian course Russian 370 did in-class oral art history presentations, in Russian, using the Gallery. My work strategy was to identify significant movements and periods as well as representative works of art for each; process workable categories in menu form; scan pictures; create pages; and link absolutely everything. DESCRIPTION OF GALLERY: Phase II consists of 72 new pages, specifically: Icons and Medieval Artifacts main menu with hyperlinks to: Icons menu with thumbnails, plus ten linked pages and three pages with close-ups of certain items. Religious objects menu with thumbnails plus four linked pages Secular Artifacts menu with thumbnails plus four linked pages and one close-up. The Russian Style menu and a slide show of nine works in painting, architecture and the applied arts (no subdivisions) The Wanderers (19th c. painters) main menu with hyperlinks to: Landscapes menu with thumbnails, plus eight linked pages Genre paintings menu (scenes of urban and peasant life), with thumbnails plus eight linked pages Themes from History and Folklore menu with thumbnails, plus eight linked pages Individual painters menu, featuring the two main artists Repin and Levitan, with thumbnails plus seven linked pages The structure of Phase I and II combined (157 pages) is as follows now: Russian Art Gallery Main Menu, gateway to: Prehistoric Petroglyphs of Karelia, Northern Russia Wooden Architecture of Old Russia Icons and Medieval Artifacts The Wanderers The Russian Style The Russian Avant-Garde AND NOT created yet (inactive link): -Women artists C. Assessment I conducted some student assessment during the creation of Phase I, primarily by having students do written critiques of other Russian art sites on the web and comparing them to my mock-ups and models, and occasionally by having student critique pages on the computer. Students consistently objected to busy pages or sites and wild backgrounds. My pages have one picture, minimal writing and neutral grey-beige backgrounds. The result is quite effective aesthetically. Easy navigation was always an issue. These pages are very easy to navigate, with immediate links clearly and consistently marked towards the top. Students were divided on mixing text with pictures. They wanted explanations and background information, but found the one site that did provide them too busy! My intention, however, is to use these pages as supplementary class material for analysis and discussion, not to provide students with web short-cuts to information that is best provided and discussed in class. Therefore I continued in Phase II to provide minimal informational captions. I do intend to put a short explanatory paragraph for each period, style or movement on that period's menu, but not on individual pages. I also intend to provide each category menu with a link of "Sources" identifying both where the pictures came from and where students might go for further information on the topic. However, I am waiting until all phases of the project are complete before attempting the text. My own assessment is that the pages completed so far form a good and representative view of Russian art -- at least of those periods covered so far; and they look attractive. We have used the Gallery in all my classes this spring semester. Students in first-year Russian were introduced to it it the Library computer classroom, as were students from Russian 200 (Nineteenth century), who were encouraged to use it as an extra resource and reference. Students in Russian 370 (Russian for the Arts, Business and Politics) used it as a "textbook," and also used it for oral presentations in Russian. I conducted seven classes myself in the Library room, and 3 copies of the Gallery Zip Disk (Gallery can not be published on the web yet) were on reserve in the Library. Finally, I am sending the Gallery Zip disk to three out-of-Wheaton colleagues who have expertise in the field of Russian culture and art, for their assessment and suggestions. C-bis. Assessment of what's left to do, besides issues of dissemination. At this point only one link on the official Gallery main menu is inactive, Women artists. I plan to organize this particular category next. The reasons I had not expected to finish fully even with Phase II are: Women artists could be a very big section. I'm still considering one or two further categories/periods to include, though not the current period, which is represented on the web already, albeit sketchily. In addition, there are sections I wish to reassess or edit: for example the category on the "Russian Avant-Garde" will probably grow some more, as will "The Russian Style." I had planned for a section on "Traditional church architecture" to be completed during Phase II, even though it was not in my original plan, and decided against it for now, because I had no clear overall vision. I will revisit that idea once more as I complete the next and last step of the Gallery. Instead I extended the "Icons" section to include other medieval artifacts. D. Dissemination Ultimately the Gallery will be accessed through the Department Home page. Most of the paintings were scanned from copyrighted material, so those portions of the Gallery will be password protected. For now, because the Gallery is incomplete, students have been using the three zip disk copies on Library Reserve. Should students need to work with the material intensively, I could consider having them make individual zip copies of the unofficial Gallery so far. All the completed sections could also be added to the computer in the Art Department, where students can view computerized slide shows of various periods in the history of Art. I would prefer to have a complete product before we install it. In the long run, I would seek permission from the copyright owners to publish the entire Gallery on the Web without a password. But first I want to complete the Gallery as a whole. In the meantime, I will make Phase II, and the rest, available on zip disk for your examination.

Last updated on 11/30/00; 2:01:08 PM
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