[14210] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: BNF online treasures
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Mon Dec 17 08:43:21 2001
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 10:56:51 -0800
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-to: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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FYI France: Bibliothe`que Nationale de France online treasures,
of the French and some other cultures
Amid all the ongoing debate about the procedures of "digital
libraries" -- what they are, what they are not, whether they are
a good or a bad or an inevitable thing -- it is useful to be
reminded occasionally of the superb "content" which the best
among them can contain.
"Content is king", "Think Content", "It's the content,
stupid...": these are the days of miracle and wonder and "AOL
TimeWarner" -- no longer of "computers and tcp/ip", which
literally have faded now, at last, into the much longed - for
invisibility / banalisation background of daily life.
So, as happened with the Minitel, Back in the Beginning, it is
not all just Infotainment and Selling and Pornography on the
Internet any longer. There now are some truly remarkable things
available online: among which the Bibliothe`que Nume'rique of the
Bibliothe`que Nationale de France, at,
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/index.htm
Currently the BNF's Bibliothe`que Nume'rique is showing no less
than 23 fascinating exhibits / sites / nodes -- each with images,
text, notes, bibliography, some with sound, all in the true
French multi - faceted style, and all very useful for initiation
of students as well as further exploration by scholars, into any
of the fields concerned --
* Graphisme(s) -- the "graphic arts"
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/graphis/index.htm
* L'art du livre arabe -- the Arabic language, the Moslem
religion, the books of Islamic civilization
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/livrarab/index.htm
* Contes de fe'es -- "fairytales"!, beautifully illustrated --
beating Saul Zaentz at his own "Lord of the Rings" game -- this
"French release" came out first...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/contes/index.htm
* Brouillons d'e'crivains -- manuscripts!, their history and
creation and circumstances and use -- imaged originals from
Vale'ry, Hugo, Zola, Flaubert, Proust, Sartre, Perec, others
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/brouillons/index.htm
* Mai^tres de la bande dessine'e europe'enne (also in English) --
comicbooks!(?)... remember that this is Europe and that, there,
comicbooks are not all just "Superman" -- from the Middle Ages to
Japanese Manga, heros and anti - heros, Tin-Tin and Obelix and
much more
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/bd/index.htm
* La BD avant La BD (also in English) -- "the prehistory of comic
books"? -- stained glass, anything graphic which "tells a story",
"le re'cit en se'quence", "sound" too -- fascinating for fans of
multimedia and "the return to orality" a` la Walter Ong and
Milman Parry, and "transitions in media" / "ceci tuera cela"...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/bdavbd/index.htm
* Paris, les travaux et les jours -- daily life in The City of
Light, in early - last - century (that would be the 20th, folks)
photos, from the archives of L'Aurore - Le Figaro
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/paris/index.htm
* Reza, photographe visionnaire -- the expatriate Iranian
photographer - as - artist, online -- images, "from the Bosporus
to the Great Wall of China, from the Phillipines to Central Asia"
-- "a full look at humanity amid the turbulence which agitates
the world"
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/reza/index.htm
* Utopie, la que^te de la socie'te' ide'ale (also in English) --
to my American pragmatist's mind a frightening tour through the
perennial tendency to be dissatisfied with reality -- Plato and
Bosch and Thomas More and other devotees of "l'universel",
"dreams, and nightmares" -- with stunning images
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/utopie/index.htm
* Bresdin, Robinson graveur -- the "Chien - caillou" (from James
Fenimore Cooper, _The Last of the Mohicans_), of the 19th century
-- a beautiful presentation of this engraver's art online
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/bresdin/index.htm
* Marcel Proust, L'e'criture et les Arts (also in English) --
currently some say "In Search of Lost Time"?!... some titles defy
translation... and should not be translated... "Remembrance of
Things Past" does a much better job, I myself think, if you're
going to do it... -- anyway, here the BNF and the Muse'e d'Orsay
combine their respective treasures and talents, on this topic
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/proust/index.htm
* Boulle'e, architecte des Lumie`res -- those great, round,
rather funny and spaceage - looking buildings shown in all the
art and architectural history books -- Enlightenment rationality
and the totalitarian tendencies of same run amok, in a stunning
online presentation
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/boullee/index.htm
* La Page -- the history and construction of the written and
printed "page" -- a fascinating and visually stunning look at the
mechanics of a medium -- a must - see for any fan of "the book as
a thing", or of "graphics", or for any devotee of computer and
Webpage "screen design"
http://www.bnf.fr/web-bnf/pedagos/page/index.htm
* °magnum, Essais sur le monde -- stunning photography -- from
Coca Cola cans, to young rock - throwers in the Gaza streets, to
bloody footprints in the snow at Grozny, to wonderful red
umbrellas -- "Magnum" is not _all_ fashionplate ladies in floppy
hats...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/essais/index.htm
* Tous les Savoirs du Monde -- that magnificent exhibition
mounted at the opening of the new BNF building at Tolbiac --
"...since the invention of writing, how have civilizations
assembled knowledge, to conserve it, to share it, to transmit
it?" -- from Sumerian tablets to "The Illustrated London News"
and Queneau
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/savoirs/index.htm
* Le Ciel et la Terre (also in English) -- cosmology,
cosmography, and a truly wonderful online presentation of one of
the greatest of BNF treasures, the 14th century Catalan Atlas
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/ciel/index.htm
* Splendeurs persanes (also in English) -- Persia -- "The Five
Poems of Neza^mi^" -- illustration, and the written word, as a
high art form
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/splendeurs/index.htm
* Petits poe`mes photo-graphiques (also in English) -- "abstract
photography" -- for one of those days, or long nights, when life
online seems to have become a little too "linear"...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/poemes/index.htm
* Tal Coat -- "Pierre Tal Coat (1905-1985), painting, design, and
engravings..." -- prompting the rhetorical question whether the
Internet might become an at - least - initial medium of diffusion
for the aspiring graphic artist, as it already has for the
aspiring musician and writer? Cutting out Kahnweiler...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/tal_coat/index.htm
* Face a` face (also in English) -- portraits! -- photographic,
but also non- -- what it means to depict the human face
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/face/index.htm
* Le Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phe'bus -- elegance / decadence in
the illustration of the book -- in some things, when you reach
the summit the only way is down -- for many this item is the
apex, anyway, of the book illustrator's art -- perhaps the best
way to enjoy it is to suspend all political judgments and just
relax back into it, as - superbly - presented here online --
another of the greatest of BNF treasures
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/phebus/index.htm
* Le roi Charles V et son Temps -- "1000 enluminures du
De'partement des Manuscrits" says a great deal, when speaking of
the BNF -- a tour of this site offers perhaps the best way
available to introduce anyone to, or remind anyone of, the French
14th century and the art of the manuscript -- the extraordinary
15thc Bruges Froissart (FR 2643), the Catalan Atlas, the "Petites
Heures de Jean de Berry", the "Gaston Phe'bus", the "Bre'viaire
de Martin d'Aragon", all in sumptuous detail
http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/accueil.shtm
* Naissance de la Culture Franc,aise -- where it all began -- the
original exhibit, both online and as generously presented at the
Library of Congress by the BNF, was reviewed here in the FYI
France ejournal issue of January 15, 1996 -- the exhibit
transported across the Atlantic and showed proudly to the
Americans everything from the "Bible du comte Rorigon, Tours,
vers 835" marked "Latin 3" in the BNF De'partement des
Manuscrits, and the actual / reputed throne of the "bon roi
Dagobert", to the manuscript of Zola's "J'Accuse!" scrawled in
angry script -- French treasures, a one - stop introduction to
the history of France, and one of the earliest examples of a
major online Internet digital library exhibition
http://www.bnf.fr/loc/bnf0001.htm
--oOo--
A few details, and reactions, on and to the latest of these BNF
exhibits to have been mounted: also a couple of suggestions of
perhaps general application --
* Graphisme(s)
This is a remarkable exhibition of and about the graphic arts,
originally shown at the BNF Tolbiac from September 18 to November
25, 2001. Anyone wishing to see, or to show others, a one - stop
introduction to what "graphics" are all about, need only click
and watch and listen. From the online exhibit:
"It must be noted that the term 'graphics', as used by
professionals in the field, does not designate anything
universally accepted, either in current usage or in the
dictionary. Doubtless the multitude of formats which
graphics supports, its 'presentation', explains this
situation in part. To this must be added the small
consideration which people normally accord to everyday
objects. All this leads to a reticence to recognize, and
therefore to appreciate, a visual art which is a part of
our daily lives..."
"How then to reflect upon an object of study which has
received so little definition? The exhibition proposes to
consider graphics as a vast territory ranged between
'pure' typography, on the one hand, and 'pure' image on
the other. It groups graphic work into large collections
corresponding to the principal functions of the art and
the different usages to which we put it..."
The methodology of the online version of this exhibit is a
fascinating tour de force in the use of the online medium:
Under five "functional" rubrics,
** Attract the attention
** Mount it
** Identify it
** Describe it
** For the screen
the virtual exhibit scrolls through the series of graphic works,
originally presented in the "real" exhibition, in a very
interesting demonstration of one great advantage offered by the
"virtual" over the "real":
-- as anyone who ever has attended a crowded Paris exhibition can
attest, the crowds and conviviality -- the noise -- and the
accidents of layout and presentation of a large art show can
distract. A tourist, particularly, risks being so overwhelmed by
the strangeness and excitement of "being in Paris", and all those
French accents and labels in French on things, and being in a
giant new space such as the BNF Tolbiac or the Louvre or the
Muse'e d'Orsay or wherever an exhibit is being presented, that
s/he risks losing sight of and any chance at understanding a
complex exhibit. And Paris exhibits _always_ are complex -- never
just "the pictures", always the context and the story and the
philosophy underneath and some sort of "presentation innovation"
folded in as well -- nothing capable of being absorbed quickly,
in a foreign crowd, while you are wondering if it really will be
snowing outside by the time you exit and whether the kids will
make it back to the hotel from wherever they are to meet you in
time for dinner...
-- online, instead, the relaxing linearity can be very
reassuring. Not only are you in the comfort of your own office or
home -- no crowds or French accent distractions swarming around
-- but the mysteries of "le graphism" can be viewed in line, in
an order much despised by many graphic artists but so needed by
their customers and clients and the grand public.
So in this particular BNF Tolbiac Bibliothe`que Nume'rique
exhibit, you click on the little double arrow pointing to the
right and it gently scrolls you through each of the five topics,
showing simple captions explaining the functions of graphics --
for example,
"Mass Communications -- the function of the poster is to
attract attention. From the point of view of the reader,
the reading is a forced one, a glance which has been
snatched..."
-- with fascinating illustrations along the way, on which of
course you can "click", to halt the scrolling and "focus in" to
obtain enlargements and detailed explanations -- better than
craning your neck over the sea of fellow - tourist heads for a
fleeting glimpse of a little distant thing which you know to be
"themonalisa", and about which you know little else and you have
no time now to look into it because it may already be snowing
outside and the kids surely will be late getting back to the
hotel and for all you know they may be lost, somewhere in central
Paris...
No waiting, warm, inviting bistro nearby in the "virtual"
version, of course -- although they're working on that.
The one suggestion which I have to make of this particular online
exhibit is merely technical and has two points, both of general
application to any such online exhibit I think:
a) In my IE 6.0 browser, when I clicked on an image to see its
detail and then hit return, I was sent back to the beginning of
the scroll rather than to the point in it which I just had left:
this is disorienting, and defeats the purpose of the hypertext,
which is to be able to jump "out" to pursue a link and then
"back" so as not to lose the thread of an argument. I am sure
that the Javascript can be tweaked easily in some way so as to
return a viewer to the point from which s/he left, rather than to
the beginning of the scrolling?
b) Also, checking Netscape -- as I always do to see whether a
problem really is just the result of Mr. Gates' so - much -
feared paranoia and market domination tendencies -- I find that
in my Communicator 4.51 I cannot even get the scrolling to work.
So maybe Mr. Case is even more grasping than Mr. Gates, or
perhaps the Activex / Java controversy is rearing its ugly head
here and the at - least - equally - grasping Mr. McNealy is
involved here too... Whatever, until these three guys, and the
rest of them, give us a unified platform on which to view this
stuff, the BNF web staff and the rest of us too all must remember
to take a look through _all_ the browsers, AOL's (still?) non -
Communicator one as well, and try to please all the viewers all
the time, before they mount these things: maybe not possible, but
best attempts appreciated and caveats, at least, required.
--oOo-
So, something to look at over the holidays...
Interesting text, and wonderful images, and sound, and
organization -- and lots of links -- all "filtered", and
stretched to the limits of the very latest communications medium,
and presented to you in the privacy of your very own office or
home wherever in the world that happens to be.
Suppose you are stuck for the holidays in Ulan Bator or Hobart or
West Covina -- or Limoges -- and cannot get to Paris, or do not
want to. Then here, courtesy of the BNF, its treasures and those
of French and general civilization, and the art of the text /
discours, all will come to _you_... "outreach" sans pareil...
As it's the holidays, consider this "eye candy", plus some real
nourishment, for the eye and for the mind and for the soul.
And we all _need_ a bit of this, after the last few months'
headlines.
Meilleurs Voeux, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us
* FYI France (sm)(tm) Online Service
| Internet Training and Consulting
|* email: kessler@well.sf.ca.us
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Joyeux Noe:l
--oOo--
