by Anthony Shull

One of the coolest developments in HTML5 are WebSockets which promise to revolutionize web development as much as Ajax has.

Before Ajax came into popular use users could only load new information into a page if they refreshed the entire page. That was a waste of time and bandwidth as every page load would have to include a lot of redundant information (the header, footer, and navigation) that wasn’t unique to the request. From the user’s perspective, it was a jolting experience which was very far from a desktop application. Ajax gave us developers the ability to communicate with the server without having to reload redundant information. It saved a lot of unnecessary bandwidth usage and gave applications a more desktop-like feel. The term Rich Internet Application was coined to describe this new breed of user experience.

The Association of Teaching Artists (ATA), a non-profit professional organization providing advocacy and professional development for artists who teach in schools and in the community in NYS maintains a blog full of articles and links that any teaching artist would find beneficial.

The ATA’s mission is to create a community of Teaching Artists; To empower the practice of Teaching Artists as a profession; To provide a network for communication and the exchange of resources; To collaborate with NYS and national arts organizations and agencies; To collaborate on quality professional development and training; To publically recognize and celebrate distinguished achievement by Teaching Artists in arts education.

by Laura Lewis

[Self Portrait, Sarbani M. (student)]

The bristle brush is the latest brush added to Adobe Illustrator’s paintbox. This new tool enables artists and designers to create painterly illustrations. The bristle brush is very much like the brushes used to paint by hand.

[Self Portrait, Stephen T. (student)]

Brush shapes cover the gamut of the painter’s tool box, ranging from fan to round tipped brushes. One can build up colors and textures by layering. This natural feeling of painting is even more enhanced when using a pen tablet. By doing so, artists can see the direction and position of their paintbrush in 3D form. In creating their self portrait, many students in the Adobe Illustrator course chose to experiment with this new tool.

Interested in exploring Philadelphia’s public art over the long holiday weekend?

Museum Without Walls is an interactive audio tour, designed to allow locals and visitors to experience Philadelphia’s extensive collection of public art and outdoor sculpture along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Kelly Drive.

Philadelphia has more outdoor sculpture than any other American city, yet this extensive collection often goes unnoticed. This program reveals the distinct stories behind each of these works; hear the histories of the 51 outdoor sculptures at 35 stops through these professionally produced three-minute interpretive audio segments.

TEDxPhilly – Nov 18, 2010

You may be familiar with TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) for their sought-after conferences and amazing and inspiring talks available free on their website (over 700 talks posted). They seek to find “ideas worth spreading” from some of the leaders in design, creativity, education, science, art, music, technology and more – and to explore where ideas cross boundaries and ignite new ways of thinking.

TEDx events throughout the world are designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at a local level. At TEDx events, a combination of live presenters and screenings of TEDTalks videos spark conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an illustrator?

Cardinal Close Up Wall Mural, Charley Harper, image from Charley Harper Studio

Damon Ginandes, a New York artist, putting the finishing touches on his painting.  Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company.  Caption + Photograph via NYTIMES.COM

This summer, over 100 artists from around the world contributed to ‘The Underbelly Project,’ a project in which artists were asked to (illegally) create large-scale works on the walls of an abandoned New York subway station.  You can read about the project in Jasper Rees’s article for the New York Times, “Street Art Way Below the Street.”

To see what was created, check out the video and slideshow below:
VIDEO: The Underbelly Project
SLIDESHOW: The Underbelly Project

On Wednesday, October 13, Hinda Schuman’s (CE 1745) Night + Low Light photo class met at 23rd and Arch to photograph the Cira and Comcast buildings. The following mages were taken by the students and represent only a small portion of the photos captured that evening.