Creativity in everyday life: decorative, applied, and culinary arts within the scope of the humanitiesI'm particularly interested in getting my students to understand that life in other cultures doesn't just belong to the big guys (especially the big dead white guys). The study of the humanities centers on the people who create--and these are rarely the ones in charge of things (although they may be the ones who sponsor, instigate, fund, coerce, or otherwise influence what gets created). I also want you to understand that art is not simply the "important" stuff: it's what people create, and how they express their ideas of beauty. For further information, consult the Cultural Links and topic side-bars, or come see me for suggestions. These are the topics included below (with direct links): lesser arts l culinary arts l parietal art l clothing history and design l interior arts William Morris lectured countless times in the nineteenth century on the necessity of the "lesser arts"--which today we tend to call decorative or applied arts. Try looking into the way ordinary people, as well as dignitaries, lived, and what they chose to have around them: history of interiors and their design, everyday life in ancient cultures, and don't forget the culinary arts and clothing. The World Image Database from California State University has a whole section of images depicting daily life, including fashion, food, interior arts, graphic design (advertisements), etc. Cloth and Clay: Communicating Culture: a lovely, beautifully designed site with essays on the importance of weaving and ceramics in the cultures of the Andes, Mexico, and others. Excellent use of Flash, by the way, for aspiring web designers. Since I would like my future chefs to acquaint themselves as much as possible with the history of food and its role in human culture, I've located a few links that can help them get back to the roots of things; more will follow as soon as I can locate them, and I welcome your recommendations. Students in a course on ancient food put on an exhibit at the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum called A Taste of the Ancient World, which has its own website (the link to the course site, though, is broken). A second page covers the Roman Food Industry. This Roman Cookbook is also interesting and well designed. For Medieval food buffs, there is the Medieval/Renaissance Food Page, and another page of Medieval Recipes pinched from the British Museum Cook Book. The Food Museum provides a more general look at the history of food. The New York Public Library has devoted a page to a Research Guide on Culinary History, which includes an extensive bibliography and a list of internet food sources. The Kelley Library can obtain many of these works through Interlibrary Loan if you allow enough time. Gastronomica, the journal of food and culture, is available in the Kelley Library; it contains excellent articles entirely appropriate for this class. World Food Habits Bibliography offers a list of sources; many of the articles listed can be accessed through the LRC's online databases. Other good food history sources: Food Timeline, and the related Culinary History Timeline, Food History News, Food History Resources, Christopher Columbus--A Culinary History, and just in case you've never heard of this one, The Food Reference Website. Of interest to those working on cuisines of the Americas: Maya Cuisine, Peruvian Culinary History, and from the Seasonal Chef, Vintage Cuisine: A Survey of Cookbooks from the 19th and Early 20th Century. Research Centre for the History of Food and Drink, at the University of Adelaide, South Australia: news, reviews, articles, and links. The Raven Chronicles, a journal of "art, literature, and the spoken word," contains a section on "Food and Culture at Raven"--with articles of some interest, and a nice defense of cooking as an art form. The Nov. 2004 issue of Archaeology magazine features an article on food history: The Trouble With Blood, A modern cook takes on the challenge of ancient cooking. The article features Mayan, Mesopotamian, and Mongolian recipes, and a link to Roman dishes. King Midas's Funerary Feast from the University of Pennsylvania is based on excavations at the ancient Phrygian city of Gordion, where the tomb of King Midas was discovered. For those of who are practicing to become sommeliers and/or pub owners: First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age (National Geographic News). On the topic of ancient alcoholic beverages, see also Hymn to Ninkasi and Brewing Ancient Beer, the Archaeology and the Bible project: Beer or Bread?, and the University of Pennsylvania Exhibit on the Origins of Wine; Kitchen Anthropology: Home Brewing of Ancient Beer and Archaeological Parameters for the Brewing of Ancient Beer; a History of Beer (from Fosters) [a search on "beer or bread" turned these up, along with many more]. Online Culinary History Network: a new site with limited content (the one project linked is a translation/transcription of a Middle English poem on cookery), but which promises to be really useful when its complete. Chefs: bookmark this one! World Food Habits Bibliography: an excellent source for books and articles on food and culture. And here's another new one: Foodbook's Food and Culinary History Links, with pages I haven't listed and the promise of more to come. New, from AskAsia: Food in Chinese History (background essay). Ancient Food News includes a timeline and short newsbites. Ancient Egyptian food: staples, menu of the rich, cooking, utensils. This is from a page on Egyptian culture with very cute little owl .gifs. I just found this, while working on an art history slide list: A Feast For The Eyes: A Medieval and Renaissance Food and Feast Image Collection. Now that I've started blogging my ownself, I have begun to appreciate well-designed and interestingly-focused blogs. This one, on Global Gastronomy, contains a variety of cultural material, and some mention of ancient traditions. Its real value, however, lies in its enormous number of links. Another blog, Writing With My Mouth Full offers more international links. From the Instructor's Shameless Promotion of her Favorite TV Show/Movie Department: Big Damn Chefs: The home page of the International Browncoat Charity Cookbook, a fan-based collection of recipes from lovers of Firefly and Serenity (by a truly international gathering of like-minded folk). Proceeds from cookbook sales go to Freedom From Hunger. Some of our earliest examples of human creative effort can be found on the walls of caves. But people didn't stop painting on walls when they moved down into the river valleys that fostered the earliest civilizations. As you'll see throughout this course, little kids aren't the only people who like to paint on walls! Some of you graphic artists may be called upon to do something similar, if the popularity of murals continues to increase. So far I've only painted my sofa, but it's only a matter of time. Look into parietal art in any of the cultures that we're studying in class, including the extensive and marvelous frescoes at Pompeii, and mosaics, but don't forget that Mesoamerican cultures and the Anasazi (among countless others) also drew on their walls. My essay, "Understanding Paleolithic Art and Design" might be useful in helping you sort out what can and cannot be known about art from the very ancient past. One of the ways in which cultures have expressed themselves is in the way they dress. Try doing some research on clothing in the ancient world, and perhaps on the evolution of dress or costume through time in a particular culture. Costume in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (from the Met's Timeline of Art History). You can't find a much better source on art and design history than this timeline. Almost every topic includes examples of what people wore, through painting, sculptures, and the clothing itself. The Costumer's Manifesto is a site for theater costume designers. The Getty Museum's exhibit on Flemish Renaissance manuscript illumination has a section on fashion of the times; click on Zoom & Explore to get there. Kent State University has a museum devoted to the history of fashion and the decorative arts: the collection includes bits of information on fashion history, but the exhibitions page lists both past and current exhibits on many aspects of fashion in different cultures. The Costume Page looks like a place to search for Halloween stuff, but it includes a large amount of information on fashion history. Oriental Costumes: Their Designs and Colors is a nifty exhibit with information and images. Furniture Styles is a pretty extensive page on the history of furniture, with separate pages on different historical periods. English Heritage is a page devoted to English history in general, but contains a number of articles and images on historic structures (including homes). Interior Design In England 1600-1800: from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History. For anyone who doesn't own the book A History of Interior Design, by John Pyle, here's an excerpt from Architecture Week that provides a short history of the field. The Dezignaré Interior Design Collective has a very good website with images and articles on a number of topics, as well as a links page featuring museums and other sources concerned with interior design, and a library page with some interesting (if somewhat arbitrary) links. The New York Public Library's Research Guide for Interior Design lists books and resources, some of which you may be able to obtain locally through Interlibrary Loan. You can actually print out the Guide, which might be helpful in many other classes as well as this one. The online magazine, Interior Design has an archive of articles (and if you're not familar with this resource, there are other features accessible through membership--including sample ordering, etc.) that cover historical topics as well as more contemporary issues. History of Home Decorating in Italy is a nicely designed page with tons of information, beginning with the ancient world. One of the best online resources available to interior designers is InformeDesign, through which you can access articles on every conceivable topic in the field, including historical information. You have to join to get the most out of it, but it's free. The article evaluations are especially helpful. Archguide links a large number of websites on international architecture. While I'm trying to find good links for this section, see pages on specific cultures, which often contain information on interior design. |