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 A monthly review of Web design and resources. June 2001
A couple of years ago the Getty Research Institute mounted an exhibition devoted to El Lissitzky's astonishing career. The well-heeled archive only recently launched this online version, dedicated to the early twentieth-century artist who helped revolutionize contemporary graphic design. An eye-catching introduction, sampling generously from the Getty's substantial holdings on Russian Modernism, evokes the protean designer's signature style. Plentiful pop-ups display oversize reproductions of Lissitzky's typography, book designs, and architectural studies. An articulate text reflects his recurring themes, with links to related documents and collections. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Preserving the built legacy of the grand old man of American architecture has not proved easy. One of every five completed buildings by Wright has been destroyed. However, the conservancy devoted to his heritage boasts that since its founding in 1989 not a single Wright structure has been lost. The group's commendable efforts have ex-tended to brokering sales of Wright properties, relocating them when necessary, and, recently, purchasing one of the master's imperiled masterpieces outright. The site's unobtrusive Wright-inspired interface points you to reasonably up-to-date breaking preservation news, buildings on the market, and an active message board. An extensive image gallery is hampered by bleary snapshots but is redeemed by the inclusion of out-of-the-way projects such as his stunning Romeo and Juliet windmill in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Origins of American Animation The Library of Congress posts fragments of its historical collections online, but most of the entries in its American Memory archive consist only of lists. A significant exception is this repository of early cartoons from the first two decades of the twentieth century. Viewable in Quicktime, Real Media, and MPEG versions, the 24 shorts offer a tantalizing glimpse of animation's crude but beguiling origins. Highlights include appearances by Krazy Kat and Gertie the Dinosaur; and Thomas A. Edison's The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, a genuinely weird mix of live action and stop motion. ReThink Paper Sponsored by the eco-activist Earth Island Institute, this well-designed site promotes nonwood solutions for print, with the reminder that there will never be enough wood fiber to supply the ever-growing appetite of the global pulp and paper industry. A handy paper selector introduces you to suppliers of optional sources, from banana stalks, coffee-bean residue, and industrial hemp to tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton waste. You will also find basic information on materials such as kenaf, a field crop indigenous to West Africa that is considered one of the most promising alternatives to virgin soft and hard woods. Mark Ecko A streetwise designer given to strong sculptural statements, Mark Ecko champions "a fusion of disparate elements of youth culture into a singular expression of global lifestyle." His truly contemporary clothes--heavy on polished denim and meticulous stitching--suggest the way we'll all be dressing in the future. Ecko's achingly hip online showcase opens with a rollover-generated navigation display and segues to the standard collection showings, enlivened by a handful of multimedia experiments. When you tire of fashion, you can shoot hoops on a small game on the site. Ken Coupland can be reached at screenspace@metropolismag.com. |
