Writing Workshops: 02 February-30 March 2010, 3-4pm Boole 5 (Boole Basement)

02 Feb. Workshop 01: Essay Preparation
This workshop will focus on:
. Effective note-taking
. Question analysis
. Assignment planning

09 Feb. Workshop 02: Critical Analysis
This workshop will focus on:
. Introducing and defining critical thinking
. Applying critical thinking to your reading and writing
. Critical thinking and visual analysis of images

16 Feb. Workshop 03: Developing Your Writing
This workshop will focus on:
. The writing process
. Understanding your audience
. Reflecting through redrafting

23 Feb. Workshop 04: Referencing
This workshop will focus on:
. Why referencing is important in academic writing
. Representing evidence in academic writing
. How to avoid plagiarism

02 February-30 March 2010,3-4pm Boole 5 (Boole Basement)

Students are welcome to suggest topics for future sessions. Please e-mail James Cronin with your suggestions.

How can I insert an image and caption into a word document?

There are several ways to insert a picture into your Word document. The easiest way is to drag and drop the photo from Windows Explorer into your document. The traditional way to insert a picture is to use the Insert menu:

1. Click Insert

2. Select Picture

3. On the Submenu, select From file

If you opt to insert a picture from the Insert menu, the Insert Picture dialog box opens. Select your picture by highlighting it and click Insert. Or, you can simply double-click the picture file. The picture will appear in your document.

It is recommended that you set your image and text into separate tables. You can do this by clicking the Table menu, Insert, Table. Set Rows and Columns to 1 for a single image or single text box. You can adjust the text and image borders by highlighting the cell and right-click the mouse to access the Table Properties tab and then by clicking on the Borders and Shading dialogue box. Click on the None tab and OK this will make the table box look invisible when you print it out.

Planning the types of resources you need for your forthcoming essays.

In addition to creating a spider map of the ideas and themes you wish to discuss in your essay you may consider making a similar diagram for the types of resources you may need to draw on for your essay: do you need a combination of online and hard copy resources? What types of online resources do you need? how will you integrate these into your project work? Give yourself enough time to consider the resources most appropriate to the essay topic (review previous posting).

Integrating the Web into your study

In many cases, the Web cannot replace the authority of a book, dictionary entry or a journal article. However, there are ways in which the Web can enhance your understanding of a discipline. Here are a few suggestions:

Virtual tours of buildings can give you an idea of how buildings function in three-dimensions and how decoration and images operate as a complete programme, see the following examples:
Ravenna Monuments Dynamic Images this website provides 360 degree dynamic panoramas of the historic early Christian basilicas of Ravenna, Italy. All images are zoom-enabled. Manipulate the images by dragging your cursor over them.
ItalyGuides offers you a rich collection of more than 200 virtual panoramas of Italy's most famous city monuments. These can be explored 360° and each of them comes with text written by history of art professionals. ItalyGuides.it also provide free audio guides download (for iPod or mp3), video in high definition (HDTV), google maps and more than 3000 photos in the photo galleries. The site includes tours of Florence, Naples, Rome and Venice.

Maps and Timelines can enhance your understanding of the political geography of countries or regions. For example, Italy was not a unified country at the time of the Renaissance, but was fractured into different regional and political divisions see map.

World map and Timeline from the Metmuseum website.

Architectural plans, elevations and reconstructions give you an idea how buildings were constructed and how they changed over time, broadly speaking, black or shaded areas in an architectural plan denote solid walls while white areas denote open space see:
Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture the glossary is a searchable database of illustrated architectural terms and styles. This is illustrated with plans, elevations and reconstruction drawings.
Architecture of Renaissance Italy essay from the Metmuseum website. This essay has embedded images which you can magnify through zoom tools. Many galleries are now scanning their collections and hosting them online as open access high resolution images. Zoom tools allow you to take a close look at paintings or manuscripts and help in understanding how the object was made.

Referencing Internet sources

Looking for images? Four basic questions to ask yourself

1. What do I need the image for? (private study, essay, presentation)
2. Where is the best quality image to be found? (galleries and image databases)
3. Which websites have most trustworthy? (institutional websites such as galleries, museums or universities are to be recommended)
4. Do I have permission to use the image? (Check the terms and conditions of use on the host site)


Resizing images for your essay or project

The image properties are measured in pixels (picture elements per inch) for example 64 x 48 is a small image, 640 x 480 is a medium size image and 6400 x 4800 is a large image. Increasing the size of a small digital image will result in a blurry or pixelated image. It is easier to reduce the size of a larger digital image than to increase a smaller one.

Note that all images you find online are not free to use so check the terms and conditions of use on the site. If you are allowed to use that image for private study or for your project work it is important to reference it in much the same way as you would reference a textual source.


Referencing images in your essay or project

From the Web

artist: title of work. date; gallery or museum, city [online source]. [date of site] URL: site address found in address bar [date of site access]. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, a string of code making up the website address, for example, http://www.wga.hu/art/r/raphael/3umbtrip/37entom.jpg


Raphael: The Entombment (The Deposition) 1507; Galleria Borghese, Rome [World Wide Web search interface]. [2009] URL: http://www.wga.hu/art/r/raphael/3umbtrip/37entom.jpg [15 Oct 2009].

From a text

Raphael: The Entombment (The Deposition) 1507; Galleria Borghese, Rome (in, followed by the name of the author, date of publication, page and/or illustration number). Remember to include the citation as a reference in your bibliography.

Beyond Wikipedia and Google: Resources Workshop Series

Resources workshops for first academic term, 2009/10
Period 01 13th October - 8th December 2009
These sessions are open to undergraduates and postgraduates
13th Oct – 8th Dec 3-4pm ORB_123 (O'Rahilly Building)
____________________________________________________________

Oct-13 Introduction to History of Art online resources
This session surveys History of Art's current online resources

Oct-20 Beyond Google and Wikipedia: Website evaluation
What are the criteria for choosing the most appropriate online resources?

Oct-27 Art History databases, galleries and portals
This session explores the best way to access hard to find images

Nov-03 Online research tools and the visualisation of data
This session surveys the latest online tools for data capture and representation

Nov-10 How to use web sources responsibly (citation and copyright)
This session reviews the citation of online sources in project work, papers and dissertations

Nov-17 Understanding digital images (files, size and compression)
This session suggests ways to import images in presentations and projects

Nov-24 Understanding digital images (colour and capture)
This session is relevant for image capture in presentations and projects

Dec-01 Using digital images in PowerPoint presentations
This session is relevant for image capture in presentations

Dec-08 Advanced PowerPoint (embedding media)
This session is relevant for image capture in presentations

Dec-15 Review and workshop evaluation

The series will be co-ordinated by James G. R. Cronin and guided by facilitators from the School of History (including History of Art) and the Boole Library, University College Cork. Topics will be explored through a inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach. Theory will be embedded in practice as each session will focus upon an authentic problem or issue to engage with. Traces of sessions will be archived on this blog site. Students will be encouraged to suggest topics for the second term.

Fostering information literacy skills has been identified as a significant challenge to be faced over the next five years read. This series aims to engage with this challenge.

IBL: Inquiry-based learning (IBL) resembles problem-based learning (PBL). Both are student-centered instructional strategies in which students collaboratively solve problems and reflect on their experiences. Students work in small collaborative groups. Students are encouraged to direct the learning process with support from a tutor or instructor who acts as a learning facilitator. Advocates of IBL and PBL claim these approaches can be used to enhance content knowledge and foster the development of communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skills.

Period 02 5th January- 30th March 2010
1st Years
5th Jan – 30th March 1-2pm ORB_244 (O'Rahilly Building)

2nd Years
5th Jan – 30th March 3-4pm Boole 5 (Boole Basement)

Digital Humanities opening new career paths for History and History of Art graduates

In recent years History and Art History graduates have found positions on digital projects. Many of these projects involve making public historical texts and images. Examples of Irish projects include: Long Room Hub, (Trinity College Dublin), Texts, Contexts, Cultures (NUI, Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork) and the Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) (Royal Irish Academy). Many projects require graduates with postgraduate qualifications and experience, but you may have what the project needs. Find a project you are interested in and contact the project leader for more information or advice.

Digital Humanities is an umbrella term describing the impact of information technologies in the teaching, learning and researching of subjects like History and History of Art. The 18th March 2009 was assigned a Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities when scholars all over the world, working in the area of humanities computing, wrote an individual diary of their day. The project is published online. This project gives you a sense of the diverse work of digital humanists. Dr. Julianne Nyhan, a digital humanist at the University of Trier, Germany, is a graduate of University College Cork. She took History of Art as a first year option.

Websearching an independent topic

Context:
The Tudor king, Henry VIII succeeded his father Henry VII in 1509. He is best remembered for his six marriages and for ordering the dissolution of religious houses which took place between 1535 and 1539. His quest for a male heir and divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon led to his establishing himself as head of the Church in England in place of the Pope in 1535 thereby beginning the English Reformation.

Problems:
I am researching Tudor royal iconography, especially portraits of Henry VIII. I want to find visual evidence for the use of the title Fidei Defensor or "Defender of the Faith" conferred by Pope Leo X on Henry VIII of England in 1521 to reward his writing of a treatise against Martin Luther. Where can I find relevant visual material? How do I begin my search? Where do I begin to look?

Approaches:
In addition to portraits, you may consider wider evidence from visual culture. Prints, medals, seals and coins can be rich sources for understanding changes in royal iconography over time as they often bring text and image together. The addition of a text to an image may encourage us to ask: how did the image-makers intend the image to be read? Does the addition of a text to an image restrict possible readings? How do we know it was read, by its intended audience, in the intended way?

In the context of the problem posed, your search could centre on the collections of the British Library and the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Some useful links:
Extract from the papal bull of 1521
Early printed bibles in the British Library, London. In these frontispieces, Henry VIII is shown enthroned holding a book and a sword. He is show approprating symbols of Church (the book) and State (the sword). Thereby, displaying his authority over both institutions. This is echoed in King's Tudor Royal Iconography: Literature and Art in an Age of Religious Crisis Princeton, 1989.
Gold Seal of Henry VIII with inscribed title
Henry VIII and the Barber-Surgeons, 1540, painted by Hans
Holbein, note Henry holds the Sword of State and a seal.
Etching of Henry VIII (ca. 1545) with inscribed title, National Portrait Gallery, London.
Portrait of Henry VIII by Peter Isselburg (Yselburg, Eisselburg), after Cornelis Metsys (Massys) (1508 or 1510-after 1580)
line engraving, 1646, inscribed title, National Portrait Gallery, London
17th Century print of Henry VIII with inscribed title, National Portrait Gallery, London. This may be useful for illustrating later receptions of the title. By the term "reception" we mean how the image was depicted at a later time. An example of this is seen in the use of title abbreviation on contemporary British coins see Threeminutetheologian blog

Looking at images: questions to ask yourself

The following are a selection of questions you could use to scaffold your critical analysis of an image. The following examples relate to looking at a painting, but you could modify these questions to support looking at a piece of sculpture or a building.

This is not an exhaustive list, add your own questions if you like:

The image caption may answer the following questions:

Who is the artist?
What is the title of the work?
What is the size of the work?
What is the medium (fresco, oil, tempera etc.)?
What is the date?
Where is the work now located?

Many of us forget to describe what we see:

How is the composition arranged (tight or loose)?
How is the subject painted (heavy or light brush work)?
How does colour evoke mood (atmospheric, dramatic)?
What details look familiar or unfamiliar to you?
Is there anything that stands out for you?
Does this connect with anything seen before?

Look closer for meaning through style and symbol:

Do you recognise the subject (content of the painting)?
What does the subject-matter tell you about its meaning?
Who commissioned the work (patron)?
Why was it commissioned (public or private commission)?
Who owned the work (did it change hands)?
Is it characteristic of the period (art historical style)?

Think about the context of the work and what has been critically written about it.
How does this effect the way we look at the composition?

What is the original historical context (period)?
How does context inform meaning (significant events)?
Do sketches inform the work (are there changes over time)?
Has the work been restored (any new discoveries)?
What has been written about the work (art history/ criticism)?
How does critical opinion inform meaning (art history/ criticism)?