The Science of Architecture

The series The Science of Architecture has now been converted from video to DVD and is available for loan from the Learning Centre.

Programs:

1. Loads: Dead or Alive -- What makes buildings stand up?
2. Push and Pull -- The forces that pull them down
3. Trust Those Triangles -- The history, uses and principles of beams, trusses and space frames
4. Where's the Trust Line? -- A chronicle of homo sapiens' strategies to construct walls and roofs that won't fall down
5. Triumphant Arches -- The strength and uses of arches, from monolithic to hinged
6. The Shell -- How humans have tried to copy the structural strength of the eggshell
7. The Suspension of Disbelief -- Structures that use suspension and still stay up
8. How High Is Up? -- Problems created by today's skyscrapers, and possibilities of architecture tomorrow

Workplace Environmental Awareness

Workplace environmental awareness is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

Summary from back cover:

In today's world, environmental management, energy efficiency and waste reduction have become synonymous with business success.

This programme includes topics on current environmental issues such as energy efficiency, carbon footprints and e-waste. It also show cases real-world examples of environmentally friendly work practices in action.

Workplace Environmental Awareness is a must-have training tool for inspiring change, reinforcing established practice, and for creating a positive platform for discussion.

Topics covered in this programme:

• Your environmental impact
• Understanding your carbon footprint
• The benefits of environmental awareness

What can you do? Including:

• Energy efficiency
• Sustainable water use
• Reducing air pollution
• Waste management
• Hazardous waste management

http://www.vocam.com

Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour of Europe

Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour of Europe is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"This landmark series features Kevin McCloud tracing the footsteps of the most notorious aristocrats, artists and architects of the 'Grand Tour'. Travelling to Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and Athens; Kevin follows the typical journeys of Grand Tourists. Clambering amongst the greatest buildings, ruins and cities in Europe, he explores the Tour's lasting legacy and uncovers its dark underbelly in the shady alleys and drinking dens en route. Climbing up buildings in harnesses and catapults, snaking through mountain passes and volcanoes on horseback, Kevin will travel as they travelled and revel in the sights, sounds, tastes and smells that changed the way Britain lived. Episodes include: France & Northern Italy -- Florence & Rome -- Rome, Naples & Pompeii -- Greece" -- back cover

Liquid Stone

Liquid stone: unlocking Gaudi's secrets is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"The challenge to complete the Sagrada Familia Church, according to Gaudi's vision, is revealed by architects and artisans who have spent years of their lives immersed in unlocking the secrets of Gaudi's Liquid Stone." -- back cover

Objectified

Objectified is a new film by Gary Hustwit and is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. In his second film, director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica) documents the creative porcesses of some of the world's most influential product designers, and looks at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. Objectified is about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It is also about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround outselves?" -- back cover

Artscape: Artists at Work -- Jon Cattapan

Artscape: artists at work - Jon Cattapan is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Over the last 30 years, Jon Cattapan has established a reputation as one of Australia's most significant and prolific painters. Often described as 'the poet of the floating metropolis', much of Cattapan's work respnds to the notion of what it means to be a human being in the 21st century urban environment." -- back cover

Tina Barney

Tina Barney: social studies is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"An intimate portrait of the American photographer Tina Barney who specialises in photographing the rarefied upper echelons of society in the US and Europe. Emanating herself from a privileged and moneyed North Eastern background, she is at ease photographing what for others might be intimidating environments, in a quirky and revealing fashion." -- back cover

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz: life through a lens is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Annie Leibovitz has produced some of the most iconic images of the last 30 years and is, literally, our most influential woman photographer. She has shot the rich and famous, the profound and powerful, the exceptional and notorious. Her camera has documented the horrors of war - most recently in Sarajevo and Rwanda. Masterful at exposing her photographic subjects, Annie's own life has been private and protected. In this film, she made the decision to bare her artistic process, her personal journey and her delicate balancing of fame and family to the camera - a camera that is being vigilantly pointed by a filmmaker who is her younger sister. From her hectic studio to her idyllic farm, we will experience Annie's current work and the creation of her latest retrospective book; we will face her losses as well as her grand successes." -- back cover

The Machine That Made Us

The machine that made us is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"British actor Stephen Fry investigates the story of one of the most important inventions ever made - the Gutenberg printing press. Invented in the 1940s, the printing press made the production of mass media possible." -- back cover

Broken Column

Broken column is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"This is a look at the effect contemporary art has on a community. British sculptor, Antony Gormley, installs a project involving the placing of hundreds of rusty iron figures at strategic points around a small town in Norway." -- back cover

Big Blue Bear

Big blue bear is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Big Blue Bear is a program about the creative process, the confluence of art and technology, and about a 40-foot bear coming to be." -- back cover

Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Ron Mueck is a contemporary Australian artist with an impressive international reputation. In this program we witness the creation and display of one of his most famous creations - 'a girl' - a massive sculpture of a baby that confronts and confounds us with its vulnerable humanity. Realism clashes with scale to create a memorable artistic experience." -- back cover

Fashionista

Fashionista is a series that was recorded in 2004-2005 from SBS. The Learning Centre has recently had it converted from video cassette to DVD. This series is now available for loan.

"Fashionista is a delicious compulsive indulgence that lets you linger over clothes, textiles and accessories and gives you the opportunity to meet the people who create them." -- back cover

1. Gabriele Scarvelli
2. Miss Hollywood
3. Knitting
4. Sandra Thom
5. Sarina Suriano
6. The Show
7. Jozette Hazzourri
8. Lisa Merton
9. Bowie Wong
10. Vogue Magazine
11. Mira Vokovic
12. Toni Maticevski

Artscape: Salt

Artscape: salt is a new DVD now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Salt is the story of award-winning and internationally renowned photo-artist, Murray Fredericks, on his annual solo pilgrimage to the heart of Lake Eyre in the remote north corner of South Australia. It tells of the personal journey of the artist, the creative process and the landscape itself." -- back cover

Typeface

Typeface is a new DVD now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"In rural Wisconsin, a lone employee waits in a cavernous old museum for visitors to come. A few individuals straggle in every few days and then, come Friday, the museum fills with life. Machines hum, presses print, artists buzz about. One weekend each month, the quiet of Two Rivers is interrupted as carloads of artisans drive in from across the Midwest. The place comes alive as printmaking workshops led by, and filled with, some of the nation's top design talent descend on the sleepy enclave.

In a time when people can carry computers in their pockets and watch TV while walking down the street, Typeface dares to explore the twilight of an analog craft that is freshly inspiring artists in a digital age. The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, WI personifies cultural preservation, rural re-birth and the lineage of American graphic design. At Hamilton, international artisans meet retired craftsmen and together navigate the convergence of modern design and traditional technique. But the Museum's days are numbered. What is the responsibility of artists and historians to preserve a dying craft? How can rural towns survive in a shifting industrial marketplace where big-box retailers are king?" -- back cover

Eye for Architecture

Eye for architecture is a new DVD now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

Eye For Architecture' journeys into the world of cutting-edge architecture in Australia and Asia through the lens of renowned architectural photographer John Gollings. A Gollings photograph can turn an ordinary building into art, helping it get published or win an award. Join Gollings on a journey from ancient cities in India and Cambodia to the modern face of China and Australia, seeing his influences and what it takes to create memorable images.

Projections 2008

Projections 2008 : showcasing the very best emerging photographic talent in Australia is a new DVD available for loan from the Learning Centre.

Contents:

1. Art category: Ben Thomas, Cityshrinker - Winner; Matt Batten, Isolation - Finalist; Wren, Small stories - Finalist; Yiwen Yao, My beautiful shadows - Finalist.
2. Editorial Category: Cara Bowerman, Deni ute Muster - Winner; Abhijit Chattaraj, In-between - Finalist; Rodney Dekker, Of droughts and flooding rains - Finalist; Danny Eastwood, Lest we forget - Finalist; Hayden Golder, Untitled, Finalist; Lim De Sheng, Grandma - Finalist; Gemma-Rose Turnbull, Show us ya tits - Finalist; Kristian Scott, Knackery - Finalist.
3. Commercial category: Michael Kai , This side up - Winner; Kellyann Denton, Hellfire Club - Finalist; Lim De Sheng, The Murder Series - Finalist.
4. 2008 Overall Winner: Michael Kai

Visual Acoustics

Visual acoustics: the modernism of Julius Schulman is a new DVD available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world's greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every major modern and progressive architect since 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Frank Gehry. His images epitomised the singular beauty of Southern California's modernist movement and brough its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images." -- back cover

Voices in the Dark

Voices in the Dark is a new DVD of a television program broadcast on ABC2. It is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

"Voices in the Dark documents Christina Henri's epic project Roses from the Heart, involving the creation of 25,566 embroidered bonnets, one for every convict woman transported to Australia from Great Britain in the 1800s. Henri's project asks us to consider the true legacy female convicts, sentenced for crimes of poverty and condemned by society as whores and witches, have made to the societies we live in today." -- back cover

Click!

Click! : a short history of cameras is a new DVD that is now available for loan from the Learning Centre.

This three-part documentary looks at the progress in camera technology, from large and medium formats through to 35 mm, Polaroid and digital cameras. Also featured are examples of still shots from some of the best known photographers from each period - Joseph Breitenbach, Nadar, William Henry Fox Talbot, Jacques Henri Lartigue and Adeline Keil.

The documentary also looks at the trends in the use of photography from its first use for portraits of the wealthy and famous, its use by artists in the study of movement, and on to its increasing democratisation through ease of use and accessibility.

Episode 2:
In this second episode of a three-part documentary, we look at the progress in camera technology with the introduction of the small format, the 24x36, invented in the 1920s but really commercialised in the 1950s. These descriptions are combined with examples of still shots from some of the best known photographers from the 1920s through to today, such as Joseph Breitenbach, Robert Capa, Frank Horvat, Oliviero Toscani and Sabine Weiss.

The documentary exposes a new approach of those photographers as they have been trying to come closer to reality, greatly helped by the lightness of the small 24x36 camera and the use of telephoto and wide-angle lenses that can easily be fitted to it.

Episode 3:
This episode looks at the progress in camera technology with the introduction of Polaroid, disposable and today's digital cameras. We see examples of still shots from some of the best known photographers, such as Joseph Breitenbach, Frank Horvat, Oliviero Toscani, Sarah Moon, Sabine Weiss, Noel Quidu and artist Andy Warhol.

The documentary explores a new practical approach to photography through more popular, simpler devices, with no major technical requirement but the desire to use a camera with one thing only in mind, to get an image immediately, with the guarantee of a predictable result.