Verb,
noun, or adjective,
"art" has been a keyword on Planet Earth for a very long
time.
It's big on the World Wide Web as well.
In the mere decade
or so since the WWW became accessible
to the general public, an amazing amount of effort and intelligence
has been dedicated to developing web sites about art... and
web sites that are art.
Already, scores of art-related portals and megasites, image libraries,
e-zines, digital museums, and .com masterworks have become "virtually
famous."
They are maintained by all kinds of dedicated people: professors
and graduate students, hobbyists and experts, authorities and pranksters,
artists and critics ... the web brings them to you and you to them.
Our
ARTLINKS
page is designed to enhance
this meeting of minds, and it works equally well as tool or toy.
You may use it to surf, beach comb, or dive deeply.
Bon Voyage!
Animated
mandala gif courtesy
Chris Waterstone, UK
Subject Directories and URLs
ARTLINKS
is basically
a large "favorites" collection
that has been condensed into a page-sized graphic. This means it is
a loosely categorized and cross-referenced collection of URLs,
which are specific web page addresses or "locations."
URL (pronounced "you are el") is an acronym for "Universal
Resource Locator."
A url is like the address on an envelop which tells the Postal Service
how to deliver a letter to your mailbox, referring to web sites and
web pages as "resources" with virtual "locations"
on the net.
ARTLINKS references hundreds
of hand-picked urls which are linked to world wide web sites, "web
rings," and web pages.
These urls were initially gathered one at a time by human beings who
spent hours upon hours
browsing and surfing the art-related links and resources on the
web.
We "net newbies" owe a debt of gratitude to those "human
spyders" and "web monkeys" who've been harvesting urls
and weaving links since the creation of the www: most of our "favorites"
come from their collections.
Note:
Collecting resource links for our ARTLINKS page initially began at
The
Incredible Art Department. This venerable site was created by
Ken Rohrer in 1995 and is currently managed by Judy Decker, a tireless
content developer, "link curator," lesson-plan archivist,
and artist/ instructor.
The award-winning IAD is dedicated to serving art educators, and it's
one of the oldest (and best) "art.edu" sites on the web.
Our ARTLINKS surfing expeditions use the IAD as "home port,"
and art educators from around the country literally network there
for lesson plans, well-chosen links, peer support, and inspiration.
That's one of the fun things about browsing
the web: hopping from one site to the next by way of the links provided
on a previous site is a a very social journey: an afternoon
of surfing can affirm a communion of interests, values, and creativity.
A web site created by this kind
of curatorial, "hands-on" approach is called a
Subject Directory. Edited web sites which categorize other sites
by general to specific subjects are also called Subject
Guides, Gateways,
or "Vortals."
Those who assemble these directories act as "content editors,"
surf coaches, URL curators, and virtual tour directors.
The personal touch of a human individual or research team is different
from the "Boolian" feel of most search
engines, because the judgment, personalities, and expertise of
people creating directories "by hand" has great value in
itself.
By referring you to specific pages within specific sites,
subject directories are also able to save you a great deal of time
and effort as you browse,
search,
and click
your way through layers of links, piles of portals, and buckets of
URLs.
Maintaining
Links
Referring
you to
subject directories
and page-specific URLs has two benefits: speed and subject-specific
clarity.
Because they've
been there too, directory editors have a good idea of the
paths you might want to travel.
However, the more specific a web location or link, the more precise
a path, the more lengthy a web address ... the more likely it is to
change, because most web workers routinely tweak and refine their
sites as a matters of necessity and good housekeeping.
This process often shuffles web page locations, altering links and
paths. And sometimes sites and "domain names" change ownership.
This makes it necessary to understand the hierarchical
nature of the URL web address, and to frequently inspect, maintain,
and repair "broken" links and URLs.
A broken or outdated link
can often be relocated
by simply shortening a URL's name in your web browser until you can
find the new link to your older favorite.
This works because as web addresses move from left to right (from
http://www. to
.html), the "locations"
the URL identifies move from general to specific.
That is, they move from the web site's "top level" location,
or www. domain name - (http://.hw.com)
- to the folder, sub category, or "lower level" in which
a page is located:
(http://hw.com/academics/msvisualarts/D_Using%20ARTLINKS.htm.).
Deleting successive parts of
the URL after the domain name, (then hitting the
Return key to start a new browser
search), will often take you to the level above the link that
needs to be re-established.
From there, you will need to intuitively search out the new location
of the link as if for the first time.
For
instance, if
you were to lose the link to this page location:
http://hw.com/academics/msvisualarts/D_Using%20ARTLINKSv2.htm
you might try searching at this address first:
http://hw.com/academics/msvisualarts
If you couldn't even find the MS Visual Arts page,
you would want to try this next:
http://www.hw.com/academics
Finally, you would arrive at the domain name, which usually takes
you to the web site's home (or index) page:
http://hw.com
If this "hands on" approach
doesn't yield the page you're looking for, it's probably time to enlist
the specific services of an appropriate search
engine.
Using the Search Tools
Search
engines are
essential for serious
research on the web, and they are not all alike.
Knowing how and when to use particular search
engines is both a skill
and science.
Technology and Skills 7 students learn
search engine skills here
at HW, and the Library and Technology
Department posts links to several search engines on the web.
The "Lamp of Learning"
search button will take you to
this posting.
You will also find this button on the ARTLINKS
page, below the jump menu column.
A Collective Effort
The ARTLINKS page is
a resource for diverse people, purposes, and occasions. Visual Arts
teachers will be posting their favorites in the Disciplines section,
while art historians may notice how well the web represents their
field of study.
There are links to kid's sites which your younger sibling may enjoy,
links for middle and upper school students, parents and educators,
and links to sites which are no doubt of interest to university scholars
scientists, psychologists, and anthropologists. (They've designed
many of these themselves).
And it would be great
to hear what art-related topics are of interest to you!
If you find a link
that seems like it should be included on the ARTLINKS
page, please consider doing this:
1.
From your browser or favorites folder, COPY
the URL you feel should be included in
one (or more) of our categories.
2. OPEN
an e-mail addressed to alaugel@hw.com
by clicking on either of these buttons
:
3. Then, PASTE
the URL into the e-mail document.
4. TYPE a sentence or two suggesting what categories we should put
the URL into. (For categories, see ARTLINKS
jump menu column).
5. SIGN and SEND.
This would be much appreciated by yours truly, Andrew
LauGel,
"content developer" for the HWMS
Visual Arts Department.
Your
Feedback Counts
Maintaining a web presence
on a part-time basis means that routine "inspections and repairs"
cannot be done as often as we'd like.
And because the web is constantly changing, links often become outdated
or lost. We will most definitely appreciate hearing from you
when you discover a missing link or URL
addressing error.
Of course, we'd also
love to know
how the Artlinks page works for you, how we might improve it, and
whether you feel the URLs we provide represent a particular subject
fairly and adequately.
Your comments are
welcome because they will help us keep these pages user-friendly.
