Description: [caption id="attachment_7367" align="aligncenter" width="417" caption="Slide from Mike Edson, the Smithsonian's head of Web and New Media Strategy, Slideshare presentation on the Smithsonian Commons."][/caption] Just recently, the Smithsonian released a prototype of the Smithsonian Commons—a new part of the digital plan at the Smithsonian that aims to stimulate “learning,
Description: Computer science researchers at the University of Washington and Cornell University have announced a new system of powerful graphics algorithms that will create three-dimensional renderings of buildings, neighborhoods, and potentially even entire cities. Fittingly the inventors went for the gold and named the system PhotoCity. Like its precursor, Microsoft’s Photosynth, the
Description: Amy Ballard is a senior historic preservation specialist emerita with the Smithsonian’s Architectural History and Historic Preservation Office, where she worked between 1985 until her retirement in 2016. She was promoted to senior historic preservation specialist in 2010. Ballard has contributed to plans for new buildings, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the
Description: Though photographs are accepted as subjective but ultimately faithful visual reproductions of reality, in many instances they don’t correspond to our experience. Pupils don’t regularly glint red, and people don’t transform into the streaked, evanescent smears we so often witness in photos. Yet we have no trouble accepting these inconsistencies, knowing that taking a picture of
Description: For a period of time in the early 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building played host to an experimental exhibition gallery space.