Titian and Rubens: power, politics and style

“As for the computer images, they actually are a big deal. The Gardner’s DVD (Digital Video Disk) kiosk allows you to take any element of Europa and blow it up to full-screen size without sacrificing resolution. The Gardner staff have divided the painting into 20 “nuggets” (you can get a list by touching KEY): Europa, the bull (Zeus in disguise), the fish, the putti, the mountains, etc. — each with its own lucid accompanying text. 

The “black hole” area toward the lower left is the “Death” nugget; it tells how Titian died, in 1576, from the Plague. Don’t miss “Echoes,” which shows how Titian unifies the painting by repeating thematic elements: the angle of legs, the swirling of drapery, the preponderance of eyes. 

You could easily enjoy an hour at the kiosk, but even five minutes before going in to the show will have you poised to compare what Titian and Rubens have done.”

— Jeffrey Gantz, on the "Titian Kiosk" in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, “Europa Europa: Another Gardner Thunderbolt: Titian and Rubens,” The Boston Phoenix, Jan. 29-Feb.5, 1998

Titian Kiosk

• Silver Medal, New York Festivals International Multimedia Competition

• touch screen kiosk designed by Botticelli Interactive (Ellen Sebring, producer and script), for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1998

Star Festival documentary and the Star Network web series

Star Festival: A Return to Japan is an interactive cinéma vérité style documentary based on the real-life experiences of Shigeru Miyagawa, Professor of Linguistics at MIT, upon returning to his hometown of Hiratsuka, Japan after moving to the US as a child. The viewer finds a PDA on the street filled with “the professor’s” video recordings and notes and attempts to reconstruct his journey. In addition to language tools and cultural information, the documentary probes what it means to have multiple heritages. The project was adapted as a web series, Star Network, winning the Distinguished Award, Multimedia Grandprix 2000, Tokyo.

“The most powerful aspect of the Star Festival project is its infinite adaptability into school curricula . . . We can show our students many universally common themes throughout the program, such as family, self-identity, sense of belonging, and the timeless value of humanity."

— Yu-Lan Lin, Ed.D Senior Program Director, World Languages

“In an increasingly complex and diversifying world, it is through the understanding of the personal histories and cultures of other people that we come to recognize the common bond we all share and begin the work of building the global community of the future. ‘Star Festival’ does this with style and luminous humanity.”

— George Takei

• actor George Takei (known for his role as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek) performs the voice of the Professor

• Star Festival: A Return to Japan, interactive documentary, Best of Show, MacWorld Expo

• Star Network, web series, Distinguished Award, Multimedia Grandprix 2000, Tokyo

• produced by Botticelli Interactive, 1995 - 2000, for MIT, Professor Shigeru Miyagawa, lead investigator/executive producer

• curriculum for Star Festival first multimedia curriculum adopted systemwide by Boston Public Schools