Project Charter: Enjoyment of Life

Project Name: Enjoyment of Life: A Look at Culture through Les Maîtres de l’Affiche

(title taken from “joie de vivre”)

Project Owner: Brittany Russell

Project Summary:

            My project will be an interactive analysis of twelve lithographs from Les Maîtres des l’Affiche poster collection using the collection we have in special collections. Each lithograph’s page will have a brief description of the poster and what it was for, a translation of it (if necessary) into English, any history or relevant information to the poster like influences and reference images, and notes about the artist. I would also like to put where the lithographs came from on a map and maybe put some of the information described above on a map instead. My audience will be art historians and people interested in the Belle Époque, but I want it to be more approachable and interesting to the general public as well. If it’s out there on the internet where anyone can access it, it is better to have it be easily understandable.

Deliverables:

• Twelve lithographs from Special Collections
• Secondary sources
• StoryMapJS
• WordPress or Scalar

Timeline:

• Week 2:
  • Visit lithographs in special collections
    • Note questions
    • Note observations about the pieces
  • Gather sources
• Week 3:
  • Research- Gres Emile Muller poster
    • Try to at least finish one lithograph
    • Finish meaning
      • Notations- culture, color, translations, meaning etc.
      • History
      • Artist bio
    • Week 4:
      • Research- Barcelona poster
    • Week 5:
      • Research- Gigolette poster
        • Try to have completed three lithographs by now
      • Week 6:
        • Research- Incandescenza
          • Can you sneak in another lithograph here? We’ll find out!
        • Week 7:
          • Cut research
          • Site building
        • Week 8:
          • Cleanup/editing
          • Site building
        • Week 9:
          • Cleanup/editing
          • Site building
        • Week 10:
          • Touch ups
          • Final Presentation

End of Life/Future Plans:

I would like to possibly continue this project and finish the lithograph collection at the very least. These are incredibly beautiful pieces, and from what I’ve read they’re little researched and not very talked about. Some of the sources about posters I’ve grabbed have only offhandedly mentioned Les Maitres de l’Affiche and did not actually provide any elaboration on them. Once the collection is finished I might expand it to other pieces, but since they’re their own collection I might just cut it there and tweak it in the future