Monday, March 30, 2015

Digital Music, Digital Sound and Multimedia

Untitled, Intaglio etching, 18" x 24", Marjorie Thompson Copyright 1976










The Chicago area has always had a vibrant music scene. As I researching information about The Cellar, a teen club in my home town Arlington Heights for this blog, I found this video "How Chicago Rocked The 60's" created for a WTTW show, Chicago Stories:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3p-lqKYu2g It details information about the Chicago music business and shows what a pivotal role live music events played in establishing bands. The paper "Music in the Digital Age" discusses some elements of the marketing and distribution of music before and after digital music. (Sen, 2010) This video is an interesting supplement to it.

If you've never heard of The Cellar, here's a link to a blog about when The Who played there
in 1967: http://www.undergroundbee.com/2010/11/30/when-the-who-came-to-town/(Loerzel,2010). Although I never went to shows there (too young), I have a an interesting association with it. When I was in junior high, a friend and myself decided that we wanted to put together a fashion show. We partnered with a local dress shop and modeled their Mod clothing line at The Cellar during a break between The Shadows of Knight and another band. This was before fashion and Rock and Roll were associated so I think we were trail blazers, especially for 7th graders.

In Urbana, Illinois where I went to college as an undergraduate at The University of Illinois, there were many music venues where bands played as a part of a larger college touring circuit. Legendary bands such as The Grateful Dead and The Elvis Costello Band played intimate concerts in bars which seated less than 100 people. As I would sit in the audience, I would think about how I could visually depict the experience of the live performance. This etching was inspired by the music of Miles Davis.

When MTV began in the early 1980's, the first music video shown was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the band The Buggles. Having taken film making in high school, I thought MTV would become an amazing innovative platform to showcase experimental films.

With MTV, videos were instantly associated with music. Although most of the films were not experimental, images and lyrics redefined each other as videos associated with songs went beyond concert footage. Although I do not know if these films were created with digital technology, they are part of a journey of how music and video became combined into a multimedia experience.

In this blog I would like to look at how multimedia innovations have affected digital music and digital sound as these areas have expanded into digital publishing, apps and other multimedia expressions, incorporating visual and interactive elements.

The best lyrics are poems as well as songs. When Rod Stewart created the music video for "Broken Arrow" in 1991, for me it explored visual imagery that went beyond the lyrics into an area of visual poetry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS5Hp-LFNe0 In this video, the atmospheric natural landscape is contrasted to the dystopian urban scene to depict two people struggling to find meaning in their lives and come together, despite the circumstances of their lives. The video for the REM song "Losing My Religion" is another example of visual poetry. They have taken the style of Caravaggio and updated it to a contemporary profound discussion about the tragedy of life and the human condition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwtdhWltSIg

In the paper, "Music in the Digital Age", discusses how digital capabilities are putting production back in the hands of the artists and musicians. "The merger of audio technologies with computing technologies converted music into an information product. Technological innovations changed how music and songs are bought and consumed today."(Sen, 2010) In the Time Magazine article "U2's New Mission" the article discusses U2's decision to release their album "Songs of Innocence" in partnership with Apple. In it, Bono talks about how he is interested in creating an interactive image and music platform that people can use on their computers as a way to create a product that people would buy. (Mayer/Cupertino, 2014)

This idea is similar to innovations in the digital publishing world. In an article for the Wall Street Journal called "Blowing Up The Book" writer Alexandra Alter discusses a digital book "Chopsticks" which is a book as well as an app. The book allows readers to read instant messages, listen to the protagonist's favorite songs, and gives readers the opportunity to rearrange the pages to create a customized version of the story. (Alter, 2012)

I thought digitally enhanced version of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land mentioned in the article sounded really interesting. The author mentioned the app has a facsimile of the original manuscript (with edits by Ezra Pound) as well as 1933 and 1947 recordings of Eliot reading.(Alter, 2012) The prospect of T.S. Eliot reading The Waste Land is enough to interest me to find out what it is like.

On Touchpress Limited Website, there is an interesting assemblage of reviews, interviews with the publisher about why they decided to create an app for The Waste Land. Although I only viewed the introductory video on the Touchpress website, the percussion in the background as T. S. Eliot reads very dramatically accentuates Elliot's voice. The poetic images are further enhanced by the videos of detached crowds walking on city streets.
http://thewasteland.touchpress.com/(Touchpress) One drawback of a visual presentation is that it might interpret the images in the poem differently than the reader imagines. I imagined the poem taking place in a more surreal landscape. The background percussion creates a Beat Poet atmosphere and the crowds are from a more contemporary time than the time period of WWI. Which seems to be the goal of the the creators of the app.

There are several links to other apps such as an app for Seamus Heaney's translation of five fables written by Robert Henryson, a 15th century Scottish poet: http://fivefablesapp.co. Hearing the poems read in the original Middle Scots language of the 1500's is fascinating. The original language is very rhythmic and lyrical. As text, these poems are somewhat inaccessible to most people not familiar with this ancient language. Being able hear the text read and view the original language with the English translation next to it really brings the language from the 1500's to life.(Touchpress)

The app for Shakespeare's Sonnets http://shakespeares-sonnets.touchpress.com/ immerses one in Shakespeare's language in a new way. Stephen Fry's masterful reading of Sonnet 130 gives insight into Shakespeare's original intent. His expressive interpretation gives voice to Shakespeare's beautifully crafted language. Rather than the sonnet being an archaic version of dead English, Fry's reading reveals Shakespeare's emotional soliloquy confessing his innermost thoughts to the reader. Many people might have difficulty understanding the sonnets and hearing them read gives them a timeless voice. (Touchpress)

Touchpress is a pretty interesting company. They have created apps for many different subjects from the Atlas to Vivaldi. I really liked their approach to classical music which they characterize as "Classical music reimagined" In 2014, they received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Creative Communication.They show the score which they call a Beatmap as the music plays and you can listen to interviews of musicians and scholars discuss the pieces.  In the app for the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, one is given the opportunity to view the score as the music plays, hear interviews with experts and musicians, listen to one instrument isolated from the entire orchestra, watch videos of musicians playing the masterpiece and learn more about the piece. (Touchpress)

These apps give the user a window into the creative process of music creation. The Beatmap provides the opportunity to view the musical score as the music plays. For anyone who loves music, one can see how different instruments contribute to the sound of the piece, which is further enhanced by being able to hear one instrument at the push of a button. By understanding how the music is made, one appreciates it to a greater degree. In that sense, they provide an expanded version of a live music event. Perhaps music will be released as new concepts such as apps like these which will create products that people will want to buy.

References

Alter, A., 2012, "Blowing Up The Book", Wall Street Journal Book Section, Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2012. retrieved from 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204468004577169001135659954

Loerzel, R, 2010. "When The Who came to Town" blog post, Underground Bee, November 30, 2010
retrieved from:http://www.undergroundbee.com/2010/11/30/when-the-who-came-to-town/

R.E.M, 2006, "Losing My Religion"(video),  YouTube, July 1 2011 

Sen, A., 2010, "Music in the Digital Age: Musicians and Fans Around the World Come Together on "The Net", Global Media Journal:American Edition, vol. 9, issue 16, pages 1-25.

Stewart, R., 1991, "Broken Arrow"(video), Deluxe Music, YouTube July 23, 2012.

The Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star", YouTube retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8h5OEivJdA&list=RDW8h5OEivJdA#t=0

Touchpress Limited Web Site retrieved from http://www.touchpress.com/




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Saturday, March 21, 2015

New Tools and Technology

I had been trying out several software programs to create a storyboard. My idea of how storyboard software should perform is there should be a function where one can upload an image and then one should be able to add text. That's it. 

When I initially looked over Celtx, and used it for creating a script, I thought Celtx would be useful in creating a storyboard as well. I thought that Celtx was a little difficult to use. At this link you can find a preliminary draft of my script which I did not think worked that well: 


Looking over the other functions of Celtx, I decided that I really did not need the scheduling function which Celtx has and from what I could tell about the storyboard function, I thought that it was difficult to use as I was having a hard time uploading my images. I decided that I would look for a different software program to create the storyboard.

I decided to try Digital Story, the Google Docs version of storyboard. At first it seemed ok. However, once I added more than a handful of images, it became very difficult to control. I don't know whether it was because I missed the memo, but I was only able to upload 9 images before the formatting became very erratic. As I tried to add more images, the formatting became very hard to control. If I tried to move images around, I ended up with large empty spaces which I could not eliminate by adjusting the images or margins. I was unable to add more than 3 pages of images with 3 images per page. I could not add images to areas regardless of how many times I clicked on an area or refreshed the page. You can see my efforts here:


After struggling with Google storyboard for more than a week, I decided that would not be able to come up with a document that I could use. I thought about using a different version of a Google Docs Storyboard template. There are several versions which offer different characteristics. Here is a link to a page with different Google Storyboard templates. I believe you will have to log into Google to view it:


The version which has cells that you can upload images into and each cell is a second of footage might be more useful and function better for my purposes, even though my images will be on screen for about 10 seconds.  However, after having so many problems with adding more than a few images to the template, I am reluctant to try it. 

I also thought about the option of drawing a storyboard. The problem with drawing a storyboard is that drawing does not give one much room for revising the storyboard as the concept for the video develops. You have to know the sequencing of the film which I am not sure about right now. I finally decided I would just use PowerPoint to create my storyboard.

PowerPoint allows for a great deal of flexibility. I really like the blank slide design without formatting. PowerPoint allows for uploading images, adding a text box, copying and pasting text from other sites on the web, and rearranging the slides as the video content is revised. Once the presentation is created, transition animation can be added and I intend on using the page turning transitions to give it the sense of a sketchbook.

Well, after I wrote the preceding text,  I went back to Celtx.The storyboard function is easier to use than I thought . Here's a link to the storyboard in process that I tried out with a few images: 


Since I have already created a good part of the storyboard in PowerPoint, I guess I'll stick with it. I think PowerPoint will give me the option of more space for text. Otherwise there is a great deal of similarity between the two in the way you can play the video after they are added as single images.

References

Celtx website retrieved from

Google Storyboard templates, Google Docs webpage retrieved from 


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Monday, March 16, 2015

Mid-term reflection and project progress report

When I first began this project, I was really unsure about what I would be able to do. The subject Alexander von Humboldt is a fairly complicated person and scientist. As a person who comes from an art background, I was interested in him due to his skills in drawing
Alexander von Humboldt, Self Portrait in Paris 1814 at age 45
and his influence in the areas of archaeology as well as his influence on painters like Frederic Church. The fact that he was able to travel and create an enormous number of drawings like the sketches that this etching was made from: He writes: "In the month of September, 1801, we passed these natural bridges of Icononzo, on our journey from Santa Fé de Bogota to Popayan and Quito." (Humboldt, 1814)
Ponts natural d'Icononzo, (Humboldt, 1814)

His other skills included taking scientific measurements and collect samples of plants before there were cameras, air travel, the automobile or any other modern conveniences elevates his achievements even higher. The lush landscapes created by landscape artists in the 19th century have a jungle atmosphere and I was never able to understand where that influence actually came from until now.

In a blog for the Schiller Institute describing the birth of the Hudson River School of Painting,
http://schillerinstitute.org/educ/hist/eiw_this_week/2014/oct26_1825-hudson_river_school.html

Stephen Carr describes the influence that Humboldt had on Frederic Church. Frederic Church traced many of the routes Humboldt took. This excerpt of Humboldt's excursion from his 1814 book on his researches must have inspired Church:

 "In scaling the volcano of Cotopaxi, it is extremely difficult to attain the inferior houndary        of the perpetual snows, as we experienced in an excursion we made in the month May, in the year 1802. The cone is surrounded by deep crevices, which at the moment of the eruptions bear down scorae, pumice stone, water, and blocks of ice, to Rio Napo, and Rio de los Alaques. After a nearer examination of the summit of Cotopaxi, we may venture to assert, that it would be impossible to reach the brink of the crater." (Humboldt,1814)

This painting of the volcano Cotopaxi by Church which Carr describes as depicting the climate of the United States during the Civil War which is referred to in the preceding passage and was drawn by Humboldt.(Carr, 2014)
Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi, oil on canvas, 1862 

However the scientific work that he did in his travels is rather complicated and the scientific influence that his work had is fairly complex and hard to depict in a limited time period. I am not really sure I understand some of the things he did and his discoveries. One runs the risk of not covering the work that he did sufficiently and representing his achievements in a diminutive fashion. 

I have been fairly frustrated that I do not have the time or budget to represent this subject in a way that I feel he should be represented. I find modern culture/entertainment extremely shallow and a film that accurately depicted his achievements could actually be very engaging.  

At this point, I am thinking that the film will be similar to the films created by Ken Burns. I intend to have drawings, etchings and other illustrations created or collected by Humboldt which were published in his books with a voice over. This was a drawing of an art work in the collection of an M. Dupe who was a captain in the "service of the catholic majesty." (Humboldt, 1814)
Aztec Priestess Buste d'une Priestesse Azteque, (Humboldt,1814)
This was created by a student of the Academy of Painting at Mexico and is in the book,  Researches concerning Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, Vol. l (Humboldt, 1814) I can totally identify with drawing individual art works as a part of creating an archaeological encyclopedia having spent quite a bit of time at the Field Museum in Chicago sketching masks and American Indian art work in the process of creating a sketchbook of inspirations for my art work. In his descriptions, he compares this sculpture to depictions of Isis:"Perhaps the fluted pads, which in the Mexican statue extend towards the shoulders, are masses of hair, like the tresses in a statue of Isis, of Greek workmanship, placed in the library of the Villa Ludovisi at Rome."(Humboldt, 1814) It is interesting to read his thoughts because Humboldt was originally going to go to Egypt and join Napoleon before he decided to go to South America. Humboldt drew many drawings as well such as this depiction of the Aztec calendar:
Aztec Calendar, Humboldt, 1814

However trying to describe his influence on scientific thought is more complicated and I am not sure that I can adequately cover this subject. It would be interesting to interview Aaron Sachs, the author of The Humboldt Current in this film. He is a professor of history at Cornell University but I really do not think I will have time to do that. (Sachs, 2006)

I think in the final analysis, this video will be a study. I have used Animoto to make a demo of images so that I can get an idea of the length of time the images take and how they progress. This has helped me to get an idea of what the resulting video will be like. I am planning on using some of these images in my film as well as when I create the story board which will be created by modifying the script and adding the appropriate image with the script.

   

My resulting video will be somewhat impaired by the fact that the laptop I had just bought to use in creating this video was stolen so I hope that I will be able to put together a video using the equipment I have right now.  The end result will be a product of the research that I am able to do and compile together. I do not think it will be a definitive study of Alexander von Humboldt. At this point I am enjoying reading his works and hope that the resulting video will describe some of his accomplishments adequately. I really hope that I will be able to add an audio which works with the visual images and that it will make sense.

References

Carr, S.  2014, "This Week in History October 26-November 1, 2014, The Hudson River School of Painting, Established in 1825" Blog Post, The Schiller Institute webpage, October 26, 2014.



Alexander von Humboldt self portrait retrieved from:

Humboldt, A, 1814, Researches concerning Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, Vol. l Translated into English by Helen Maria Williams  Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, J. Murray & H. Coburn, London 1814, Oliver's Bookshelf webpage, Oliver Cowdery.com


Sachs, A., 2006, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, Viking Adult, New York.

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Monday, March 9, 2015

Film, Video and Digital Cinema

The impact the digital technology has and will have on film, video and digital cinema is an area that I am sure will continue to evolve as the world continuously upgrades their computer technology. Although there are many aspects to digital cinema, I have decided to focus on one part of creating that is probably overlooked by most. The documentary "Digital Dark Age: Gambling with Human Kind's Knowledge" looks at some of the negative aspects of relying on computers to store knowledge and information:

http://digital.films.com.library.esc.edu/PortalViewVideo.aspx?xtid=33079

The directors point out that unlike books which have a storage capacity of decades if not centuries, the problem with computers is that if there is no computer to decode the data, the data will be useless. With the amount of computer upgrades that occur, data from a computer can quickly become obsolete. As an example, floppy disks are computer technology that is virtually obsolete. I have a few photographs on floppy disks and I am sure I will never be able to retrieve them. 

Another problem that this documentary points out which I found disconcerting is the vulnerability that CD's have to deterioration due to fungi . As they are plastic, I am sure that most people do not think that information on CD's could be compromised in as little as 15 years. 

While digital technology makes creating easier, at that same time there are some downsides to it. Many people feel that analog photography is better than digital photography. Having developed photographs in a darkroom, digital photography is certainly easier and it is great to see photographs as they are taken as opposed to waiting until they are developed. But knowing that one's photographs could be unintelligible simply because the computer equipment can't decipher the computer code or fungus ate the CD the photos are stored on makes me want to print out copies of all my work. 

I feel that this is a serious issue which most people do not consider when they use digital media. Most people find that convenience and ease of creating work to be their primary focus without really thinking about long term accessibility and storage. 

In the paper, "New-media art and the renewal of the cinematic imaginary", Jeffrey Shaw discusses how digital media has opened up media creation to new possibilities both in the way that media is made as well as where it is viewed. No longer are directors constrained to showing films in movie theaters, digital technology allows the freedom to show work in many different venues including the internet: "The euphoric advent of the Internet and of related low- and high-bandwidth intercommunication technologies have already had enormous impact on the cinematic imaginary. All the unique qualities of this new medium, including its economy of individual production, its open distributed modalities of consumption, its ideological freedom and its idiosyncratic formal characteristics, has led to the proliferation of what is clearly now one of the major forces driving new cinematic configurations." (Shaw, 2012)

Unless people consider the problems of storage, their work in digital format will become obsolete. If one has to constantly reformat their work, I wonder if people will see this as a necessity or just decide that the work is not relevant because it belongs to a version of a computer that no longer exists. That would be sad. Even silent films that were made in the early 20th century are interesting to watch.

With that is mind, I have been following the work of some adventure sports film makers for about a year. I originally found out about Xavier De Le Rue, a multiple Olympic medal snowboarding champion when I came across a photo of his foot on Google. He had stepped on a sea urchin while on vacation in the Maldives and had many sea urchin spines in his foot. I researched how to get rid of the spines and messaged him on Facebook. Not sure if it helped but I started to follow his work.

He has a film production company, Timeline Missions: http://www.timelinemissions.com/ Digital film has really opened up the opportunity for recording video footage which was not possible before. His films are pretty spectacular. And terrifying. The opposite of CG and the green screen:

http://www.timelinemissions.com/work/

White Noise is very interesting personal film.He also designed a drone with engineers in California which films athletes in action so it captures video of action which is mind boggling. (Timeline Missions)

The film by French skier Candide Thovex is also a very interesting personal account:

http://quiksilver.com/blog/snow/20150313075647NEWS493640854532.html

Digital film has opened up a lot of possibilities. I just hope that the videos can be preserved.


References

Hissen, J, Moers, P., 2002," Digital dark age? Gambling with humankind's knowledge" [Video file]. In Films On Demand. 

Shaw, J., 2012, "New-media art and the renewal of the cinematic imaginary", Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research Volume 10 Numbers 2 & 3.

Thovex, C., "Few Words" posted on Snow blog, Quiksilver.com retrieved from

http://quiksilver.com/blog/snow/20150313075647NEWS493640854532.html

Timeline Missions website, retrieved from http://www.timelinemissions.com/



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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Writing a script

Putting together a script for a short video should be somewhat easy but it is more complicated than I had expected it to be. The idea for this video came from my mother who has wanted to create a website for Alexander von Humboldt for a number of years. I started to create the website and as I was researching information for the website, I learned more about von Humboldt. The fact that Alexander von Humboldt is fairly unknown and at the same time a pretty interesting person was a reason that I thought he would be a good subject for a short video. I found this video "Who is Alexander von Humboldt" by George Mehler on line: 

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/who-is-alexander-von-humboldt-george-mehler

Although I could create a narrative about his accomplishments, as I was reading his journals at the digital library at the University of Kansas http://www.avhumboldt.net/index.php?page=138
and looking at the etchings and lithographs created from his sketches, it occurred to me that the aesthetics of these works along with his prose are some of the reasons why he is such a compelling personality. 
Andes Passage, Alexander von Humboldt
Von Humboldt traveled over vast distances with Bonpland, taking scientific measurements, analyzing rocks, plants, drawing landscapes and Inca ruins. In order to visualize this film, I have put images created by him along with other artists from the period into an Animoto presentation.


In the 18th and 19th century, there were archaeological discoveries in many countries and the use of drawing to describe the sites along with the artifacts found there creates an aesthetic which adds to the appreciation of the accomplishments of these ancient civilizations. A simple cartoon does not convey the same idea of what these cultures were and what von Humboldt and his partner, Bonpland did. Archaeologists use the same type of drawing today along with photographs to document archaeological sites. A film similar to "Master and Commander of the World" would convey the vision that I have for this subject. Unfortunately, I don't have the budget or time to do that right now. Perhaps the next project...

I have started to read books like The Humboldt Current by Aaron Sachs, a professor of history at Cornell University. Here is a New York Times review of this book:


There are many online websites which discuss the influence von Humboldt had on 19th century artists such as this one by William S. Talbot at the Butler Institute of American Art which discusses the way his work influenced the artist Frederic Church, a Hudson River School artist. 


The Americas Society had an exhibition about Humboldt's ideas in 2014 called The Unity of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt:


The webpage by Frank Baron, From Alexander von Humboldt to Frederic Edwin Church at the Humboldt Digital Library comparing etchings made from von Humboldt's sketches to paintings by Church is also an interesting resource:

http://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin10/inh_baron_3.htm

My script will be revised as I organize the images and synthesize the material. This is a preliminary draft.

Script:

Opening
Introduction
Images of Alexander von Humboldt

Narrator
The name humboldt reverberates through the United States. Schools, parks, streets carry this name...statues are erected to celebrate him....Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote he was "one of those wonders of the world ... who appear from time to time, as if to show us the possibilities of the human mind."

Who was this man?
Images of major discoveries from the enlightenment

Born in 1769 during the enlightenment Alexander von Humboldt was interested in knowledge based on observation.

When he was 27, he received an inheritance and with it, began a journey which would change the world.

Between 1799 and 1804, von Humboldt traveled extensively in Mexico, Cuba and South America, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view.

View of ocean current

Von Humboldt
My chief view in tracing a sketch of the currents of the Atlantic is to prove, that the motion of the waters towards the south-east, from Cape St. Vincent to the Canary islands, is the effect of the general motion, which the surface of the Ocean feels at its western extremity. We shall give but a very succinct account of the arm of the Gulf-stream, which in the 45th and 50th degrees of latitude, near the bank of Bonnet-Flamand, runs from the south-west to the north-east towards the coasts of Europe.

Narrator
Alexander von Humboldt traced the currents of the oceans and found connections between the regions of the oceans

Image of a chart of the Humboldt Current

Von Humboldt

This partial current becomes very strong when the winds have continued to blow a long time from the west: and, like that which flows along the isles of Ferro and Gomera, deposits every year on the western coasts of Ireland and Norway the fruit of trees, which belong to the torrid zone of America. 

Animation of the 5 year voyage

Narrator
Scientist and artist, Alexander von Humboldt observed minute details about his environment and recorded these observations in his journals which he kept during a 5 year voyage from Spain to the canary Islands to cuba and south America. 

Von Humboldt
In reflecting on the causes of the currents, we find, that they are much more numerous than is generally believed; for the waters of the sea may be put in motion by an external impulse,by a difference in heat and saltiness, by the periodical melting of the polar ice, or by the inequality of the evaporation, which takes place in different latitudes. Sometimes several of these causes concur to the same effect, and sometimes they produce effects that are contrary. Winds [64] that are light, but which, like the trade winds, are continually acting on the whole of a zone, cause a real movement of transition, which we do not observe in the heaviest tempests, because these last are circumscribed within a small space

Narrator
With Aime Bonpland, he traveled from Cuba to South America. He charted the route of the river climbed several mountains where he took measurements of atmosphere, magnetism collected plants and identified rocks.

Humboldt
Latitudes which we have just indicated are traversed by the greater part of the vessels, which return to Europe from the West India islands, or the Cape of Good Hope. Beside the direction and swiftness of the currents, this expedition would serve to discover the temperature of the sea at its surface, the lines without variation, the dip of the needle, and the intensity of the magnetic forces.
Observations of this kind become extremely valuable, when the position of the place where they were made has been determined by astronomical means.

Images of botanical drawings, image of Humboldt drawing

Humboldt
on the shores of the Hebrides, we collect seeds of mimosa scandens, of dolichos urens, of guilandina bonduc, and several other plants of [61]Jamaica, the Isle of Cuba, and of the neighbour- continent*.

Narrator
Humboldt saw connections between plants and where they grew. From this insight, he originated the idea of bio geography. By seeing these connections he also saw that there was a way to connect streams of air uniting the continents.



His description of these journeys was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that South America and Africa were joined. His later work, Kosmos (1845), proposed the idea that there was a unifying force in nature which brought together many separate branches of scientific knowledge.

According to Aaron Sachs, professor of history at Cornell University, these theories of the unity of nature make Alexander von Humboldt the founder of the environmentalist movement in the United States. In his book, The Humboldt Current he writes about how Humboldt influenced explorers and environmentalists like John Muir.


References

Baron, F., From Alexander von Humboldt to Frederic Edwin Church: Voyages of Scientific and Artistic Creativity, Humboldt Digital Library.
retrieved from:
http://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin10/inh_baron_3.htm

Humboldt, A, Bonpland, A., 1818. Personal Narrative OF TRAVELS TO THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS OF THE NEW CONTINENT, DURING THE YEARS 1799-1804, LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,PATERNOSTER ROW, London, 1818, AMS PRESS, INC.NEW YORK, 1966
retrieved from:

Mehler, G. Who is Alexander von Humboldt, 
retrieved from:
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/who-is-alexander-von-humboldt-george-mehler

Millard, C. 2006 "Thinking Globally", Book Review of The Humboldt Current by Aaron Sachs, New York Times Review of Books, August 13, 2006
retrieved from:



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