Most multimedia packages deliver loads of pre-digested information you could easily find elsewhere. Not so this latest title, the first volume in a projected series of "Journeys through Art" from independent developer Eden Interactive. An art groupie's wildest fantasy come true, it's based on the Neuberger collection in Purchase, New York, surely one of the most important holdings of modern American art.
American Visions: drop-dead gorgeous renditions.
With 250 works by 140 different artists, hundreds of commentaries, and a score of QuickTime video clips enlivened by personal reminiscences from collector Roy Neuberger himself, the disc is refreshingly free of busy hierarchical menus and overly elaborate navigational modes. Graphical icons and busy backgrounds that would detract from the work are kept to a minimum - labels, for instance, are there if you want them, but you have to call them up.
All of which wouldn't count for much if reproduction quality were less than superb. Purists may bicker about whether a light-bearing electronic image can do justice to an original work of art, but the renditions here are indisputably drop-dead gorgeous. Apparently the first to take advantage of Kodak professional photo CD technology for scanning the art itself, the disc lets the glory of these thrilling works of art shine through. Macintosh CD-ROM versions are now available for 8- and 24-bit systems.
American Visions: 20th Century Art From the Roy Neuberger Collection, US$99.99.
Eden Interactive: (800) 743 3360, +1 (415) 241 1450.
STREET CRED
New Guide to Techno-PatoisExploring Peter Gabriel's Secret World
Newton: Great Interface; AI in Your Face
American Artists on Disc
Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing
