Just soft-launched at an event in India, Theosianama<\/a> (launching March 2013) will be…<\/p>\n
“a dedicated [free] search-engine and education content provider for the Indian & Asian Arts, Culture and World Cinema.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“[Divided into the categories] antiquities, fine arts, books, cinema, craft, economic data, cultural events, print data and photography. […] The database includes information on Hindi films, sale and auction in the field of art over the last 25 years; photography from 1840s from architectural to print, calendar art, masks, rare novel covers, print making, advertisements, lobby cards, posters and lithographs. […] the first phase will focus primarily on Hindi and Bombay cinema [Bollywood] and the history of Modern Indian and contemporary fine arts, the second phase will deal with the architectural heritage of India. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The laudable aim is to provide a means of…<\/p>\n
“cutting through the politics of access to knowledge and education which has plagued India” [because in India as] “a country we are insensitive and disrespectful of the plethora of [historic] visual images. There’s a lack of respect for our history because of the fundamental ability to abuse history [for religious and political purposes], which has led to its distortion.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Theosianama seems to be part of a future MOOC, called the Osianama Learning Experience.<\/p>\n
Sadly the developers have wasted the mainstream media launch publicity generated by the Delhi launch event and press release, since going to the website<\/a> reveals nothing more than a bare PHP password box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just soft-launched at an event in India, Theosianama (launching March 2013) will be… “a dedicated [free] search-engine and education content …<\/p>\n