Brainstorming

[lollardfish]

I'm building a new website for the Dept. of History (and American Studies) at Dominican.

I need /one/ image for the front page.

What should it be?

Comments

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Something with both old and new in it. An Anasazi site with modern tourists?

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Do I "know" you through NeoG or through the Dreamcafe folks? Or are you the rare internet creature who covers both worlds of mine?

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I originally friended you because NeoG said I should. The rest of them are acquaintances of recent vintage. K and I were talking about LJ acquaintances this weekend and I had a moment of epiphany (she said, "One of my friends is a PhD of relatively recent vintage--" and I said "OH! Lollardfish!!"). I met Steve at a con a couple of years back, but I can't say I knew him, and I only met the other 2 this weekend.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Right! I saw you and them pop up on each other's ljs and I got confused. I miss the days of Dreamcafe 1.0. Sort of.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Steve drove us past the house. I'd like to live in one like that someday.

The term "Interweb" is becoming more and more apt as my online life goes on.

clio?

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of images of clio, the muse, in different period styles. Trick would be to find one that isn't already the image of a history dept's webpage!

Re: clio?

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Right. I've been looking at those. I like Clio and the poetry muse inspiring Vergil, I must say.

or...

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

You could use my Perry the pear! Or Fighty.

Re: or...

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

FIGHTY! That's it!

Re: or...

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

The Dominican University Fightin' Historians!

Re: or...

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

A lot better than the "Dominican Stars." I'd rather we were the Blastin' Blackfriars! Or the Kooky Clerics! Or something.

Re: or...

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

ya work on that in your spare time,....getting them to change the name.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Dry dusty old books with illegible but boring titles on the spines!

K. [*joke*]

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

But something along those lines is the way to go. I was trying to think of a seminal historical moment, but an image that isn't tied to a moment is much better. Books? Maps? What else?

B

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Sailing ships; 18th century version roughly. Because those were the highest expression of the technology, and most people couldn't tell them from 15th century models, and they changed *everything*.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Are you looking for a background image over which text will go, or something separate? An old map would be nice background, maybe with the opacity rolled down a bit so it doesn't interfere with reading the text.

I love me my maps!

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

I was also thinking about some kind of engraving of a scholar at a book wheel, or maybe an emblem from an emblem book. There's one, from Geffrey Whitney's _Choice of Emblems_, about how time changes everything, that has a baby and an old man as icons of time's transformations.

http://www.mun.ca/alciato/whit/w167.html

These have the drawback of being black and white, so you'd have to have a colorful design around them.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Interesting. That makes me think of images of the evangelists at their desks, writing. Which might please the Catholic folks here.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I like that image and the general concept of images of Time. Currently, I've slapped this image on the proto-site:

[regularpapi.livejournal.com]

That's a great image. I wonder if clio isn't too marginal though--might be ideal for a classics dept. or a western civ class page? Will your faculty care about the implications of the selection? It is very western civ and not entirely history, so if people are inclined to quibble it is quibbble-able.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I don't think people are likely to be too quibble-esque unless I ask them to vet it. If I just put the site up, they'll be happy we have a website.

I'm going to look at Time images for awhile though and see what I can find.