(LOS ANGELES) -- As star athletes from around the world gather in Atlanta to compete for the Olympic Gold, over 120 extraordinary works of art have travelled to Atlanta's High Museum of Art from public and private collections in every principal region of the globe. The occasion is RINGS: Five Passions in World Art, a centerpiece of the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival. Art lovers everywhere will be able to experience the ground-breaking exhibition in a CD-ROM of the same title which was released simultaneously with the exhibition that opened on July 4, 1996, from award-winning interactive publisher, Calliope®.
In exploring the power of art to evoke the five universal human emotions of love, anguish, awe, triumph and joy, RINGS celebrates the 100th anniversary and the spirit of the Modern Olympic Games. The interactive CD-ROM features over one hundred paintings, sculptures, and masks from the art exhibition together with original audio, video, and text materials. The art in the CD-ROM is organized in five rings, each representing one of the five emotions.
"Users of the CD-ROM will find their experience of viewing these important art treasures together enhanced by the audio component, which incorporates music that also spans cultures and epochs," says Calliope CEO Jay Heifetz. "We are pleased to be able to broaden J. Carter Brown's brilliant RINGS exhibition into CD-ROM form."
The CD-ROM's highlights include over 200 moving selections of ethnic and classical music; poetry readings from esteemed authors; global maps showing where the artists or the pieces of art originated; and zooming capabilities for detailed viewing. In addition, within each of the five rings are common links called "Passion Plays" that give a reflective audio-visual presentation of each emotion in its many forms. For example, the Love Ring contains subgroups of works that represents romantic love such as Auguste Rodin's "The Kiss" and parental love such as Mary Cassatt's "Mother and Child."
J. Carter Brown, RINGS exhibition director and director emeritus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., plays a major role in the CD-ROM by providing video and audio introductions and commentary for each work of art. Design and digital production of the CD-ROM was guided by New York-based interactive artists Jim Gasperini and Tennessee Rice Dixon.
The RINGS: Five Passions in World Art CD-ROM is available for purchase at Atlanta's High Museum of Art and at retail locations worldwide. It also can be ordered directly by calling (800) 617-2541 in the US, or by ordering directly off this site outside the US. The CD-ROM is available for Windows(TM) and Macintosh. Suggested retail is $49.95. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad anticipates up to half a million visitors to the RINGS exhibition from July 4 through September 29, 1996.
For information about the exhibition, call 404-733-4400.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., Calliope Media is an independently held company co-founded by Heifetz and multimedia author Robert Winter in 1994. The company publishes and distributes interactive multimedia products that feature originally authored programs in the arts, entertainment, and humanities. Calliope's products focus on combining intellectually stimulating content with entertaining interactive design. Published titles include Robert Winter's Crazy for Ragtime, and the 1996 MILIA d'Or Grand Prix winner, ScruTiny in the Great Round.
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CONTACT:
Jay Heifetz
Calliope Media
(310) 277-5079
