Newsletter of 2011, September.

Dear Friends,

If I don't write to you every month, it is because I prefer announcing the good news – the developments of the site – as they come. Despite my best efforts, I am not able to announce developments with the regularity of a metronome. As always, there are notices that have been updated, others translated. But this work is part of our daily routine.
What I call new developments, are the tools that help researchers and amateurs of surrealism; tools that help you better understand and learn about the collection of André Breton.

For example, each object conserved at the Pompidou Center, whether it be located within the Museum of Modern Art or in the Kandinsky Library, plus most of the manuscripts located in the Literary Library of Jacques Doucet are connected by a link to their descriptive notice. Each inventory number or library call number is indicated. 522 notices of the André Breton website are from this moment on linked to the institution which conserves the document or the work available to the public. All of these objects are now searchable by their auction lot number from the sale of 2003. Therefore, those of you who already have the printed catalogue or the DVD as a working tool, can now navigate the site using the lot numbers in order to locate the institution in order to find the real manuscript, review, scrapbook or to see the real painting or assemblage up close.

522, you say, is not much compared to the thousands of objects that exist within the collection. But it's a start. I will continue to complete the notices with the information that is provided to me with your help. These notices will continually be linked to the institution that holds the real object, and visa versa, which takes a bit more time.

Many of you do not know how to navigate the website. The ways to access information are multiple: by categories (they are organized on the margin to the left), by the tags (at the bottom of the home page), by the wall (to the right at the top of the home page), by author/ artist (left margin, and by alphabetic order – don't forget the importance of cited people and or contributors). The information is also regrouped by collection or series: therefore the manuscripts of André Breton, the box that contained the documents relative to Nadja or Sommeils. We can easily find them through an "advanced research". We can also search by the auction lot number by writing "LOT 000" or "LOT_0000" (with an underscore) under a "simple search".

These three functions took some time to establish, but the game was well worth its candle, wasn't it? I am counting on your help now the tools are set in place, in order to complete the notices which are missing information and in order to help foster discussions and research around this amazing collection. As I wrote to you in July, the wikis now allow you to send images to be posted and to sign your name on your comments and texts.

In hoping that more and more of you will use our website as a data base, we wish you happy reading, findings, and delight in the history of André Breton and Surrealism,

L'Association Atelier André Breton
& Christina Rudosky,
for this translation.

Newsletter of 2011, July.

 Dear Friends,

If I don't write to you every month, it is because I prefer announcing the good news – the developments of the site – as they come. Despite my best efforts, I am not able to announce developments with the regularity of a metronome. As always, there are notices that have been updated, others translated. But this work is part of our daily routine.

What I call new developments, are the tools that help researchers and amateurs of surrealism; tools that help you better understand and learn about the collection of André Breton.

Since yesterday, researchers and amateurs that wish to correct the typos or the errors on the site are now able to give their contact information on the wikis (only visible to me). They are now also able to sign their post. The publication online via the wiki will be recognized as a scientific contribution. It will be diffused on the network according to the creative commons license agreement.

We have chosen the following terms for the website: "This contract permits the remixing, arranging and adapting of your text for non-commercial purposes only, and in seeing that the texts which are produced from such must recognize you as the author and stay non-commercial, they are not protected under the same terms."

It could be an article that you have already published in a review that has been exhausted or that is difficult to find; the updating of an already existing notice; a spontaneous participation – just because you would like to share your knowledge of surrealism; etc.

As a publisher, I am giving you the necessary infrastructure to write, to translate and publish your work and findings online. As researchers, you are sharing your work with the site, using it as a research forum. With your text, you may now also add up to three images. The scientific committee will moderate your commentary and the historical-time reference of the public contribution will automatically appear on the wiki commentary. This information will show the progression and interest of the site as a mode of scientific dialogue.

Each notice of each object will thus amplify as the discussion grows. Thanks to you, we will grow from an auction catalogue into an encyclopedia of surrealism -an encyclopedia that will be available in French, English and Spanish– if you are numerous to translate the notices.

Once again, the Association Atelier André Breton offers you with this site, the ability to publish online, help you or your students with your work, and share it with the public.

You are also able to follow the developments of the site on Facebook, on the page of André Breton. I also encourage you to follow us on Twitter at: #collectionAndréBreton. You will discover in real time, all the information, developments and announcements we post online. Your participation on these media networks will also allow us to construct the framework for an upcoming online colloquium about the Introduction au Discours sur le peu de réalité, next spring 2012, directed by Milad Doueihi. Milad Doueihi used to work with J. H. Matthews and he is now a professor of digital culture at the University of Laval, in Québec. The authors of the best online papers will be invited to participate in our conference.

Here is a selection of thematic mailing lists to which you can subscribe in order to be kept informed of our latest publications in the relevant fields: