Digital Humanities Commons^™

A Treasure Hunt: The Interdisciplinary Challenge Of A Digital Humanities Hackathon, Marie Barras, Adélaïde Quenson, Adrien Jeanrenaud, Angela Allemand, Marina Berazategui, Levyn Bürki, Michel Capot, Simon Gabay, Vestin Hategekimana, Pauline Jacsont, Bokar Lamine N'Diaye, Elina Leblanc, Clara May, Anne-Laure Oberson, Margherita Parigini, Lara Pitteloud, Fassaleh Taal, Cédric Viaccoz

Artl@s Bulletin

Abstract: This article tells the story of an interdisciplinary hackathon emphasizing exploration, collaboration, and creative engagement with globalization-related cultural datasets. Participants worked in teams to produce research posters, which were then presented at the opening of the international conference Image Deluge & Globalization in Geneva. The article discusses three projects: one on 19th-century Spanish chapbooks using topic modeling and network analysis; another on leopard motifs in print imagery; and a third on olfactory heritage. The hackathon highlighted both the potential and the limitations of working with digital cultural data, offering insights into interdisciplinary methods.

Résumé: Cet article raconte un hackathon …

Présence Et Identité Des Collectionneurs Dans Les Biennales (1948-1965), Sophie Dolto, Anthony Chenevard

Artl@s Bulletin

Using exhibition catalogue data from the Artl@s database, this article seeks to define the typology of collectors/owners of works presented at nine international biennials, while quantifying their presence synchronously and transversally, in order to question the homogeneity of the cohort.

En s’appuyant sur les données de catalogues d’exposition issues de la base Artl@s, cet article cherche à définir la typologie des collectionneurs/propriétaires des oeuvres présentées dans neuf biennales internationales, tout en quantifiant leur présence de façon synchronique et transversale, afin d’interroger l’homogénéité de la cohorte observée.

The Computational Eye. Deconstructing Style In Digital Art History, Paul Guhennec, Ellen Charlesworth

Artl@s Bulletin

With the aim of grounding digital methods in the art historic tradition, this paper uses the discussions around style as a springboard to ask how digital art history can extend beyond providing quantitative confirmation of known trends to enrich our current understanding of visual cultures. Drawing from the examples throughout this issue, we explore how an analysis of computational ways of seeing—or the ‘computational eye’—can expose the underlying preoccupations and priorities of our own research.

Afin de mieux ancrer les méthodes numériques dans la tradition de l’histoire de l’art, cet article se sert des discussions récentes autour du concept de …

How Many Annunciations Are There? Using European Prints To Digitally Explore The Iconographic Style Of Eighteenth-Century Portuguese Azulejos, Rosário S. Carvalho

Artl@s Bulletin

The combination of a computational approach with the expertise of art historians in studying the similarities and differences between European prints and eighteenth-century Portuguese azulejos has led to the emergence of an “iconographic style,” which introduced two major modes of depicting the Annunciation during the period under analysis. The article aims to assess the impact of the circulation of European prints on Portuguese tile coverings to better understand how the images were circulated and to determine their influence in terms of form, style, decoration, iconography and working process on the definition and execution of different iconographic programmes.

En combinant approche …

Making Absences Present: The Process Of Visualizing Knowledge Production In Museum Records, Caitlin Glosser

Artl@s Bulletin

In this paper, I evaluate the development of data visualizations as an art historical approach. By visualizing data for Senufo-labeled objects in the Musée Africain de Lyon’s collection, I demonstrate how the museum’s knowledge infrastructure privileges European collectors over African makers. I use Tableau visualizations to decenter this narrative by making silences present in a more impactful manner than through text alone. The visualizations also reveal the complex role that one maker, Bèma Coulibaly, played in the life of the collection. The addition of the individual narrative to the data was necessary to bring a human element into view.

Nous …

Mediatization Of The Early Automobile: A Visual Analysis Of The Illustrated Press In The Late 19th And Early 20th Century, Nicola Carboni

Artl@s Bulletin

The paper presents a digital analysis of automobile imagery in the early 20th-century press, examining the mediatization of the anti-car movement and the role images played in conveying and furthering the activist discourse. To investigate the phenomenon, the author compiled and analyzed over 5,000 images from in 185 journals published in 45 cities between 1891 and 1950. The analysis revealed a preponderance of positive representations of the automobile in the press, whilst evidence of negative sentiment towards the automobile, such as protests and accidents, was conspicuously absent, with the exception of satirical publications.

“Putting The Arts In Their Place”: A Case For Map-Making In Art History, Marco Jalla

Artl@s Bulletin

The use of cartography in art history is less than common. Because of its link to the old artistic geography (Kunstgeographie) once used to defend nationalist issues in Nazi Germany, it fell into disfavor until the 1960s and 1970s, when maps regained some attention from a new generation of art historians. Mapping arts indeed proves to be very useful to visualize and organize large dataset and to formulate new hypotheses, both as a descriptive and a prospective tool. The challenge we proposed to the authors was to use maps for questioning the territorial logics, the centers and peripheries of the …

Un Viaje Gráfico De Crítica Política: Análisis Geográfico-Temático De Los Diseños De Eneko De Las Heras Sobre Los Periódicos Interviú Y 20 Minutos, Giovanni Pietro Vitali

Artl@s Bulletin

Esta contribución pretende ser una tentativa de análisis crítico y geográfico del trabajo del caricaturista venezolano Eneko de Las Heras Leizaola. En este artículo proponemos un análisis espacial y cronológico de sus dibujos de humor gráfico y de denuncia social publicados en los periódicos Interviú y 20 Minutos entre los años de 2007 a 2018. El sustento de dicho análisis reside en el empleo de herramientas digitales. Demostraremos cómo Eneko representa, incluso si hay algunas críticas sociales en respuesta a fenómenos económicos, políticos y bélicos, nuevas formas de contar cuestiones sociales como el sexismo o la ecología.

From Enemy Asset To National Showcase: France’S Seizure And Circulation Of The Matsukata Collection (1944-1958), Léa Saint-Raymond, Maxime Georges Métraux

Artl@s Bulletin

Sequestered by the French State as an "enemy asset" in 1944, Kojiro Matsukata’s collection was used as a national showcase through exhibitions until 1958. Few catalogues were transparent as to the works’ provenance from the collection. When we map and visualize this historical information, a significant contrast appears between the “real” circulation of artworks, as recorded in governmental archives, and the "official" circulation listed in catalogues. This discrepancy points to a propaganda effort in such a way as to bolster an artistic narrative that was key to French national pride, and studying it can further explain why the French decided …

Mapping Colonial Interdependencies In Dutch Brazil: European Linen & Brasilianen Identity, Carrie Anderson

Artl@s Bulletin

In Dutch Brazil, the Brasilianen were essential allies to the West India Company. To maintain this critical alliance, the Dutch presented them with gifts of linen, a fabric in high demand. Representations of Brasilianen wearing linen garments were pervasive and include an image on Joan Blaeu’s 1647 map of the Brazilian Captaincies of Rio Grande and Paraíba. Traditional interpretations of these linen-clad Brasilianen prioritize a center/periphery model; in contrast, I argue that these pictured linens document the interdependencies between the WIC and the Brasilianen, a position supported by digital maps plotting Dutch/indigenous exchanges.

Magis Brugge: Visualizing Marcus Gerards’ 16th-Century Map Through Its 21st-Century Digitization, Elien Vernackt

Artl@s Bulletin

Marcus Gerards delivered his town plan of Bruges in 1562 and managed to capture the imagination of viewers ever since. The 21^st century digitization project MAGIS Brugge, supported by the Flemish government, has helped to treat this map as a primary source worthy of examination itself, rather than as a decorative illustration for local history. A historical database was built on top of it, with the analytic method called ‘Digital Thematic Deconstruction.’ This enabled scholars to study formally overlooked details, like how it was that Gerards was able to balance the requirements of his patrons against his own …

Digital Art History “Beyond The Digitized Slide Library”: An Interview With Johanna Drucker And Miriam Posner, Miriam Kienle

Artl@s Bulletin

Johanna Drucker and Miriam Posner were two of the organizers of the Getty/UCLA Summer Institute in Digital Art History “Beyond the Digitized Slide Library” that took place in the summers of 2014 and 2015. With their extensive expertise in the field, they developed a program that challenged participant to think about the broad theoretical implications of their respective projects and to gain practical tools in digital art history. In this interview, they will describe some of their thinking behind the institute and the state of the field of digital art history, including a discussion of the impact of network visualizations …

“What You See Is What You Get: The Artifice Of Insight”: A Conversation Between R. Luke Dubois And Anne Collins Goodyear, Anne C. Goodyear

Artl@s Bulletin

The metaphorical relationship between sight and knowledge has long been recognized: the double-entendre of “illumination” promises both light and understanding; “I see” signifies that one “gets it” intellectually. This conversation between R. Luke DuBois and Anne Collins Goodyear addresses how data accrues meaning through pictorial structures that represent it. An artist, DuBois has consistently played with conventions for depicting information visually, revealing the intersections between data and desire they represent. Reexamining the interfaces through which we view the world, DuBois and Goodyear consider what our filters threaten to hide.

La relation métaphorique entre la vue et la connaissance a longtemps …

Enriching And Cutting: How To Visualize Networks Thanks To Linked Open Data Platforms., Lea Saint-Raymond, Antoine Courtin

Artl@s Bulletin

Networks are developing very quickly in the social sciences, and they are beginning to emerge in art history. This paper explores the making of network visualizations, from the building of the dataset to the analysis of results. Starting from an initial corpus regarding the Parisian auction sales for modern paintings, we developed a methodology to enrich it, thanks to linked open data platforms and technologies for realigning datasets. We then call into question the visualization of networks. Although it brings about an overview of the market and allows a very close reading, the best is the enemy of the good: …

The Computer As Filter Machine: A Clustering Approach To Categorize Artworks Based On A Social Tagging Network, Stefanie Schneider, Hubertus Kohle

Artl@s Bulletin

Image catalogs containing several million reproductions of artworks still pose a costly or computationally intensive challenge if one tries to categorize them adequately, either in a manual or automatic way. Using crowdsourced annotations assigned by laypersons, this article proposes the application of a clustering algorithm to segment artworks into groups. It is shown that the resulting clusters allow for a consistent reclassification extending the traditional categories (history, genre, portrait, still life, landscape), and thus enable a finely-grained differentiation which can be used to search in and filter image inventories, among other things.

Network Analysis And Feminist Artists, Michelle Moravec

Artl@s Bulletin

This article examines the benefits and drawbacks of using social network analysis to study feminist artists’ networks. Looking at two of the author’s digital humanities projects, it explores the systemic and structural barriers that limit the utility of social network analysis for feminist artists. The first project on the social network of artist Carolee Schneemann analyzed her female circles through a correspondence network. The second project attempted to trace the circulation of feminist art manifestos in American feminist periodicals. Three factors are identified as constraining network analysis in these case studies, the lack of feminist artists’ archives, an insufficient amount …

Keeping Our Eyes Open: Visualizing Networks And Art History, Stephanie Porras

Artl@s Bulletin

Network visualizations have the potential to translate messy archival work into clouds of connection, powerful maps of relations that can reveal hidden agents or nodes of production. But network visualizations must also be understood as artifacts of our own visual culture, laden with the biases and limits of both past and present knowledge systems. Rather than seeing networks as uniform webs of connection, social network analysis must productively interrogate how biopolitical, cultural and social power are manifested within these visualizations, reinforcing the biases and lacunae of the archive.

Continuity And Disruption In European Networks Of Print Production, 1550-1750, Matthew D. Lincoln

Artl@s Bulletin

Computational analysis of the potential historical professional networks inferred from surviving print impressions offers novel insight into the evolution of early modern artistic printmaking in Europe. This analysis traces a longue durée print production history that examines the changing ways in which different regional printmaking communities interacted between 1550 and 1750, highlighting the powerful impact of demographic forces and calling in to question narratives based on single key individuals or the emergence of specific national schools.

Between Nodes And Edges: Possibilities And Limits Of Network Analysis In Art History, Miriam Kienle

Artl@s Bulletin

This article examines a number of prominent network analysis projects in the field of art history and explores the unique promises and problems that this increasingly significant mode of analysis presents to the discipline. By bringing together projects that conceptualize art historical networks in different ways, it demonstrates how established theories and methods of art history—such as feminist and postcolonial theory—may be productively used in conjunction with quantitative/computational approaches to art historical analysis. It argues that quantitative analysis of art and its networks can expand the qualitative approaches that have traditionally defined the field, particularly if theorizing is not positioned …

Art History And The Global Challenge: A Critical Perspective, Paula Barreiro López

Artl@s Bulletin

The challenge of globalization and the “decolonization” of our way of thinking have become a major concern for most art historians. While it is still too early to assess the impact on the discipline of the “Global turn”—a turn that is all the more timid that it materializes more slowly in public collections and public opinions than in books—we nonetheless wanted to probe scholars who are paying close attention to the new practices in global art history. Coming from different cultural milieus and academic traditions, and belonging to different generations, they agreed to answer our questions, and to share with …

L'Histoire De L'Art Au Défi De La Mondialisation: Une Position Critique, Paula Barreiro López

Artl@s Bulletin

Le défi de la mondialisation et de la “décolonisation” de nos pensées est désormais une préoccupation quotidienne pour la majorité des chercheurs en histoire de l’art. Il est trop tôt pour faire le bilan du fameux « Global turn », tournant d’autant plus timide qu’il se concrétise plus lentement dans les collections publiques et dans l’opinion que dans les livres. Mais nous avons voulu interroger, un peu partout dans le monde, des acteurs à l’écoute des nouvelles pratiques mondiales en histoire de l’art. Issus de milieux culturels et de traditions universitaires variées, de générations diverses, ils ont accepté de répondre …

Art History And The Global Challenge: A Critical Perspective, Nuria Rodríguez Ortega

Artl@s Bulletin

The challenge of globalization and the “decolonization” of our way of thinking have become a major concern for most art historians. While it is still too early to assess the impact on the discipline of the “Global turn”—a turn that is all the more timid that it materializes more slowly in public collections and public opinions than in books—we nonetheless wanted to probe scholars who are paying close attention to the new practices in global art history. Coming from different cultural milieus and academic traditions, and belonging to different generations, they agreed to answer our questions, and to share with …

L’Histoire Mondiale De L’Art, Au Défi D’Un Grand Récit, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel

Artl@s Bulletin

Pour proposer une « histoire mondiale », et pour faire honneur à toutes les productions issues de tous les continents, en particulier ceux qu’on avait méprisés, l’idéal serait d’articuler un récit lui-même mondial. Il nous faut un récit émancipé non seulement des hiérarchies propres au canon (ancien/moderne, beaux-arts/décoration, kitsch / classique), mais aussi un récit qui aille plus loin que la production de hiérarchies dont même le récit postcolonial a du mal à sortir (dominants/dominés). Comment produire un récit qui, en outre, connecte des collections « locales » et des collections « internationales » en gardant du lien entre les …

Les Rues Des Tableaux: The Geography Of The Parisian Art Market 1815-1955, Léa Saint-Raymond, Félicie De Maupeou, Julien Cavero

Artl@s Bulletin

Building upon a preliminary socioeconomic analysis of the art dealers in Paris between 1815 and 1955 (ARTL@S Bulletin 2, n°2), this paper presents the findings of a spatial study of the Parisian art market in this period. Using serial geographical data drawn from a single, consistent source – the Bottin du commerce – we mapped the spatial evolution of art dealers over 140 years, using a geocoding system with composite locators. The article explores the different spatial dynamics of this market, and seeks to shed light on the links between the evolution of the Parisian economy as a whole and …

Exhibition Catalogues In The Globalization Of Art. A Source For Social And Spatial Art History, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Olivier Marcel

Artl@s Bulletin

With the rise of global art studies, there has been a quest to find a common ground to compare different contexts, events or individual trajectories. The expansion of exhibition catalogues and the artistic, social, and geographical information they contain make them an exceptional source to establish and articulate patterns of artistic mobility. Stemming from antipodal and diachronic research fields, from the internationalization of modern art (1850-1970) to that of contemporary African art, we contend that exhibition catalogues give commensurable sources to trace the globalization of art on the long term, from its spatial, social, and economic dimension to the circulation …

Les Rues Des Tableaux. Géographie Du Marché De L'Art Parisien (1815-1955), Léa Saint-Raymond, Félicie De Maupeou, Julien Cavero

Artl@s Bulletin

Continuation of a first socioeconomic analysis of the "art dealers" in Paris between 1815 and 1955 (Artl@s Bulletin 2, no. 2), this paper presents the results of a spatial study of the Parisian art market at that time. Departing from serial geographical data given by a homogeneous source, the Bottin du commerce, we mapped a 140 years spatial evolution of the "art dealers", using a geocoding system with composite locators. The article exposes the spatial dynamics of this market and studies them in a multi-scalar way, making the connection between the global evolution of the Parisian economy and …

A Research-Based Model For Digital Mapping And Art History: Notes From The Field, Paul B. Jaskot, Anne Kelly Knowles, Andrew Wasserman, Stephen Whiteman, Benjamin Zweig

Artl@s Bulletin

Most digital mapping in art history today divides the research process from the visualization aspects of the project. This problem became the focus of a summer institute that Paul Jaskot and Anne Kelly Knowles ran at Middlebury College with the support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Our article both reports on the institute and suggests how research questions can complement digital mapping methods. We conclude with three case studies of spatial questions in art history and discuss the Fellows’ use of GIS to explore examples from Qing Dynasty China, medieval Gotland, and contemporary New York City.

Provincializing Paris. The Center-Periphery Narrative Of Modern Art In Light Of Quantitative And Transnational Approaches, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel

Artl@s Bulletin

The alternative “centre‐periphery” is essential to the myth of modern art and its historiography. Even though Postcolonial studies have denounced the implications of such geopolitical hierarchies, as long as our objects remain centred on one capital city and within national boundaries, it will be difficult to escape the hierarchical paradigm that makes Paris and New York the successive capital cities of Modernism. This paper highlights how approaches focusing on different scales of analysis—from the quantitative and geographic to the monographic—challenge the supposed centrality of Paris through 1945.

Change Over Time: Neatline And The Study Of Architectural History, Lisa A. Reilly

Artl@s Bulletin

This article discusses how the usual study of architecture from the perspective of a single moment in time, usually the moment of its creation is limiting. New methodologies make it possible to add to the current rich variety of approaches available to the architectural historian in order to consider the dynamic history of the forms we study. This problem can be resolved in part through the use of digital tools, in particular Neatline, (www.neatline.org) which allows the viewer to see and understand how a building changes over time.

Towards A Spatial (Digital) Art History, Catherine Dossin

Artl@s Bulletin

Among the numerous possibilities offered by the Digital Humanities, digital mapping is certainly among the most promising for art history. It is a rather simple yet efficient way to explore the large amount of data and databases which are available to the discipline but that are often underutilized. New mapping technologies allow us to work with art history’s big data serially and spatially, and to diffuse the result of our research through attractive and compelling visualizations.