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Here’s the good news.
There are a lot of Search Terms…
The TATE has used a relatively expansive list of subjects to organize a prominent subject search capability for all the works in its online collection. According to the site there are 66,062 works of art by 3,075 artists in the collection, “every work in the Collection has its own online information page,” and “the majority are illustrated, though this is not always possible due to copyright restrictions.”
Main Subject List. The Tate.
The Terms Organized Hierarchically…
The subject search option is prominently displayed on the home page of the collection along with the simple and advances search options. In addition to a standard text search box, the subjects are presented an expandable list of 16 main categories, as shown on the left, for browsing. There are (by my count, which could be off) 155 second level subcategories. Each of these subcategories is further divided into between 2 and 100 or more subcategories of its own. There are too many for me to count all of them, and unfortunately the TATE does not choose to allow you to peruse them in alternate ways. It is hard to estimate the total because the range is so great. The main category Abstraction, for instance, has a total of only 10 ultimate sub-categories, whereas Architecture has 326 (ranging from Abbey to Zoo.) Under the main category People, however, there are 1068 names in the single third level subcategory of portraits:male. I can’t even make a guess as to the total number when these proper names are taken into account. A conservatively estimate of general subject categories is 4,000 or so. It is evident that the Tate has created a pretty substantial subject matter breakdown. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
ICONCLASS,
Tate,
Taxonomy,
Thesaurus of Graphic Materials
Metropolitan Museum of Art Exterior CC2 erin.kkr
General Description
The digital image collection available on the website of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is a mixed bag. I refer, of course, not to the contents of the collection, but to the display and searchability of the subject matter of the works in the collection.
The Met’s description of the digital collection is as follows:
The Collection Database is a searchable database of artworks and related materials from the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An individual database record includes information about an object as well as images, when available. The Museum’s curators have selected several works of note within the collection Database as Highlights of the collection. Due to the extremely large number of objects in the Museum’s permanent collection, not all artworks are currently available in the collection Database. Furthermore, information contained in the database records is, in some cases, incomplete, and all information is subject to change according to ongoing research and new acquisitions.
This statement acknowledges that not all objects in the permanent collection are contained in the database, and that those which are do not always have associated images, BUT it would have been nice for the Met to give the user some sense of proportionality. According to the site there are 128,347 items in the online collection. But I can’t tell form this what portion of the permanent collection this represents, The only piece of further information I can easily find is that the Highlights contain only 1407 objects. Equally important I can’t tell how many of the 128,347 objects have associated images. I can say, unfortunately, that it appears that the vast majority of the items don’t. One can browse the works to see page after page of thumbnails stating “image not available” What a drag. It is not a bad thing that so many objects lack images; better to have access to the text record than to have nothing at all. It is a major oversight, however, that the interface does not allow [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
controlled vocabulary,
Giotto,
Image search,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York City,
RFID,
rose,
Subject search
Pig from Bath, England. Photo Credit: Marcio Cabral de Moura
Proprietary digital art collections make me mad. As do all the art resources online that cost money. It’s my open source, information should be free, mentality, I guess. I understand that everyone needs to make a living, and that it takes time and resources to put together and maintain a digital collection. I don’t have an answer to this paradox. But I didn’t say I did. Nevertheless it makes me mad.
Here is an example: The art-public.com online library. As described on its website it “focuses on the role of art in urban projects. Recent creations and works in progress are organized by category and illustrated with examples from around the world, with an emphasis on the principal cities of Europe.” The website also claims that “all subjects feature examples of artwork with commentary and color photo illustrations.” A list of the types of works included is at the end of this article.
With respect to the main subject of Ofness, the searchability of the art in the collection, the following information is provided. “Information is stocked in a database structured around three index fields – artist, location and commissioning sponsors – which provide access to representative articles including practical description of artwork (artist, title, year, location…). This information is complemented by a collection of images. Each work of art is illustrated with up to six color photos; commentary is provided in several languages. Through the SIGAP [System of Information and Administration of Public Art] system, the database can be accessed via keywords.” [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Art,
art-public.com,
Bath England,
Digital art,
Flickr,
Metadata,
pig,
Public art,
SIGAP,
Visual Arts
JISC and TASI
The Image Sites Database of TASI, a project of JISC in Bristol, England, is one of the best I have found.
I still haven’t been able to find out what TASI stands for, but JISC is the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), a government funded organization which seeks to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of ICT to support education and research. “The aspiration of TASI is to ensure that digital media resources being created, used and managed within the further and higher education community meet the teaching, learning and research needs of individuals and institutions within the UK.”
The image sites database is only one part of TASI, which is itself a small part of JISC , but given the narrow focus of this blog it is the only part I’m addressing. TASI, you should know, is an indespensilbe resource for every aspect of digital imaging. In addition to the Web site which fully describes all the other resources, it offers [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Collection Portal,
Digital Collections,
Image Sites Database of TASI,
JISC,
Joint Information Systems Committee
