A method for describing, analyzing, and exploring visual art collections

Abstract

Visual art collections are more than just sets of images. Behind a collection or an exhibition are the curator’s concept and the specific characteristics of the collection. A controlled vocabulary that takes into account the concept and the specific characteristics of a collection requires individual terms/concepts, and specific relationships between the concepts of the vocabulary. Furthermore, the granularity of a controlled vocabulary should be adapted to a particular concept of the collection, i.e., for some areas, the number of terms/concepts should be very high and specific; for other areas, concepts should be summarized to keep the complexity of the collection low and thus facilitate the handling and presentation of the collection. A LadeCA vocabulary is an extended controlled vocabulary that is particularly suitable for collections of works of art. LadeCA enables a user to describe, analyze, and explore art collections. LadeCA is also suitable for comparing the contents of different collections or different parts of a collection. The general concepts of a controlled vocabulary/thesaurus, their terms, and defined semantic relations between them can be automatically adopted in a LadeCA vocabulary so that the vocabulary only needs to be adapted for the current collection. The process of creating a LadeCA vocabulary for art collections is supported by three interactive interfaces that ensure that the intention behind a collection is taken into account, and that the creation effort is kept low. This article explains the process of creating LadeCA vocabularies for art collections and describes the initial experiences and results.