Enriching Exhibition Scholarship: Reconciling Knowledge Graphs and Social Media from Newspaper Articles to Twitter
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Social and Political Science
Abstract
Artwork exhibitions bring diverse cultures together, exposing artists, scholars, and the public to new experiences. These events and the subsequent interactions affect stylistic trends, art markets, and cultural perceptions. Exhibitions are difficult to study because we lack holistic, structured data about co-exhibited objects and the participation of visitors.
This project brings together an international and interdisciplinary team of experts in the fields of linked open data (LOD), exhibitions, art history, and AI to create and enhance machine-accessible exhibition descriptions.
The Linked Art collaboration (https://linked.art/) has developed a modern Linked Open Data-based (LOD) set of standards to describe and publish art-related knowledge, including which objects were exhibited during which exhibitions. For this data to be truly connected, and allow scholars to seamlessly cross-institutional silos, descriptions of exhibition events and art objects must be "reconciled": the descriptions of the same object can be connected together by matching identifiers in different systems at different institutions.
We will combine metadata graphs and cutting-edge natural language processing techniques to rich texts such as newspaper archives and social media. We will identify and extract objects, relevant descriptive information, and audience reactions from social texts across time. We will explore national and international exhibitions using open data, and detailed knowledge from university art galleries, including engagement with a contemporary Ashmolean exhibition via social media.
This project brings together an international and interdisciplinary team of experts in the fields of linked open data (LOD), exhibitions, art history, and AI to create and enhance machine-accessible exhibition descriptions.
The Linked Art collaboration (https://linked.art/) has developed a modern Linked Open Data-based (LOD) set of standards to describe and publish art-related knowledge, including which objects were exhibited during which exhibitions. For this data to be truly connected, and allow scholars to seamlessly cross-institutional silos, descriptions of exhibition events and art objects must be "reconciled": the descriptions of the same object can be connected together by matching identifiers in different systems at different institutions.
We will combine metadata graphs and cutting-edge natural language processing techniques to rich texts such as newspaper archives and social media. We will identify and extract objects, relevant descriptive information, and audience reactions from social texts across time. We will explore national and international exhibitions using open data, and detailed knowledge from university art galleries, including engagement with a contemporary Ashmolean exhibition via social media.
| Title | Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality |
| Description | Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality is a major exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford (open 10 Feb - 30 Jul 2023). One strand of the exhibition, derived from the project, was #LabyrinthLabel. Exhibition visitors were asked to write a label for any object in the exhibition and post it on social media for analysis by the project. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Still under analysis but the aim is to generate content about exhibition objects for the project. Additionally the task engages exhibition visitors by asking them to take an active role in the presentation of exhibits. The museum will monitor responses to gain visitor feedback on the exhibition. |
| URL | https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/labyrinth-knossos-myth-reality |
| Description | We have produced the following findings: 1. We have conducted structured data transformations of openly available collection APIs and data dumps into Linked Open Data. This means we have taken data and converted it into structured data which can be used more easily in downstream applications. This data has been used in data analysis and data matching described below, this data will be useful to collecting organizations to see how data can be published, and to researchers by providing a coherently structured and described, cross-collection dataset. 2. Natural language processing tools have been used to extract events, objects and people from textual descriptions of exhibitions. 3. Three workshops have been conducted along with the scholarly dissemination at digital humanities 2023. |
| Exploitation Route | Structured data generated from the combination of collection data and full text, describing the exhibitions and the objects exhibited. This will be useful for the participating collecting institutions to enrich their descriptions of the exhibitions, and for researchers to engage with the movement and co-exhibition of objects over time. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Description | Collaborative Doctoral Partnership - Novel application of computational approaches in addressing problematic terminology and descriptions within V&A Museum catalogues |
| Amount | £93,414 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/X004775/1 (2784579) |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 09/2026 |
| Description | National Galleries Scotland |
| Organisation | National Galleries of Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The National Galleries Scotland has provided press release data. This data is used as full text which we use to align with metadata in order to enrich it from the content. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The National Galleries Scotland has provided press release data. This data is used as full text which we use to align with metadata in order to enrich it from the content. They have provided both data and advice on this content. |
| Impact | The outputs of this collaboration are improved metadata. It also allowed us to test the approach. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
| Organisation | National Gallery of Art |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The National Gallery in Washington provided data that we were able to use in the full text search |
| Collaborator Contribution | The National Gallery in Washington provided data that we were able to use in the full text search |
| Impact | None as yet |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Enriching Exhibition Scholarship -- Edinburgh in person workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Six people attended from a gallery, museum, and academic background. We presented a background to the project and solicit feedback as to the future direction of work. We recorded the discussion and used it to shape the likely outcomes of the project as to take into account the needs and the knowledge of these professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Enriching Exhibition Scholarship Edinburgh Workshop - Online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seventy-two people attended an online workshop from a gallery, museum, and academic background. We presented a background to the project and solicit feedback as to the future direction of work. We recorded the discussion and used it to shape the likely outcomes of the project as to take into account the needs and the knowledge of these professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Enriching Exhibition Scholarship article in the Ashmolean Magazine and members news letter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Enriching Exhibition Scholarship article in the Ashmolean Magazine and members news letter |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Enriching Exhibitions Scholarship Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The symposium has 70 participants and aimed to explore working with collections data for discoverability online and showcase additional cutting-edge research and tools by guest speakers, including digital collection specialists and early career researchers, who will address technical approaches to working with collections data to evolve the discoverability of collections. The symposium aimed to provide a platform for knowledge exchange, discussion and networking and is designed for heritage professionals and researchers working in the area of digital collections or digital humanities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/enriching-exhibitions-scholarship-symposium-tickets-779428119487?aff=... |
| Description | Informal Digital Art-History Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Six members of the project attended the workshop and three presented work. This sparked questions and discussion afterward that influenced both the project members and the wider audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Linked Art Editorial Board |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 25 international cultural institutions and Universities are represented on the Linked Art Editorial Board, working to standardise the Linked Art profile for sharing Linked Open Data describing Art. The Editorial Board meets fortnightly by teleconference, and biannually at face-to-face meetings. A first version of the profile is expected to be completed by Spring 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024 |
| URL | https://linked.art/ |
| Description | Linked Art briefing for NFDI4Culture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Kevin Page and Rob Sanderson briefed the NFDI4Culture project on progress and plans for Linked Art within and in support of research infrastructures in the Arts and Humanities, and discussed the possibilities for future collaboration. NFDI4Culture is to establish a demand-oriented infrastructure for research data on tangible and intangible cultural assets within the overall structure of the German Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Linked Art sectoral engagement at Rijksmuseum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Project members contributed to delivery of a Linked Art workshop hosted by the Rijksmuseum in October 2023, attended by representative of the host institution and art museums and associated cultural institutes, primarily from the Netherlands but also adjoining European countries. An introduction for Linked Art was presented alongside examples of its use, including those from the project; discussion was focussed on use and adoption by the represented institutions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Matching Metadata & Text for the Enriching Exhibition Scholarship Project Yale workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 30 attendees at a workshop hosted in Yale, museum and gallery practitioners, a presentation about working with linked exhibitions data in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Yale, Oxford, and the Ashmolean and open the floor for feedback and discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/matching-metadata-text-for-the-enriching-exhibition-scholarship-project... |
| Description | New Directions in Museum Analytics' conference at King's College London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The event aimed to explore how data science could support and transform the museum sector. There was approximately 70 attendees I gave a talk and was on a panel on Museum Data Practices. the abstract was: Enriching Exhibition Scholarship is a collaborative, interdisciplinary project using the sharing of objects for exhibitions to illuminate broader relationships between museums and as the key to enriching existing art metadata as defined by the Linked Art collaboration. We bring together art history expertise, cultural heritage metadata knowledge and advanced computational research in text mining, analytics, linked data and machine learning from the Universities of Edinburgh, Yale, and Oxford. The Linked Art collaboration has developed a modern Linked Open Usable Data set of specifications to describe and publish art-related knowledge, including which objects were shown during which exhibitions. For this data to be truly connected, enabling scholars to seamlessly traverse institutional silos, descriptions of exhibition events and art objects must be "reconciled": the descriptions of the same object should be connected together by matching identifiers in different systems at different institutions. The alignment and enrichment of standardised, structural, shareable metadata with contextual information that is derived through the social media and wider textual analysis will provide an enriched data set that will provide a rich content base upon which a more joined-up cultural policy and strategy can be informed. In one such pairing we are developing and applying computational techniques to align socially-based textual and structured data, such as exhibition catalogues, newspapers and social media, making reconciliation easier and more effective. The Ashmolean Museum will be running a social media experiment within the LABYRINTH: KNOSSOS, MYTH & REALITY exhibition by placing #lostinthelabyrinth posters next to objects hopefully allowing us to determine whether doing so stimulates social media interaction such objects. We are asking visitors to post a short description of any object in the exhibition on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #labyrinthlabel. Participants may choose their favourite object to describe or suggest an improvement upon a label in the exhibition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://kingsdh.net/2023/04/05/museum-analytics-programme/ |
| Description | Panel at Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School - Data standards in the Digital Humanities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Kevin Page and Tanya Gray were panellists on the topic of 'Data standards in the Digital Humanities' within the Linked Data strand at the Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://digitalscholarship.web.ox.ac.uk/digital-humanities-oxford-summer-school |
| Description | Participation in Museum Data Service researcher workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A project member was invited to participate in a requirements gathering workshop run by the Museum Data Service, giving input into the design and potential use and utility of the future service. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Poster presentation Digital Humanities 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Conference poster presntation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://dh2023.adho.org/ |
| Description | Student visit (Labyrinth exhibition) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 15 students and 3 Ashmolean staff attended a tour of the exhibition given by Andrew Shapland. He explained the #LabyrinthLabel project and asked them to take part by posting their favourite object on social media |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Digital Labyrinth |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Clare Llewellyn from the University of Edinburgh discussed a social media experiment in which exhibition visitors wrote a label for their favourite object and posted it on social media. These labels were then gathered by the project and turned into Linked Open Data about the exhibition using computational techniques. Clare presented the results of the experiment. A panel discussion followed about the role of digital technology in exhibitions: does technology enhance the exhibition experience or detract from an encounter with physical objects? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-digital-labyrinth-tickets-605008595997 |
| Description | Workshop on Uncertainty and Subjectivity in Provenance Linked Open Data |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Kevin Page was invited to participate in this workshop on Uncertainty and Subjectivity in Provenance Linked Open Data, hosted by Leuphana University, where he shared experience of applying Linked Art in research projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |