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 | 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 | 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 | 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 |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 |