Towards a data history of art: Building an interface that connects museum data internationally

The research group aims to build a digital platform that connects museum data internationally using data provided by museums. Although in reality museums are connected through an exchange of their traveling works of art, until today, we do not have an interface that evidences a traceable art history of these exchanges. The impact of the digital platform that we are aiming to design will create a new kind of knowledge production for scholars, artists, curators, educators and an interested public. We met in 2019 for two 2-day workshops with a group of scholars, engineers, designer and museum experts to collaborative create a design document for implementing and building the digital platform. The approach of this project has a clear design focus in data visualization and interactive usability of an interface that would create new scholarship in the digital humanities and a new understanding of a connected art history in the museum context. The workshops were made possible with the generous support of the NEH Grant for Digital Projects for the Public.

Participants:

Shannon Mattern, Professor of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research

Aaron Hill, Director, MS Data Visualization program, School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons, The New School 

Matthew Battles, Associate Director, metalab Harvard 

Vincent-Antonin Lépinay, Professor of Sociology, SciencesPo médialab

Laurie Allen, Director for Digital Scholarship, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Marian Dörk, Director, Urban Complexity Lab, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

Chad Weinard, Manager of digital initiatives, Williams College Museum of Art

Jennie Choi, General Manager of Collection Information, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jennifer Stella, Digital Assets Manager, The Museum of Modern Art

Peter Kaufman,  Research Affiliate, MIT Open Learning

Samuel Klein, MIT Knowledge Futures Group

Sarah Schwettmann, PhD student, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT

Jonathan Lill, Leon Levy Foundation Project Manager, The Museum of Modern Art Archives

Jacqueline Reich, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication and Media Studies Interim Chair, Department of Classics, Fordham University

Catlin Beach, Assistant Professor, Art History, Fordham University

Yanni Loukissas, Assistant Professor of Digital Media, School of Literature, Media and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology

Katherina Fostano, Visual and Resources Curator, Art History and Music Department, and The Center for Medieval Studies

Kathleen La Penta, Senior Lecturer of Italian, Co-director, Bronx Italian American History Initiative, Fordham University

Jeff Steward, Director of Digital Infrastructure and Emerging Technology, Harvard Art Museums