Multivalent reuse of web data about temporary art exhibitions: The Exhibitium Project

(http://dh2016.adho.org) DHHome(http://www.dh2016.adho.org) / Abstracts(/abstracts/) / 419(/abstracts/419) Showinfo Howtocite XMLVersion(/static/data/542.xml) Multivalentreuseofwebdataabouttemporaryart exhibitions:theExhibitiumproject Ourproposalaimstodisplaytheanalysistechniques,methodologiesaswellasthemostrelevantresultsexpectedwithin theExhibitiumprojectframework(http://www.exhibitium.com).AwardedbytheBBVAFoundation,theExhibitiumprojectis beingdevelopedbyaninternationalconsortiumofseveralresearchgroups[1].Itsmainpurposeistobuildacomprehensive andstructureddatarepositoryabouttemporaryartexhibitions,capturedfromtheweb,tomakethemusefulandreusablein variousdomainsthroughopenandinteroperabledatasystems. TheExhibitiumprojectaimstofacethenewchallengesposedbythedatadrivensocietyrespecttotheproduction, management,useanddistributionofdigitalculturalcontent.Specifically,thequestionthatwewanttorespondis:howto takeadvantagesoftheuniverseofdatarelatedtoculturalactivitydistributedthroughtheInternettogeneratevalueatvery differentlevels(academicresearch,newcriticalnarratives,culturalmanagement,economicdevelopment,processesof socialandculturaltransformation,etc.)?Accordingly,multivalency,asakeynotionofthenewknowledgeeconomy(Roney etal.,2012),istheguidingaxisoftheExhibitiumproject. Tothinkonapreciseworkingprototype,wehaveadoptedasacentralobjectofourresearchtheartexhibitionsthat regularlyheldgalleries,museumsandartcenters,sincetheyproduceaverylargeandheterogeneoussetofdatathatcan potentiallybecapturedbymeansofwebminingstrategies. Forthat,wehavedevelopedatechnologyinfrastructure,whichhasbeenimplementedintwodimensions: a)Acomputingprototypeconsistsoftwomodulesoperatinginacomplementarymanner:Beagle,anautomateddata capturesystemwhichextractsinformationaboutartexhibitionsfromanywebsource;andExpoFinder,asystemfor collectingandenhancingtheinformationcapturedbyBeagle(http://www.expofinder.es). b.Anaggregateofthreedataanalysisandvisualizationplatforms(SylvaDB,TechneCoword©andGeowave),which connectwiththeBeagleExpoFindersystemusinganautomatedexportapplication[2].(Seeinfigure1asimplifieddiagram ofthesystem). Figure1.Simpifliedschemaandflowchart Asregardsthetheoreticalframework,Exhibitiumfacesthephenomenonofartexhibitionsaccordingtotheactornetwork theory(ANT)developedbyBrunoLatour(2007),thatissay,ascomplexculturalphenomenaresultingfromofaseriesof relationshipsestablishedbetweenheterogeneoushumanandnohumanactorsartists,curators,exhibitioncenters,funding agencies,publishingcompanies,artisticmovements,artisticthemes,etc.thatconstitutedynamicnetworksamongthem. Theapplicationoftheactornetworktheorytothefieldofartexhibitionsraisesaninterestingperspective,sincethe emphasis,ratherthanontheexhibitionsthemselves,isplacedonthe«mediation»processes(production,distribution, reception,etc.)aspartofasocialsysteminwhichthepowerrelationsthatcharacterizetheculturalinstitutionsare unveiled. Consequently,theExhibitiumprojectalignswiththegrowingresearchfieldorientedtoexplorecomplexnetworksinartand humanities(Schich,2014).Particularly,weareusingtwotypesofmethodologies. a)Networkanalysisstrategiesthroughagraphdatabase(SylvaDB)thatwehavestructuredaccordingtoanontology specificallydevelopedfortheproject(seefigure2). Figure2.Ontologyofthe“temporaryartexhibition”domainintheSylvaDBinterface b)KDD(KnowledgeDiscoveryinDatabases)techniques,speciallythecowordanalysisstrategy(He,1999)[3],whichare mainlyorientedtothediscoveryofimplicitknowledgeinlargerepositoriesofstructureddata(EchevarríaandGonzález, 2009;RodríguezOrtegaetal,2015). Throughtheseanalyseswearegettingasetofgraphsthatisallowingustodiscovercorrelationsbetweencertainartists, centers,curators,financinginstitutions,themesandgeospatialcontexts.Notethattheconfigurationofclustersofthis nature,understoodasnetworkofstrongrelationshipsestablishedbetweentheirnodes,canbereadaspowerstructures operantinacertaindomain. Theconceptualandmethodologicaldifferencesexistingbetweenthecowordanalysisstrategy,whichextractstheactors andtheirrelationshipsdirectlyfromthedataprocessing,andthenetworkanalysisstrategy,basedonaschemepreviously established(ontology)thatderivesfromourdirectobservationoftherealworld,itisallowingustomakeinteresting comparisonsbetweenhowweunderstandthedomain“artexhibitions"andwhat(implicit)structureemergesnaturallyfrom theprocessingofthekeywordsassociatedtothisfield. Alongwiththisknowledgekeytodevelopnewcriticalnarratives,thediscoveryofcertainpatternsisalsoprovidinga prospectiveknowledgeaboutpossibleandfuturetrendsinthefieldoftemporaryartexhibitions,whichcanbestrategically usedbyexhibitioncentersorotherstakeholders(tourismcompanies,entertainmentindustries,etc.)intheirdecisionmaking processes. Inaddition,thesemethodsofanalysisareallowingustoinvestigatetheperipheriesthatarealsoassociatedtothefieldof artexhibitionsasaresultoftheprevalenceofsomeinstitutionswhichcentralizetheflowofpublicamongotherthingsdue totheirmediaimpactcapacity.Tofacilitatethesocialvisibilityofthoseinitiativesusuallyunknownweareproceedingto integratetheExhibitiumdataintheGeowavesystem,ageoreferencedplatformtomanageculturalcontent. NOTES [1]Theyare:iArtHis_Lab(http://www.iarthislab.es)andKhaos(http://khaos.uma.es)attheUniversityofMálaga;Techne, ingenieríadelconocimientoydelproducto(http://www.ugr.es/~tep028/quienes_somos_es.php (http://www.ugr.es/~tep028/quienes_somos_es.php))attheUniversityofGranada;andCulturePlexattheUniversityof WesternOntario(http://www.cultureplex.ca). [2]Sincethenatureofthistextdoesnotallowustoprovideadetailedexplanationofsuchsystem,wesuggesttoseethe sitehttp://admin.expofinder.es/test/xmlrpc/[Viewed:28/10/2015]. [3]Thecowordstrategyisbasedonabasicprinciple:allactorsinanetwork,regardlessoftheirnature,canberepresented bywordsordescriptors(actually,thisishowthedataarerepresentedmostlyinbibliographicrepositories).Naturalrelations ofcooccurrenceofwordsindatarepositoriesformanetworkthatcanbeanalyzedandmapped.Thewordsthatcooccur morefrequentlyformclustersthatcanbeanalyzedasnetworkswithstronglinks;atthesametime,itispossibletoanalyze howthesenetworkschangethroughoutdifferentperiodsoftimesorgeospatialcontexts.Forexample,wecananalyzehow thenetworkgeneratedbyanartist(i.e.,Picasso)changesaccordingtothegeographicalprovenanceofthedata(exhibitions inSpain,Europe,USA,LatinAmerica,etc.). 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