NYC Digital Art History Steering Committee Meeting 10/13/15

Participants: Samantha Deutch, Francine Snyder, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jason Varone (SD, FS, GR, JV) – Location: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

Some recent projects:

  • Tropy – Mellon Grant, Purpose is to organize images with notes.  Tagged images.
  • ARies – Space to compare, analyze, annotate, and group images–images take priority over text.
  • Mirador – place to control images.
  • FMP 14 – Research notes, images, easy catalog generation for profs.
  • Joan Mitchell foundation: template for image catalog.  Create a Living Legacy initiative.
  • SD made her own database in FMP, template for art object research, provenance, tombstone info.
  • POWRR website, Illinois University, lists solutions for data archiving.
  • Data Vis.
  • 3D printing lab at NYU – La Guardia Studio

Review of NYC DH – Minutes:

  • Could do a Kress sponsored grant for DAH, some organization that will deal with the accounting for us.
  • Sotheby’s institute sponsoring a new award with ARLIS for a paper.  SD is on the subcommittee.  $3000 for a project, need a library mentor.  ARLIS member has to nominate it.  If the paper wins, the library gets $2000.
  • Are we ready for an award? Have only had one meeting.  SD will ask around.

Programming for next NYDAH meeting:

  • Where do we want to do it, what sort of programming do we want.
  • Visualization probably a big draw.
  • Lightning round for visualization?
  • Come with your problem:  Bring your own technology.
  • Preservation would also be a draw.  
  • Frick workshop covers different digital tools you can use for Art History.  Photo archive images, image recognition technology, they talk about ARies – data scraping – Kimono goes into Google Spreadsheets and CartoDB.  Cytoscape.  D3.  2 hour workshop.  All through the lens of art historical problems.  Formal talk.  Working with John Resig, searching by images.
  • Proposed programming: One session earlier in the week for a Frick-type workshop, and a second session where you bring your art historical problem and shop it around to people with different tools to solve your problem.
  • JV and FS mention that the there was interest to have students, not just professors.
  • IFA example: getting tech people there is crucial, keeps conversation moving forward.
  • JV may be able to talk about D3.
  • There is a desire for DAH tools out of the box.  But need your data to be in a usable format.
  • Rooms? Maybe IFA, JV will look into it.
  • We are too young of an institution to look into funding. But could use some small funds for snacks, drinks etc. to bring people in the door.
  • Could do one day event instead: 10am-12pm for presentations, 1:30-4:30 for open session, bring your art history problem etc.
  • Lightning talks like at the Frick:  JV can do D3, SD can do her data scraping talk.
  • As broad as possible, FS thinks we should present as many tools as possible.
  • Evaluation at the end, suggestion box, a sign-up.  Gather members both digitally and analog.
  • We should send a proposal to the whole DAH group to get feedback and gather additional speakers.
  • Whole group should meet again to plan.
  • GR may be able to attend next DH steering committee meeting.
  • Should task group to make a Wiki for DAH tools.  

 

Next Steps:

  • Need to find a date. SD will email Barbara and check, JV will check on spaces at the IFA. FS will ask about using her space.  Lafayette Studio happens to be next door to the Rauschenberg Foundation – best 3D printing facility, NYU affiliates can use it at cost.
  • Organize our space on the website.  Mission statement for the website, that kind of thing.
  • NYCDH website, update bios.  Soliciting people’s projects on the website, join our community.  JV will work on the mission statement.  Checkboxes: GIS, Data Management, Preservation, Other Visualizations.  Need to make this searchable, JV suggests tags.
  • JV suggests maybe scrapping the idea of our own separate workshop altogether, and piggy-backing on NYCDH… although do we want to be in the same room?  We have specific needs.
  • Each of us should provide bios for our page.  
  • Monday December 7, 10-noon at the Studio at Butler is the next DH meeting.   
  • Next DAH meeting 3-5 Dec. 10th (Thurs).  SD will ask Barbara if we can use Columbia space.  FS suggests keeping this small and making the next meeting more open.