Digital Art History
Perhaps databases, 3D printing, or digital mapping aren’t the first things that come to mind when one thinks of art history, but the cutting-edge field of Digital Art History is one of the most exciting new ways of researching and presenting art and architecture. We can visualize relationships in vast social networks of artists and patrons. We can look at the spatial relationship of architecture to the urban environment. We can reconstruct destroyed buildings, fabricate whole 3D vessels from pottery fragments, or see the way light shines through a building at different times throughout the day and year. We can create apps that help museum visitors engage with art in new ways, and video games that present more historically accurate environments than ever before. In this senior-level seminar, you will engage with the extensive bibliography, theories, and ethics of digital art history, write about and discuss these readings, and participate in the creation of several digital art history projects.
[Thank you to Mariah Proctor-Tiffany who revised my 2018 Digital Art History syllabus for her own seminar at California State University Long Beach taught in the fall of 2019. This syllabus is a product of that collaboration. For my 2018 syllabus we focused on a collaborative interactive mapping project titled Medieval Richmond using Omeka’s plugin Neatline. Please note the additional resources listed but not covered at the end of the syllabus.]
Course objectives:
- Students will write about and discuss major issues related to Digital Humanities.
- Students will write about and discuss theories and approaches to Digital Humanities.
- Students will strengthen their intercultural knowledge.
- Students will practice skills of critical thinking. Active looking, reading, and class discussion will help you to see and understand works of art and architecture differently.
- Students will learn several new computer programs and acquire new ways of thinking about art and architecture through digital projects.
Course requirements and assessment:
The breakdown of points follows:
- Preparation & Participation 20%
- Group digital project 20%
- Individual 3D project and paper 20%
- Individual data project and paper 20%
- Project presentations 20%
Grades:
| 90-100% | = | A | mastery of the course standards. |
| 80-89% | = | B | above average proficiency in meeting course standards. |
| 70-79% | = | C | satisfactory proficiency in meeting course standards. |
| 60-69% | = | D | partial proficiency in meeting course standards. |
| Below 60% | = | F | little or no proficiency in meeting course standards. |
Collaboration: Unlike traditional art history where each student writes an individual paper, this course is largely collaborative, and I highly encourage group work and helping others with writing or computer programs. You are not in competition with each other but members on the same team. Please be generous with each other.
The writing component:
Each week students will be asked to add to a journal that records your exploration of the methods, tools, and pedagogies we have covered: ideas from your readings, reactions to the process of building with these tools, strategies, and how you think it will or could affect your own scholarship. It doesn’t have to have an introduction or conclusion – just a record for you to have of working through this material. It can include screen shots, links to other articles, hand-written flow charts – anything! – and is something you should be doing for yourself anyway – I just want to see it as well. It will give me insight into where your work could go, where folks need help, what issues are seen as most pressing, etc. These should be your record and, yes, I will be grading them (please see my Project Expectations below), but they are more for you in the future than for me, I promise. Please have them uploaded by 10am the day before class at the very latest.
For the reading response: What is the thesis/argument/theoretical perspective of the author? What is her background/context as an author/scholar? What is your critical response (pros, cons, can you find examples of projects or scholarship that support or counter the author)? What would you see as a future development for your own work based on this reading? NOTE: As you learn digital tools throughout the course, you will be asked to include examples using those tools to illustrate your response (an annotated video, a timeline or map, an exhibition, etc.).
Digital Assignments:
At certain points in the course, students will be asked to use their newly-workshopped skills and tools to create digital materials that are limited in scope (usually you will be given 1-2 weeks to complete the assignment). Since each digital assignment will arise from things learned in class sessions, each assignment will be given a specific set of instructions on the course schedule below.
NOTE: If a few assignments I have set out here seem more relevant to your research, you are allowed to focus on them. You will need to read for every week, keep up your journal/response essay, and participate in class discussion, but if your time would be better spent learning to develop 3-D modeling/photogrammetry, visualizing systems, or working with oral archiving, for example, then you can work on that. Again, as I have said, this class is about your research and priorities. You may, nonetheless, find that each week’s workshop really adds to your portfolio and you wish to explore them all in a relatively equal fashion.
To that end we will have 2-3 meetings throughout the semester to check in and brainstorm about how you can best apply these digital technologies to your research and data. The first will be in the next couple of weeks.
At the end of the semester, students will give a talk highlighting their final digital assignment, pointing out why they chose it for their data, how it brought a new dimension to analysis or visualization of that data, where it was lacking also, comparison to one existing digital art history project that could work with this digital process, and how they could propose using it for a larger research project in art history.
Class Participation: Faithful attendance and participation in class discussion is essential. This is a reading-intensive and workshop-based course, rather than a research-based course. I expect you to have done the readings in preparation for each meeting and to be able to engage the historical, methodological, and theoretical issues and problems posed by them in discussion at each meeting. I also expect you to come prepared for each workshop as instructed, registering for web-based access, downloading relevant software (free as much as possible, sometimes used in the Workshop lab when not), bringing materials to work on, and working in an organized and attentive manner in class.
Technology in the classroom: Please do bring devices to class. They will help us in our research and projects. If your technology disrupts others, however, you will lose the privilege. Please silence cell phones and do not text in class.
Text:
Johanna Drucker, David Kim, Iman Salehia and Anthony Bushong. Introduction to Digital Humanities: Concepts, Methods, and Tutorials for Students and Instructors, 2014.
N.B. Many of the links in this text are “old” or broken. It is nonetheless a valuable introduction.
Late Policy:
All assignments should be completed in time and handed in on the date specified on the syllabus. Late papers will be downgraded by a third of a letter grade per day of delay. For example, a B paper that is one day late will get a B-; if it is three days late, it will receive a C. All papers should be submitted in print.
Special accommodations:
If you have a learning disability, please bring your paperwork from the Student Success Center and come and discuss appropriate academic accommodations during office hours within the first two weeks of the semester. Also, since there is no elevator to get to my office, if you have any trouble climbing stairs, please just email me and I will meet you in a classroom for office hours.
This syllabus may change during the semester.
| Week | Topics, Activities, Reading Assignments |
| 1 | Week 1: What are the Digital Humanities and Digital Art History? Johanna Drucker, Intro to Digital Humanities, “Introduction”. [N.B. Many of the links in this text are “old” or broken. It is nonetheless a valuable introduction.] Also have looked through Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019 by Matthew Gold and Laura Klein. Here is the project’s homepage. Sample a variety of digital humanities projects Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights Morehshin Allahyari, Material Speculation: ISIS Visualizing Venice (one of the many projects at Duke’s Wired Lab) Sentiments of Notre Dame Digital reconstruction of Angkor Wat Introduce Richmond Art and Culture collaborative project and individual projects Visit to the Workshop at Cabell Library. You will meet Eric Johnson, Head of Innovative Media at the VCU Libraries, yesterday and Erin White, Head of Digital Engagement at the VCU Libraries |
| 2 | Week 2: Introduction, continued Read and write about: Johanna Drucker, Intro to Digital Humanities, “Introduction” and “Analysis of DH Projects” Digital Scanning, Rendering, and Fabrication Morehshin Allahyari, Material Speculation: ISIS (2015-2016 Look over Rome Reborn and its catalog of sculptures and read Sarah Bond, “A Virtual Reality App that Reconstructs Ancient Rome May Have Exploited Its Developers” Hyperallergic (June 7, 2017) Also see Ancient Athens 3D and an interview with its creator, Dimitris Tsalkanis, in Hyperallergic (February 11, 2020 by Sarah Rose Sharp) Watch “Using 3D to Rebuild History at the Louvre” and the “Khosro Cup Replication Project” in class Guest speaker: Bucky Dow, Public History, will begin an introduction to your 3D project using phone photogrammetry. Also talk about the 3D project assignment using Meshmixer or Blender Online tutorials https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1F2ddGya_-UvuAqHAksYnB0qL9yWDO6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9VDKb3W4qA&frags=pl%2Cwn AND http://www.meshmixer.com Optional: build your website in Weebly, WordPress, Adobe Portfolio, or Adobe Spark Free images here: Sarah Bond, “The Met Museum Just Made 375,000 Images Open Access–But Here Are A Few More Museums That Are #OA,” Forbes, February 8, 2017 Another recent article on Open Access by Jessica Stewart “14 Paris Museums Place 100,000 Works of Art Online for Free Download” My Modern Met January 15, 2020 and see the Related Articles at the bottom of the page. VCU also subscribes to Artstor. |
| Assignment deadline: Your three RVA project ideas are due as part of your journal this week. One possible resource: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/pdf_files/Classic_Commonwealth_Style_Guide.pdf but you by no means need to use this as your mapping project. | |
| 3 | Week 3: Digital Scanning, Rendering, and Fabrication, continued Read: Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Review: “Using 3D to Rebuild History at the Louvre” in class Browse: Fall 2017 issue of Peregrinations 6/2 (browse for ideas) Look at these SketchFab models of destroyed monuments in Palmyra but also read this cautionary note by Sarah Bond. and “Measured Perfection: Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave” Smithsonian American Art Museum, curated by Karen Lemmey. Projects to look at: MOCA LA’s Kerry James Marshall’s Mastry Exhibition experienced in Virtual Reality Ancient Athens 3D Digital Hadrian’s Villa Digital Karnak Digital Roman Forum Digital Sculpture Project Mapping Gothic France MayaArch3D Rome Reborn, Smithsonian X3D, Swedish Pompeii Project Visualizing Venice (one of the many projects at Duke’s Wired Lab) Joshua Dow, Public History, continue on 3D project and discuss the ethics of reproducing cultural artifacts. Please have sample photos uploaded to Agisoft Metashape and have played around with it a bit. It is installed in the computers in the lab. |
| Assignment deadline: 3D project due | |
| 4 | Week 4: Digital Mapping for Art History introduction Guest speaker: Erin White, Head of Digital Engagement, VCU Libraries. Read: Pamela Fletcher and Anne Helmreich, with David Israel and Seth Erickson, “Local/Global: Mapping Nineteenth-Century London’s Art Market,” Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide 11:3 (Autumn 2012). Melissa Dinsman, “The Digital in the Humanities: An Interview with Pamela Fletcher,” LARB (June 26, 2016) Paige Morgan. “How to Get your Digital Humanities Project off the Ground.” (I realise that this is from 2014, but her advice, if you are in the need of it, still stands) Before class explore these programs: Esri’s ArcGIS StoryMaps Knight Labs: Timeline, StoryMap, Soundcite, Juxtapose Omeka Palladio Critique these Neatline student student-edited projects: Medieval Richmond Chicago’s Catholic Parishes: Architecture, Ethnicity, and Social History and Jeannine Keefer’s Urban Campus Notes and resources that Erin sent after class: The Klan map Example project charter (for a project we didn’t end up taking on, but still) VCU Libraries digital collections – collection of interest might be Jackson Ward Historic District and our Architectural survey collections. Search across collections for “jackson ward” or search by street names (!) Here’s a lo-fi map we did with Faedah Totah and her class a few years ago that might be an idea for your class: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rels108/. Each student wrote a report, which we uploaded to Scholars Compass. We then created a google map of all the entries and added deep links to each report from each point on the map. Interested in something like this? |
| 5 | Week 5: Esri’s ArcGIS StoryMaps and Knightlab’s Storymap and Timeline Workshops Guest speaker: Justin Madron, GIS Project Manager & Analyst, Digital Scholarship Lab,, University of Richmond. Begin collaborative project in Esri’s ArcGIS StoryMaps or KnightLab’s StoryMap: Building Digital Collections Read: Hannah Wilbur, “Planning and outlining your story map: How to set yourself up for success” ArcGIS Blog (June 16, 2019) Come to class ready to critique digital mapping projects. Along with sites already listed: Mapping Titian the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, the Metropolitan Museum’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History the New York Times Interactives, Riding the New Silk Road, Forging an Art Market in China and Mapping Segregation Tim Wallace, Derek Watkins and John Schwartz A Map of Every Building in America The New York Times (Oct. 12th, 2018). |
| Assignment deadline: Ideas for texts and images due for RVA Projects. You can upload them to our RVA sheet. | |
| 6 | Week 6: Data Visualization Guest speaker: Jeanette Vigliotti, VCU PhD MATX candidate and St. Augustine Historical Society’s digital developer and research consultant (and student in 2018 DAH seminar). Read: Johanna Drucker, Intro to Digital Humanities, “Data Visualization” 4B. Visualization and 5A. Visualization (Continued) Complete: Johanna Drucker, Data Visualization Tutorials: Cytoscape: http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=165 Tableau Public: http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=163 Highlighted project Before class: Explore the Separados site and watch Separados video to include in your journal. See this exhibition space Middle Shore using ImageQuilts. Also look at Tufte and Schwartz’s site. And this new article on Visualizing Cultural Heritage from the University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam. See their latest CFP. Remember these resources: Sarah Bond, “The Met Museum Just Made 375,000 Images Open Access–But Here Are A Few More Museums That Are #OA,” Forbes, February 8, 2017 Jason Kottke, Paris Museums Put 100,000 Images Online for Unrestricted Public UseRESOURCE: Smithsonian Open Access ← dh+lib Monica Castillo, “Smithsonian Institution Releases 2.8 Million Images for Public Use” Hyperallegeric (Feb 26, 2020) |
| Assignment deadline: Texts and images due for RVA Projects. | |
| 7 | Week 7: Data Mining, Text Analysis, and Network Analysis Read : Johanna Drucker “Data Mining and Text Analysis” Intro to Digital Humanities Johanna Drucker, Intro to Digital Humanites, “Network Analysis” Demystifying Networks by Scott Weingart Example of networking the open data made available by the Tate by Florian Kräutli Look over: Maximilian Schich et al. “A Network Framework of Cultural History.” Science (August 1, 2014). and project website http://www.cultsci.net/. Uses the Getty Union List of Artist Names and Artists of the World data. Complete the following tutorials: Voyant: http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=172 WordSmith: http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=182 Familiarize yourself with: Gephi and Palladio |
| Assignment deadline: Group RVA Projects are due. | |
| 8 | Week 8: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Guest speaker: Clay Harper, MATX candidate and co-producer of The Virtual Anderson Read and write about: Johanna Drucker, Intro to Digital Humanities, “Modelling Virtual Space” Paul Tennent, Sarah Martindale, Steve Benford, Dimitrios Darzentas, Pat Brundell, and Mat Collishaw. “Thresholds: Embedding Virtual Reality in the Museum.” Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 13 no 2, Article 12 (May 2020), 35 pages. http: //doi. org/10. 1145/3369394 Jennifer Kite Powell, “Augmented Reality And Kinect Create Unique Art Experience At Cleveland Museum,” Forbes (October 27, 2016) Mandy Ding, Augmented Reality in Museums (Arts Management and Technology Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon Institute, May 2017) Be sure to look at Ding’s white paper linked in this essay. Ajinkya Rajendrakumar Kunjir and Krutika Ravindra Patil (eds). Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, Art, and Museums (Hershey, PA: IPI Global, 2019). Multiple relevant chapters – browse. Mariapina Trunfio, Salvatore Campana, Adele Magnelli. “The Impact of Mixed Reality on Visitors’ Experience in Museums. ‘The Ara As It Was’ Project in Rome.” In Timothy Jung, M. Claudia tom Dieck, Philipp A. Rauschnabel (eds). Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: Changing Realities in a Dynamic World (Heidelburg: Springer, 2020), pp. 313-322. Emily Kotecki, ‘Immersive’ with Brilliant Idea Studio’s Seema Rao Look over the ICOM and Google Arts and Culture, “Connected to Culture” resource. Play Occupy White Walls Sites to look at and write about: Review: MOCA LA’s Kerry James Marshall’s Mastry Exhibition experienced in Virtual Reality and Morehshin Allahyari, Material Speculation: ISIS (2015-2016) Also see: Shepard Fairey’s Damaged VR exhibit The Virtual Anderson Ellen Chenoweth’s AR critique of the George W. Bush Presidential Center “World Museums Join Forces to Combat Destruction of Antiquities in the Age of Digital Reproductions” Hettie Judah, December 13, 2017 Sites Éternels Google Arts and Culture Sites Éternels Review: The Getty’s Legacy of Ancient Palmyra. Look at these SketchFab models of destroyed monuments in Palmyra but also read this cautionary note by Sarah Bond. Wallplay What to expect from the Engadget Experience, our immersive art + tech event Vive Arts Highlighted work Visit VMFA Education department to discuss Augmented Reality, meet with VCU Art History alum Jaycinth Rodriguez to talk about the app she made using Adobe XD. Brainstorm about possible applications of Virtual Reality and art history, museum contexts, gaming, etc. Have looked at Google Lens and Sketchar and Adobe XD |
| 9 | Week 9: Experiencing Art in a Pandemic Guest speaker: Chase Westfall, curator of the VCUarts, the Anderson Susan Hazan, “The Virtual Aura – Is There Space for Enchantment in a Technological World?” Museums and the Web Conference (2001) Read: Brandon Ciecko, “4 Ways Museums Can Successfully Leverage Digital Content and Channels during Coronavirus (COVID-19).” American Alliance of Museums, March 25, 2020 “How Museums and Attractions are Preparing and Responding to Coronavirus” Cuseum (March 2, 2020) Sarah Cascone, “You Can Now Have a Multisensory Experience of a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room Online, Thanks to the Broad’s ‘Infinity Drone” (March 31, 2020) artnet*news Charlotte Coates, “How Museums are using Augmented Reality” MuseumNext (April 26, 2020) Also look over these early posts: Google Arts and Culture. “10 Top Museums You Can Explore, Right Here, Right Now.” Google Arts and Culture. Accessed March 31, 2020 Andrea Romano, “Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch” (March 12, 2020) Lori Byrd-McDevitt, “The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections” MCN (March 14, 2020) Morgan Sung, “Museum asks people to recreate art from household items while social distancing and it’s delightful,”(March 29, 2020) Mashable “ART HISTORY IN QUARANTINE: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS, DIGITAL FUTURES” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR DIGITAL ART HISTORYApril 10th, 11:30 our time, and you need to register to receive the Zoom link. |
| 10 | Week 10: Public Engagement/Crowdsourcing Guest speakers Jen Lucy, Marketing + Design Manager at The Hermitage Museum & Gardens, Norfolk, VA / Independent Curator and Monica Kinsey, Administrative Coordinator at VCUarts The Anderson (both VCU MA alums and former DAH students) Read: L. Carletti, G. Giannachi, D. Price, D. McAuley, “Digital Humanities and Crowdsourcing: An Exploration,” in MW2013: Museums and the Web 2013, April 17-20, 2013, and Sandra Corbeil, Fiona Smith Hale, Christopher Jaja, Crowdsourcing a nation – MW17: Museums and the Web 2017 Look also at the current and past programs for Museums and the Web and their GLAMies and Best of the Web Pandemic Crowdsourcing: Elle Moxley “Instead Of Laying Off Workers, Kansas City’s WWI Museum Redeploys Them To Expand Digital Archive,” (March 31, 2020) KCUR/NPR Crowdsourcing Projects: Look at the National Archives, Europeana, 1914-1918, the Smithsonian Digital Volunteers, the Smithsonian Social Media Policy. For an ongoing list see the GLAM/Resources/Crowdsourcing projects – Outreach Wiki Amazon’s Mechanical Turk Jay Mollica, Send Me SFMOMA GLAM APIs: look at the Brooklyn Museum, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the V&A, and the Tate Gallery. Example use of the open data made available by the Rijksmuseum or the Tate by Florian Kräutli (which you have already seen). 51 Museums APIs (2020) | ProgrammableWeb |
| 11 | Week 11: Can the Virtual Exhibit Provide Greater Inclusion and Diversity? Read: Kate Meyers Emery, “Creative, Authentic and United: Digital Engagement During COVID-19.” Museum 2.0, April 21, 2020 McLean, Kathleen. “Whose Questions, Whose Conversations?” in Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User Generated World. Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski, eds. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press Inc., 2011, 70-79. Rebecca Carlsson, “Why we need museums now more than ever,” MuseumNext – Defining the Future of Museums (March 14 2020) Museum Think Tank Webinar: Cultural Organizations as Incubators for Social Impact, Cuseum (June 16, 2020) Simon, Nina. “Opening up the Museum.” Presented at TedX Santa Cruz. September 15th, 2012. Review: Ajinkya Rajendrakumar Kunjir and Krutika Ravindra Patil (eds). Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, Art, and Museums (Hershey, PA: IPI Global, 2019). Multiple relevant chapters – browse. |
| 12 | Week 12: Class group project time and meet with me regarding your final projects |
| Data Projects Due | |
| 13 | Week 13: Presentations Week One Students will give a twenty-minute presentation about one of their individual projects. What were the research questions? How did your reading influence your design choices? What was the process? What were the challenges? What was particularly successful? How did the digital nature of the platform(s) you used, allow you to realize this project? Does it provide you with any additional research questions? Charlotte Digital Art Museum Participation in a Pandemic Grayson Hasui Sites of Work Hannah Visualizing the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ African Art Collection Lisa Digital Tech in Online Ed |
| 13 | Presentations Week Two Students will give a twenty-minute presentation about one of their individual projects. What were the research questions? How did your reading influence your design choices? What was the process? What were the challenges? What was particularly successful? How did the digital nature of the platform(s) you used, allow you to realize this project? Does it provide you with any additional research questions? Maddie Edward S. Curtis Damon From Modernity to Degeneracy Naomi Cartographic Countering in”Historic Charleston” Clay and Zachary – A first view of what’s going on at the Anderson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDYJKbOGy8Q&feature=youtu.be |
| 14 | Conclusions |
| Final Projects Due |