An interface to view collections of visual art

Abstract

Art experts prefer being able to look at the individual images they are working on in the course of their research. However, if one were to look at digitally accessible images in the field of visual art, one would be dealing with billions of images; no one can handle visually examining such huge numbers of images one at a time. Therefore, art experts need special tools to examine and describe artworks in the context of other artworks. We used our experience from previous projects and interviews with members of the target group (art historians, curators, art dealers, and artists) to identify the central issues these experts encounter when working with large image collections and to determine the functionality and properties a system must offer to support their work. The results led to the customized interface LadeCA.View, which is now used in several projects. LadeCA.View enables experts to describe an exhibition or a collection of visual art in such a way that a user can obtain an overview of the intention, content, and structures of the exhibition or collection within a short period of time without looking at each image individually. LadeCA.View can also be used as an interface to probe more deeply into a collection or exhibition. In this paper we show the functions and visualizations of the interface and explain the design decisions. Furthermore, we outline LadeCA.View’s scope of applicability using three case studies