Machine Learning for Cultural Heritage: A Survey

The application of Machine Learning (ML) to Cultural Heritage (CH) has evolved since basic statistical approaches such as Linear Regression to complex Deep Learning models. The question remains how much of this actively improves on the underlying algorithm versus using it within a ‘black box’ setting. We survey across ML and CH literature to identify the theoretical changes which contribute to the algorithm and in turn them suitable for CH applications. Alternatively, and most commonly, when there are no changes, we review the CH applications, features and pre/post-processing which make the algorithm suitable for its use. We analyse the dominant divides within ML, Supervised, Semi-supervised and Unsupervised, and reflect on a variety of algorithms that have been extensively used. From such an analysis, we give a critical look at the use of ML in CH and consider why CH has only limited adoption of ML

Tradition and Transformation: Cataloguing Chinese Art in the Middle and Late Imperial Eras

After obtaining sovereignty, a new emperor of China often gathers the imperial collections of previous dynasties and uses them as evidence of the legitimacy of the new regime. Some emperors go further, commissioning the compilation projects of bibliographies of books and catalogues of artistic works in their imperial collections not only as inventories but also for proclaiming their imperial power. The imperial collections of art symbolize political and cultural predominance, present contemporary attitudes toward art and connoisseurship, and reflect emperors’ personal taste for art. The attempt of this research project is to explore the practice of art cataloguing during two of the most important reign periods in imperial China: Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (r. 1101-1125) and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (r. 1736-1795). Through examining the format and content of the selected painting, calligraphy, and bronze catalogues compiled by both emperors, features of each catalogue reveal the development of cataloguing imperial artistic collections. In addition to constructing a historical line of cataloguing art, this project demonstrates the relationship between contemporary politics, cultures, and art. Further, it offers suggestions about the purpose and function of imperial collections of art, on the one hand, and reflects emperors’ and literati’s attitudes and viewpoints on art and connoisseurship, on the other hand

Using the archive to formulate a chronology of rock art in the South-Western Cape, South Africa

Includes bibliographical references.With absolute dating still limited, relative chronologies remain useful in contextualising painting interpretations. This study vouches for the archival capacity of rock art and hence the archival perspective can be used to analyse paintings sites to build a framework their chronological and interpretative formulations. The sequence of paintings in the south-western Cape is customarily accepted to span hunter-gatherer phase from over 10,000 B.P.; then herding/pastoralism from ca. 2,000 B.P., and finally the historical-cum-colonial period several centuries ago. Several painting traditions with distinct depiction manners and content are conventionally linked to these periods. This study does not replace but evaluates this schema in order to refine the diverse hunter-gatherer, herder and colonial era painting contexts and history. Using superpositions as one of my analytical tools, the notion of datum aided the referencing and correlation of layered image categories into relative sequence. Visible differences occur between painting traditions, but indistinguishable within a single tradition. Some themes such as elephants, fat-tailed sheep, handprints and possibly geometric forms and dots were found to occur in various levels, even as parts of different traditions. Such divergences were analysed through the archival concept of respect des fonds to clarify graphic variations through the chronology. Probing other sources of information revealed that change from earlier to later imagery phases reflected shifts in the socio-economic, cultural and political circumstances of the region. These histories through time are indicated by the choice and sustenance of particular thematic subjects although their meaning and form changed. The ensuing sequence and interpretation of selected painted themes is a descriptive template reflecting the organic character in the creation, the order of painting phases and cultural continuities and disjunctions in the use of symbolism. This agenda in part reviews the changing social and historical landscape in order to understand variation of painting over time and to project possible interpretative transformations in the sequence. Painting sequences and cultural (dis)continuities are thus intricately entwined and can be disentangled through an analysis that uses the recursive relationship between the archaeological, ethnographic, and historical sources. This amalgamated approach has the ability to produce historicised past narratives and contextual image meanings. The chronology can be understood through first accepting the social, economic, political, and cultural subtleties of painting production

Developing Animal and Human Relationships in Prehistoric South India: A Spatial and Contents Analysis of Petroglyphs at Maski, Karnataka

This thesis is the result of an in-depth investigation into the rock art of a local region in South India. It has explored the significance of tangible landscape placement in rock art production, a form of visual culture which remains intangible in many aspects of meaning. This thesis elaborates on current forms of archaeological knowledge in South India, generated through social understandings of landscape, contrasted against current knowledge of rock art in South India. It provides a means to intersect rock art documentation with archaeological research projects within an Indian context in a cost effective and widely applicable manner. A spatial analysis regarding the wider contexts of rock art sites, comparing their spatial proximity to variable natural and anthropogenic landscape features demonstrate the ubiquity of rock art production in this region of South India, associated with developed and ephemeral prehistoric habitation patterns. Additionally, a close scale analysis of technical details at panel level reveal different methods of continual interaction with motifs subsequent to their initial production phase, along with enhanced visualisations of motif forms. Overall, this thesis makes suggestions about the role of rock art in visualising developing relationships with animals and humans throughout the prehistoric period in South India, with a particular focus on cattle motifs. This thesis argues that the nature of that relationship is a continually transformative one, extending beyond the prehistoric period. Results presented in this thesis supports the integration of rock art documentation and analysis into other archaeological research projects within the Indian subcontinent, providing an added dimension to the complexity of archaeological human-landscape interactions

The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia (Terra Australis 47)

Western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, has a rich archaeological landscape, ethnographic record and body of rock art that displays an astonishing array of imagery on shelter walls and ceilings. While the archaeology goes back to the earliest period of Aboriginal occupation of the continent, the rock art represents some of the richest, most diverse and visually most impressive regional assemblages anywhere in the world. To better understand this multi-dimensional cultural record, The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia focuses on the nature and antiquity of the region’s rock art as revealed by archaeological surveys and excavations, and the application of novel analytical methods. This volume also presents new findings by which to rethink how Aboriginal peoples have socially engaged in and with places across western Arnhem Land, from the north to the south, from the plains to the spectacular rocky landscapes of the plateau. The dynamic nature of Arnhem Land rock art is explored and articulated in innovative ways that shed new light on the region’s deep time Aboriginal history

Defining Museum Intervention: An Analysis of James Putnam\u27s Time Machine

In his 2001 publication Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium, independent curator James Putnam coins the term ‘museum intervention’ to describe a type of artwork created by some artists as a means to critique organizing principles of the museum. Putnam’s book analyzes examples of museum interventions, including his own 1994 exhibition, Time Machine: Ancient Egypt and Contemporary Art, but fails to offer a definition for the term. This thesis analyzes the trajectory of exhibition practices leading to the publication of the new term through an examination of historical changes in museum display. The paper then analyzes examples of museum intervention included in Putnam’s book in order to develop a definition for the term. The paper examines Time Machine in relation to the new definition and, contrary to Putnam’s assertions, concludes that the exhibition is not a museum intervention

A Data Set and a Convolutional Model for Iconography Classification in Paintings

Iconography in art is the discipline that studies the visual content of artworks to determine their motifs and themes andto characterize the way these are represented. It is a subject of active research for a variety of purposes, including the interpretation of meaning, the investigation of the origin and diffusion in time and space of representations, and the study of influences across artists and art works. With the proliferation of digital archives of art images, the possibility arises of applying Computer Vision techniques to the analysis of art images at an unprecedented scale, which may support iconography research and education. In this paper we introduce a novel paintings data set for iconography classification and present the quantitativeand qualitative results of applying a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier to the recognition of the iconography of artworks. The proposed classifier achieves good performances (71.17% Precision, 70.89% Recall, 70.25% F1-Score and 72.73% Average Precision) in the task of identifying saints in Christian religious paintings, a task made difficult by the presence of classes with very similar visual features. Qualitative analysis of the results shows that the CNN focuses on the traditional iconic motifs that characterize the representation of each saint and exploits such hints to attain correct identification. The ultimate goal of our work is to enable the automatic extraction, decomposition, and comparison of iconography elements to support iconographic studies and automatic art work annotation.Comment: Published at ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH) https://doi.org/10.1145/345888