Pieces of a Bigger Puzzle: Tracing the Evolution of Artworks and Conceptual Ideas in Artists’ Notebooks

Artist’s notes are a rich source for understanding the motivations behind an artwork, but have been largely neglected by both art history researchers and in scholarly editing. Using the digital edition of the notebooks of the Austrian artist Hartmut Skerbisch as a case study, this article discusses the various methodological approaches to versions in different disciplines—(digital) scholarly editing, musicology, and art history—and their transferability to artists’ notes. It explores where versions can be found in a single autograph, in contrast to multiple witnesses, and how they can be represented digitally. Special attention is given to the versioning of graphics—prominently used as form of expression in the relevant notebooks—proposing a model for their formal description which makes them more comparable and reveals different versions and, consequently, the artistic development process

Taking Note: Challenges of Dealing with Graphical Content in TEI

This paper describes the ongoing development of a TEI-conformant model for the encoding of hybrid primary sources containing text and graphical components on a similar level of semantic meaning. The subsequent considerations are part of the digital scholarly edition project representing the notebooks of the Austrian conceptual artist Hartmut Skerbisch (1945–2009), a handwritten corpus created over a period of almost 40 years. Besides text, drawings were an important visual means of expression for the artist. In the context of digitally representing the numerous graphics embedded in the notes with equivalent depth to the text, a three-step model is proposed. This model takes into account the (1) graphical components characterizing the composition, (2) textual functions describing and directing the execution of artworks, and (3) interpretation of the graphics and their contextualization with connected material and information. The paper discusses the existing methods of representing graphics in TEI, presents the combination of these methods in the actual scholarly edition project, and introduces the semantic enrichment of the TEI sources through formal descriptions in RDF/XML taxonomies using linked open data. Thus, the genealogy of artistic concepts and artworks documented in the notebooks will become traceable

Topic Modeling for the Identification of Gender-specific Discourse. Virtues and Vices in French and Spanish 18th Century Periodicals

Gender-specific knowledge – just like knowledge in general – is generated through discourses that are disseminated through (mass) media. Among the first mass media is the Spectator press (Moralische Wochenschriften) which spread all over Europe throughout the 18th century. With their gender-specific discourses, analyzed in Spectatoriale Geschlechterkonstruktionen (Völkl 2022), they decisively promote the development of a (bourgeois) gender model, shaping the social perception of gender until today. Against this background, the present article examines the gender-specific discourses in the French and Spanish Spectator periodicals by means of topic modeling which detects semantically related words. The study, which originates from the project Distant Spectators. Distant Reading for Periodicals of the Enlightenment (Scholger et al. 2019–2021), shows that topic modeling reinforces previous findings on gender-specific discourses in the Spectator periodicals. Moreover, it offers new perspectives concerning this research corpus

Versioning Cultural Objects : Digital Approaches

This volume approaches an understanding of the term versioning in the broadest sense, discussing ideas about how versions differ across forms of media, including text, image, and sound. Versions of cultural objects are identified, defined, articulated, and analysed through diverse mechanisms in different fields of research. The study of versions allows for the investigation of the creative processes behind the conception of works, a closer inspection of their socio-political contexts, and promotes investigation of their provenance and circulation. Chapters in this volume include discussion of what a “version” means in different fields, case studies implementing digital versioning techniques, conceptual models for representing versions digitally, and computational and management issues for digital projects

Paul Klee – Bildnerische Form- und Gestaltungslehre

This paper reviews the digital edition of Paul Klee’s Bildnerische Form- und Gestaltungslehre, the collection of his important teaching notes during his time at the Bauhaus as facsimile and transcript. A major challenge of this project is the dynamic nature of the material: the teaching material was restructured, revised and subsequently reused several times. While the transcriptions are unfortunately only available as images, which severely limits the possibilities for re-use of the research data, the edition nevertheless provides a vital source for art-historical research on an artist who influenced a generation of successors

Assoziationsprozessen auf der Spur : digitale Edition der Notizbücher von Hartmut Skerbisch

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Notizbücher des österreichischen Künstlers Hartmut Skerbisch (19452009). Es werden zunächst Künstler, Werk und Nachlass vorgestellt und die Notizbücher als Quellengattung definiert. Zudem werden die interdisziplinären methodischen Herangehensweisen zur digitalen, genetischen und semantischen Erschließung der Notizbücher diskutiert sowie die konkrete Umsetzung der digitalen Edition (http://gams.uni-graz.at/skerbisch) besprochen.Ziele der Arbeit sind neben der Transkription der Notizbücher die strukturelle und semantische Erschließung der Inhalte und der Aufbau einer frei zugänglichen Ressource bislang unveröffentlichter Quellen für die kunsthistorische Forschung in Form einer digitalen Edition. Daneben stehen vor allem die Analyse und Rekonstruktion künstlerischer Assoziations- und Werkschaffensprozesse im Fokus.Methoden der traditionellen philologischen Edition sowie digitale Methoden zur Erfassung, Analyse und Präsentation von Forschungsdaten werden ausgewählt, anhand der Notizbücher von Hartmut Skerbisch erprobt und auf ihre Tauglichkeit für die Erschließung editorischer, aber auch kunsthistorischer Fragestellungen evaluiert. Zudem wurde ein Modell für die Kodierung von Grafiken entwickelt, die in dieser Quellengattung dem Text als Bedeutungsträger zumindest ebenbürtig sind. Bei der Konzeption und Modellierung wurde auf die Verwendung von Standards und generischen Modellen geachtet, die auch auf andere Quellen anwendbar sind: Es können daher nicht nur die Edition selbst und damit verknüpfte zusätzliche Daten wie Register (Personen, Literatur, Musik) und Thesauri (Grafische Darstellungen, Konzepte) als Basis für weitere Forschungen herangezogen, sondern auch die verwendeten Methoden und Modelle für vergleichbare Editionsprojekte übernommen werden.Somit vollzieht diese Arbeit einen interdisziplinären Brückenschlag zwischen digitaler Geisteswissenschaft und kunsthistorischer Forschung.This work examines the notebooks of the Austrian artist Hartmut Skerbisch (19452009). First, the artist, his works and his bequest are presented and the notebooks are defined as a literary genre. Consequently, the interdisciplinary methodological approaches to the digital, genetic and semantic enrichment of the notebooks will be discussed and the concrete implementation of the digital edition (http://gams.uni-graz.at/skerbisch) will be described.In addition to the transcription of the notebooks, the project aims at the structural and semantic enrichment of the contents and the development of a freely accessible resource of previously unpublished sources for art historical research in the form of a digital scholarly edition. Furthermore, the analysis and reconstruction of associative and creative processes in the creation of works are a main concern.Methods of traditional philological edition as well as digital methods for the collection, analysis and presentation of research data are selected, tested on the basis of Hartmut Skerbisch's notebooks and evaluated regarding the suitability of their application to editorial and art historical research questions. Additionally, a model was developed for encoding graphical elements which carry the same weight and relevance as text regarding this genre of sources. During the conceptual and modelling process, attention was paid to the use of standards and generic models, which are also applicable to other sources: Therefore, not only the edition itself and associated additional data such as registers (persons, literature, music) and thesauri (graphic representations, concepts) can be used as a basis for further research, but the methods and models can themselves also be used for comparable edition projects.Thus, this work builds an interdisciplinary bridge between digital humanities and art historical research.eingereicht von Mag. Martina ScholgerAbweichender Titel laut Übersetzung des Verfassers/der VerfasserinZusammenfassungen in Deutsch und EnglischKarl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Dissertation, 2018OeBB(VLID)244816

Twilight Zones. Liminal Texts of the Long Turn of the Century (1880 - 1940)

The digital anthology "Twilight Zones" provides a new compilation of "liminal texts" and their analysis through an extensive category system, offering innovative insights into the long turn of the century. Around 1880 and continuing into the first decades of the 20th century, France, Austria, and Germany saw widespread innovations in the sciences, the arts, politics, and society that were reflected in textual production. These texts can be labeled as "liminal" because they deny to be classified into traditional systems, genres, and forms. The compilation and analysis of liminal texts offer an ideal field of experimentation for current theoretical and methodological questions.Die digitale Anthologie "Twilight Zones" stellt eine neue Kompilation aus "liminalen Texten" und deren Analyse durch ein umfangreiches Kategoriensystem zur Verfügung, das innovative Einblicke in die lange Zeit der Jahrhundertwende bietet. Um 1880 und bis in die ersten Jahrzehnte des 20. Jahrhunderts hinein kam es in Frankreich, Österreich und Deutschland zu breitenwirksamen Innovationen in den Wissenschaften, den Künsten, in Politik und Gesellschaft, die sich auch in der Textproduktion widerspiegelten. Diese Texte können als liminal bezeichnet werden, da sie sich einer Einordnung in die damals gültigen traditionellen Systeme, Gattungen und Formen verweigern. Die Zusammenstellung und die Analyse der liminalen Texte bieten ein ideales Experimentierfeld für aktuelle theoretische und methodische Fragestellungen