Art History Now

Technology, Information, and Practice

Abstract

The last twenty has seen our reliance on digital technology for the practice of art history grow alongside the emergence of what is called the digital humanities. Yet the discourse around digital humanities has thus far failed to articulate, explicitly or consistently, the true stakes of technologies’ influence on the humanities, much less art history. This article therefore seeks to reframe the debate. It argues that we should focus not on the digital or the computer, but instead on the but instead on the dynamic interrelationship between the institutions and domains responsible for the management of art historical information and those of the production of art historical knowledge. More specifically, it examines how recent technological developments are shifting priorities and processes within such institutions and thus shaping and reshaping art-historical practice.