The Close-up Cloud

Visualizing Details of Image Collections in Dynamic Overviews

  • Pauline Junginger (Author)
  • Dennis Ostendorf (Author)
  • Barbara Avila Vissirini (Author)
  • Anastasia Voloshina (Author)
  • Timo Hausmann (Author)
  • Sarah Kreiseler (Author)
  • Marian Dörk (Author)

Identifiers (Article)

Abstract

This paper introduces a visualization technique designed to uncover iconographic patterns prevalent within a collection while at the same time allowing close viewing of these particular details. Challenging an institutionalized understanding of overview and detail as inherently opposed, the intention of this research is to develop a visualization method that accounts for the iconographic abundance of a collection and encourages its casual exploration. Expanding digitization efforts have led to a growing number of rich cultural heritage datasets that are successively being published online. At the same time scholars are exploring the potential of computational methods to expand the scale and scope of art history. In this context, data visualization is often equated with a distanced perspective diminishing the intricate and intriguing details of individual artifacts. In collaboration with a museum of applied and decorative arts, we have devised a novel interface concept for the exploration of image collections such as historical glass plate negatives. Inspired by photographic plates on a light table, the resulting Close-up Cloud translates the art historical method of close viewing into the digital by combining it with a dynamic representation of quantitative iconographic patterns across an entire image collection.

Statistics

Section
Language
English
Academic discipline and sub-disciplines
digital art history, interface design, media studies
Type, method or approach
text
Keywords
data visualization, cultural heritage, distant viewing, user interface, photography
How to Cite
Junginger, Pauline, Dennis Ostendorf, Barbara Avila Vissirini, Anastasia Voloshina, Timo Hausmann, Sarah Kreiseler, and Marian Dörk. 2020. “The Close-up Cloud: Visualizing Details of Image Collections in Dynamic Overviews”. International Journal for Digital Art History, no. 5 (December):6.2-6.13. https://doi.org/10.11588/dah.2020.5.72039.