Research project Metadata culture
Metadata Culture is a research project led by Anna Dahlgren, Professor of Art History at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, and Karin Hansson, artist and research fellow at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University.
Metadata Culture is the overarching name for this research group. We are looking at different “metadata cultures” from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on the visual heritage. Methodologically we are also developing our sharing processes aiming for a more inclusive research culture inspired by participatory design practices.
Project description
The design and use of metadata are always culturally and ideologically inflicted. Accordingly, the practice and policy of tagging images in cultural heritage institutions are not only fundamental for our understanding of the past but vital in navigating the present. Especially when it comes to big data and data-driven research, we have to pay particular attention to the consequences of the interfaces that curate our common history. We are living in a metadata culture, where tagging data has become an important literacy. Metadata and the archiving practices that produce it are increasingly important for cultural heritage institutions, and for contemporary culture at large, as a mean to navigate the rapidly growing volume of data situating them historically, socially and, not least, locally.
Crowdsourcing, social media platforms for community engagement, linked open data, and other participatory and open science practices, create new challenges to for archiving institutions due to the character of the networked publics involved and the established structures between and within institutions, but also new opportunities and practices when it comes to understanding and defining our shared culture.
The Politics of Metadata (2019-2023)
The aim of this five-year project is to critically examine the policies and practices of tagging images in cultural heritage institutions’ image collections online through a cross-disciplinary approach, to contribute to the development of sustainable image-archiving eco-systems which simultaneously meet the demands of high usability, professionalism, and diversity and participation.
Sharing the Visual Heritage. Metadata, reuse and interdisciplinary research (2019-2023)
The purpose of this five-year project is to support the production of elaborated metadata for our visual heritage and to strengthen open and interdisciplinary research infrastructures within academia and between academia and the cultural heritage sector. The aim is first to investigate and develop methods for obtaining qualified and extensive metadata for images in digitalized cultural heritage collections. Second the project sets out to outline participatory methodologies for open and linked metadata practices in an interdisciplinary research community.
Project members
Project managers
Anna Näslund
Professor
Members
Karin Hansson
Associate professor in Computer- and Systems Sciences
Sonya Petersson
Senior lecturer, associate professor, research officer
Vendela Grundell Gachoud
Project leader Art and Research
Publications
More about this project
Collaborating Partners
- Uppsala University Library. Karolina Andersdotter arranged two Hackatons for researchers (Jan 2020) while being employed in the project. She combined this task with working with digital tools and management at Uppsala University Library.
- National Library of Sweden. Katinka Ahlbom, Head of Manuscripts, Maps and Pictures and Stina Degerstedt, Head of the metadata programme. Have constributed to a national survey on metadata uses.
- Stockholm City Archive. Ann-Sofi Forsmark, Head of Development, Stockholm City Archive and Samuel Branting, Coordinator for Stockholmskällan. Have contributed to a national survey on metadata uses.
Text Mining Art History Dataset for the Reserach Project Metadata Culture
A Text Mining Art History Dataset produced by Amanda Wasielewski within this research project. The research for this dataset was conducted within the project Sharing the Visual Heritageat The Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University, funded by the Swedish Research Council (No 2018-06057).
Text Mining Art History Dataset for the Reserach Project Metadata Culture
Past events
- 4-5.3.2021 New Datasets, Old Mindsets. Quantifying and Contextualizing Digital Approaches in Art History, Digital Approaches to Art History and Cultural Heritage, Univ. of Oxford/ Univ. of Durham
- 24.2.2021 Metadata as a Diversity Tool: Sami Traces in Institutional Archives Online, Digital technologies for social inclusion and participation
- 4.12 2020: Berika samlingarna, Workshop Riksantikvarieämbetet/DH Uppsala University, workshop on metadata
- 14.6 2020: Datafication and cultural heritage – provocations, threats, and design opportunities. A workshop at ECSCW 2020, June 14, in Siegen, Germany
- 29-30.8 2019: Infrastructural Tensions. Infrastructure, Implementation, Policies, Digital Humanities, Uppsala University
- 26-27.8 2019: DIGARV program meeting, Vård Gård, Stockholm
- 1.4 2019: Öppen workshop om digital humanvetenskap och metod, Stockholm University
- 27.3 2019: Forskardriven digitalisering – datadriven forskning III, RAÄ
- 31.1. 2019: Metadata – Nøglen til samlingen også i framtiden, LFF, Odense
- 30.1. 2019: Databases for research. Big Data on Artists’ Materials for Ground Layers 1550-1700, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
- 29.1 2019: Digital Humanities Stockholm, National Library of Sweden
- 26.11. 2018: Forskardriven digitalisering – datadriven forskning I, Nordiska museet