The project of the Slovak National Gallery and the Nasjonalmuseet (The
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design) called Art, Collections
and Data Across Borders came to an end. The online catalogues developed
by these institutions – the Norwegian Samling and the Slovak Web umenia
(“Web of Art”) – were at the heart of this project. Since the digital
technologies and the internet, along with a physical visit of a gallery,
are one of the main access points to the collections, the goal of the
project was to make them even more available to the public. During the
course of the project, a series of workshops, as well as Art Data
Hackathon, took place. The participants managed to improve the
functionality of the websites and also expand the number of the participating galleries.
The common grounds of both institutions offered the possibility of knowledge and skills exchange, sharing of technologies and outlining a similar digital strategy. The intensive cooperation culminated in two workshops and the Art Data Hackathon event. The first workshop took place in Bratislava and was focused on presenting the projects of both partners in the field of collections management systems. The workshop participants discussed their experiences with developing Web umenia and Samling, the individual features (tagging, displaying high-resolution images and making them freely accessible), how to engage visitors in creating content (annotating artworks, feedback) and challenges connected with it (moderating the content, quality control) as well as other plans (such as developing an English version of Web umenia). The Norwegian partners were introduced to our digitisation department and Digital Gallery project. This project, which digitised a large portion of the collection in high-resolution, foreshadowed the creation of Web umenia.
The main event of the project was Art Data Hackathon. The international
nature of the event was given, considering the participation of
Norwegian partners and the fact that the event was carried out in the
English language. The event was a success with both the organisers and
the participants, who worked on innovative projects connecting art,
software and technology. Teams have been created so that the abilities
and skills (programming, graphic design, marketing) of the contestants
complemented each other. Data on works of art from the collections of
the SNG and Nasjonalmuseet, artist biographies, source codes and API
documentation and a three-dimensional model of the building
reconstruction of SNG were all available. The participants were also
able to participate in various workshops – working with data from
galleries, working with OpenCV or collaboration through GitHub platform.
Among the mentors who were available for participants during the event
were General Director of SNG Alexandra Kusá, Chief Curator of
Collections of Old Art Dušan Buran, visual artist Amalia Roxana Filip,
programmer Matej Fandl, members of the lab.SNG platforms and professional staff from the Norwegian Nasjonalmuseet. One of the
winning projects – Vampart – is available online and it was met with
positive response from both the wider public and the experts. Video
documenting the event is also available.
Art Data Hackathon and the further development of the winning projects
were discussed during the second workshop in Oslo. More detailed plans
for the further development of Web umenia and Samling were also debated,
such as expanding the artist biographies on Web umenia to include
Wikipedia entries or automatic identification of styles and genres of
the paintings using "machine learning" (Nasjonalmuseet project). The
workshop participants were introduced to work of various departments –
Digital Photography Department and Media Design Group. The workers of
the Nasjonalmuseet Digital Photography Department met with the workers
from the SNG Digital Technologies Section in March 2017, who presented
their own experience with digitisation.
An important goal of the
project Art, Collections and Data Across Borders was the development of
Web umenia, an online catalogue of artworks from Slovak galleries. From
the user's point of view, the most visible change will be the English
version of the site – a feature that will allow the user to search and
view the information about the artwork in English. It will soon be made
available to the public. During the duration of the project, the number
of participating galleries increased from 5 to 7 – Nitra Gallery and
Central Slovakian Gallery in Banská Bystrica were added. The website
Dream × Reality – Events of the Slovak State in 4 Chapters was also
developed during the project as an extension of Web umenia. This website
enhances the exhibition about art and propaganda during the years 1939 –
1945 with historical context. This site, which is in the form of a
long-form article, was developed using the components of Web umenia -
using the zoom functionality to view the images in high-resolution.
Linking the two sites to each other also contributed significantly to
their traffic – Web umenia was visited by more than 103,000 users during
the duration of the project, while Dream × Reality – Events of the
Slovak State in 4 Chapters was visited more than 18,000 times.
More information
Vampart (one of the winning project from Art Data Hackathon)
Project Overview
Recipient:
Slovak National Gallery
www.sng.sk/en
www.webumenia.sk
Partner:
Nasjonalmuseet – The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
holds, preserves, exhibits, and promotes public knowledge about,
Norway's most extensive collections of art, architecture and design. It
shows permanent exhibitions of works from its own collections and
temporary exhibitions that incorporate works loaned from elsewhere. The
Museum's exhibition venues in Oslo are the National Gallery, the Museum
of Contemporary Art, the National Museum – Architecture, and the Museum
of Decorative Arts and Design. The Museum's programme also includes
exhibitions that tour both within and beyond Norway's borders.
www.nasjonalmuseet.no
samling.nasjonalmuseet.no
Duration of the project:
June 2016 – April 2017
NFP grant:
92,412 €
Contact:
Ladislava Gnacková | ladislava.gnackova@sng.sk
Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway.
Co-financed by the State Budget of the Slovak Republic.