Data-Driven Art History

The Cultural Science Lab brings together humanistic inquiry and scientific methods of analysis to explore culture as a complex system.

The process of understanding art and culture is driven primarily by qualitative humanistic inquiry. Within this process, technology is used in data collection, material analysis, visualization, and ever closer or more distant readings than possible with the naked eye. Yet few humanists and technologists engage in true collaboration.

This video depicts European birth to death network dynamics 0 to 2012 CE according to "deceased persons" in Freebase.com. The video was first published as Movie S1 in the article "A Network Framework of Cultural History" by Schich et al. in Science Magazine on August 1, 2014.

Collaborative research in the group of Maximilian Schich addresses questions and challenges of art, architectural, and cultural history, using a multidisciplinary approach that integrates qualitative inquiry and observation with methods of computation, natural science, and information design.

Research in the Cultural Science Lab is collaborative and takes place in an environment inspired by think tanks, design studios, and laboratories.

Read "A Network Framework of Cultural History" from Science Magazine

Maximilian Schich, Research Professor of Cultural Data Analytics (ERA Chair), Tallinn University, The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, The University of Texas at Dallas, Affiliated Faculty