INVESTIGATING MUSEUM COLLECTIONS: A COMBINATION OF DIGITAL AND TECHNICAL ART HISTORY

The aim of this course is to guide students in the knowledge and interpretation of digital resources useful for the study and communication of art historical collections. These resources have been adopted by the most important museums in the world. The course will examine museum platforms and contemporary art collections in their digital representation. General characteristics and case studies will be presented, as well as the use of specific metadata standards and thesauri.

Capacity for critical understanding. A general understanding of digital culture in contemporary art museums, including a basic knowledge of possible strategies for researching and presenting materials.
Access and analysis skills. Practice in accessing and assembling digital archive data.
Communication and terminology skills. The use of appropriate terms capable of characterising the themes and expressions of the specific language of the history of art; expository and descriptive skills capable of synthesising complex issues.

There are no specific requirements. However, a basic knowledge of 20th to 21st century arts is preferable.

The course explores the theme of the digital museum from the first photographic formulas developed by art critics and historians at the beginning of the twentieth century, to its incorporation into studies of visual culture and digital art history, and more generally into digital resources useful for the study of art history and cultural heritage. Starting from the analysis of individual case studies, virtual platforms and digital environments developed by major national and international museums and cultural sites will be presented. The focus will be on the digital strategies, languages, and open-access policies that the different institutions have in place to encourage user participation. The museum will be presented as a workshop for the education of cultural heritage, for the knowledge of its collections through the promotion of knowledge, and for the creation of new content.
Attention will be paid to the forms of representation of the collections, highlighting the role of cultural and creative industries in collaborating in the digital curation of museum spaces to improve access to knowledge of works of art.
Special attention will be given to IIIF - International Image Interoperability Framework for describing artworks in museum collections.
The aim of the lectures, which complement the study of bibliographic texts, is to provide useful tools for recognising these resources as a means of communicating, sharing, and interpreting cultural heritage. They will then identify the characteristics that are essential for the design of digital cultural platforms in terms of innovation and research.

Lewi, H., Smith, W., vom Lehn, D., & Cooke, S. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge International Handbook of New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites (1st ed.). Routledge.
Battro, A. M., From Malraux’s Imaginary Museum to the Virtual Museum, in Museum in a Digital Age, a cura di R. Parry, Leicester, Routledge, 2010.
Bishop, C., Radical museology. or, what’s ‘Contemporary’ in Museums of Contemporary Art? London Koenig Books, 2013.
Cohen, K., Elkins, J., Aronberg Lavin, M., Macko, N., Schwartz, G., Siegrfied L., S, Stafford, B., Digital Culture and the Practices of Art and Art history, in «Art bulletin», 79, n.2 (1997), pp.187-216.
D. England, T. Schiphorst, N. Bryan-Kins (edited by), Curating the Digital. Space for Art and Interaction, Springer, 2016
Frieling, R., The Museum as producer: Processing Art and Performing a Collection, in New Collecting: Exhibiting and Audience after New Media Art, a cura di Graham, B., London, New York, Ashgate, 2014, pp.133-158.
Brown, K. (Ed.). (2020). The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History. Routledge.
Grau, O., Hoth, J., & Wandl-Vogt, E. (Eds.). (2019). Digital Art Through the Looking Glass: New Strategies for Archiving, Collecting and Preserving in Digital Humanities. Edition Donau-Universität Krems.
Salarelli, A., International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF): a panoramic view, JLIST, 8 (2017).

Written and oral exam.
The examination will consist of an oral presentation of a project and an essay of 2000 words.
It will focus on a critical analysis of the new digital environment developed by the digital museum and the main changes in museum collections through the use of digital technologies. T
The evaluation will take into account the following elements
- The scholarly quality of the critical essay on the project developed (30%);
- The theoretical depth of the topics (30%);
- The clarity and accuracy of the project presentation (30%);
- The level of interaction in the lectures, seminar activities, and conferences offered (10%).

Attendance is strongly recommended.

The exam program for non-attending students remains the same, but they must contact the teacher to agree on the topic to develop.

Lectures will be given using slides and PowerPoint projections and will include the examination of online case studies, with the interaction between teacher and students. Students will be involved in workshops on critical reading and the design of virtual museum trails from the digital museums being studied.
Seminars, workshops, student presentations, and class discussions integrate the lessons.
The texts covered and discussed in class, with any supporting tools, are provided by the teacher during the course and made available on the Moodle platform. These texts, collected in a list at the end of the course, are an integral part of the exam program.

English

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development