Initiatives in Arts Computing

ITEM Knowledge Base	"ITEM (Image TEchnology in Museums and art galleries) is an international resource of information about the planned and implemented uses, world-wide, of image databases and interactive multimedia intended to further the accessibility, knowledge and interest in European and world cultural heritage, particularly in relation to the visual arts (including photographs), museums, architecture and archaeology. ITEM collects and disseminates descriptive text (in English and language of original production) and technical information (in English only), together with production and publisher contact names and addresses relating to projects under development and completed published or museum-resident image database and interactive multimedia projects. "These include projects developed by museums, cultural authorities and others for use as internal management and/or public point-of- information resources, projects that have been developed from these resources for subsequent publication and projects that have been designed from the outset specifically for commercial publication. The scope of ITEM coverage of published off-line and of museum-resident resources complements the rapidly expanding WWW on-line resources, worldwide."
"Project CHIO (Cultural Heritage Information Online) demonstrates solutions to the difficulties in achieving online access to cultural heritage information held in diverse locations - independent of the hardware and software used to store the data or search for it. The experiences gained from demonstrating how cultural information can be structured for easy electronic access are as important a result as the CHIO website itself, which offers a wide variety of information on folk art." "Using CHIO allows you to learn about folk art while you get a glimpse of how powerful online access to a broad variety of museum information from all over the world can be. The CHIO website allows access to databases of museum object records, full texts, and library catalog entries, along with images and online tools such as the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)."		CHIO: Cultural Heritage Information Online Project
The Open Studio Project	"Open Studio: The Arts Online is designed to serve as a laboratory for the exploration of the tools and techniques that will serve arts and cultural organizations as they prepare for the networked environment of the next century. "This effort is intended to increase the amount of local arts information on the Internet, allow local institutions to increase public recognition for their activities, and create a linked environment in which individual institutions can place their work in a national context."
A VRML-enhanced interactive electronic tour. "This project addresses the problem of bringing electronic technology into the teaching of humanities subjects in a manner that we believe will challenge traditional methods of pedagogy and benefit the learning process in a fundamental way. The technology is a newly created electronic teaching tool called *E.C.I.T* (Electronic Compendium of Images and Text), which brings together facts, conceptual materials, visual images, and three-dimensional models in a fully searchable electronic compendium."		The Piero Project
The Perseus Project @ Tufts University	"Perseus is a continually growing digital library of resources for studying the ancient world. The library's materials include ancient texts and translations, philological tools, maps, extensively illustrated art catalogs, and secondary essays on topics like vase painting. A collaborative team from a number of academic institutions has worked together to amass Perseus materials. Over 70 museums have shared pictures of their art objects."
Provocative thesis on an experiment in chronological visualization by Robin L. Kullberg: "By applying new visual techniques derived from traditional graphic design and cinema, such as infinite zoom, translucency, and animation, the traditional timeline is transformed into a dynamic, three-dimensional framework for the interactive presentation of historical information. "		Dynamic Timelines: Visualizing Historical Information in Three Dimensions
The Byzantine Project	"Over the past several years, Professor Ahmet Cakmak, of Princeton University's Department of Civil Engineering and Operations Research has undertaken the structural analysis, under earthquake loads, of the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia is a major museum (formerly church and mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, built by the Emperor Justinian during the 6th century AD. Professor Cakmak has sought to determine the susceptibility of the structure, specifically its large dome and arches, to collapse due to the earthquakes that often strike that part of the world. As an extension of that work into the architectural realm, he recently offered a class which studied Byzantine structures from a structural and art-historical perspective. One of the goals set forth in the class was for students to construct three-dimensional models of specific Byzantine structures utilizing the computer drafting software AutoCAD. This was the first step towards a long term goal of creating a full model of the topography of ancient Constantinople, with models of many Byzantine buildings in place. "
"a not-for-profit association of insitututions with collections of art, that are creating a digital library of their holdings for licensing to educational users."		AMICO: The Art Museum Image Consortum
AICT: Art Images for College Teaching	The Museum Digital Licensing Collective, Inc. (MDLC) is a Delaware non-profit, non-stock corporation formed to provide financial assistance for the digitization of original materials in museums and collecting institutions, manage the storage, distribution, and licensing of digitized materials to educational institutions, libraries, museums, commercial companies, and the public è Develop and distribute related technical and computer services. The MDLC is sponsored by the American Association of Museums. "