The document discusses the materiality of digital objects and artifacts in art historical research. It argues that digital representations of physical materials require new methodologies to contribute to art history scholarship. Specifically, the 'materiality' of digital artifacts needs to be studied through scholarly and artistic analysis using digital images and tools for comparison. Effective research methods are needed to understand how digital materials can be used in art historical study.

1. Digital Material, NUI Galway, 22 May 2015
Digital
Materiality
&
Art Historical
Research
KAROLINA BADZMIEROWSKA

2. Material (PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE)
a physical substance that things can be made from
Material (INFORMATION)
Information or ideas for use in creating a book or other work
Material (CLOTH)
cloth that can be used to make things such as clothes
Materials (EQUIPMENT)
equipment that you need for a particular activity
Material (PHYSICAL)
Denoting or consisting of physical objects rather than the mind or spirit
Material (IMPORTANT)
formal important or having an important effect
Material (PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE)
a physical substance that things can be made from
Material (INFORMATION)
Information or ideas for use in creating a book or other work
Material (CLOTH)
cloth that can be used to make things such as clothes
Materials (EQUIPMENT)
equipment that you need for a particular activity
Material (PHYSICAL)
Denoting or consisting of physical objects rather than the mind or spirit
Material (IMPORTANT)
formal important or having an important effect
material /məˈtɪərɪəl/
noun
adjective
material /məˈtɪərɪəl/
noun
adjective

3. Material (PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE)
a physical substance that things can be made from
Material (INFORMATION)
Information or ideas for use in creating a book or other work
Material (CLOTH)
cloth that can be used to make things such as clothes
Materials (EQUIPMENT)
equipment that you need for a particular activity
Material (PHYSICAL)
Denoting or consisting of physical objects rather than the mind or spirit
Material (IMPORTANT)
formal important or having an important effect
digital representations intangible material
use of digital images new methodologies
digital material needs contribution to art history scholarship
scholarly and artistic
‘materiality’ of digital / artefacts
ive research methods
material /məˈtɪərɪəl/
digital intangible representations physical material
use of digital images new methodologies
digital material needs contribution to art history scholarship
scholarly and artistic
‘materiality’ of digital / artefacts
ive research

4. ‘materiality’ of digital objects / artefacts

5. Salvador Dali
The Persistence of Memory
1932
Museum of Modern Art, New York
24.1 x 33 cm

6. Photograph by Trexler (Flickr)

7. Pablo Picasso
Guernica
1937
Oil on canvas
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
349 cm × 776 cm

8. Visitor viewing Picasso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
Denis Doyle for The New York Times

9. Claude Monet
The Waterlilies
1920–1926
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
200 cm x 600 cm

10. Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris / Bridgeman Images

11. Jan van Eyck
Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
1430-1432
Philadelphia Museum of Art

12. Philadelphia Museum of Art
12.7 x 14.6 cm

13. Swarzenski, Hanns, Vorgotische Miniaturen.
Die ersten Jahrhunderte Deutscher Malerei.
Königstein, Langewiesche, 1927
Illuminated page from Gengenbach/Baden
Evangelistery
Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart
ca. 1150 AD

14. digital intangible representations
made from physical material

15. Google Images search results for: ‘Vermeer Milkmaid’ (detail)

18. digital material needs to make contribution
to art history scholarship

19. Willem van Haecht
The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest
1628
Oil on panel
100 x 130 cm
Rubenshuis, Antwerp

20. Aby M. Warburg | Mnemosyne Atlas | 1924-
1929
Greek [mnɛːmosýːnɛː] memory
The Warburg Institute, University of London

21. The Warburg Institute,
University of London

22. Mnemosyne. Meanderings through Aby Warburg’s Atlas
http://warburg.library.cornell.edu/

23. Exhibition: “MNEMOSYNE ATLAS: Aby Warburg’s Cosmos of Images”
University of Tokyo, Japan
15-22 December 2012

24. scholarly and artistic activity

25. Maurice Jarnoux
André Malraux amid
photo reproductions for
his book "Le Musée
Imaginaire”
ca. 1947
Barcelona Museum of
Contemporary Art

26. Dennis Adams, “Malraux’s Shoes” (2012)
Video still.
Single-channel video, 42 minutes. Written and performed by Dennis Adams. Directed by Dennis Adams
and Paul Colin.

27. Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP)
1968
Designed by Lina Bo Bardi

28. Gerhard Richter
Atlas (Städte / Cities)
1968
51.7 cm x 66.7 cm
Atlas Sheet: 113

29. Gerhard Richter
Atlas (Seestücke / Seascapes)
1972
51.7 cm x 36.7 cm
Atlas Sheet: 202

30. Gerhard Richter
Atlas (Holocaust)
1997
51.7 cm x 71 cm
Atlas Sheet: 637

31. Gerhard Richter
Atlas (Landschaften / Landscapes)
1985
51.7 cm x 66.7 cm
Atlas Sheet: 433

32. Leila Cook Barber, member of the Art faculty, at work in the slide library
c. 1950s
Vassar College, New York

33. Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia University
The Lantern Slide in Architecture Education
2010

34. Theaster Gates
“To Speculate Darkly”
Installation
2010
Milwaukee Art Museum

35. Dina Kelberman
I’m Google
2011-2014

36. use of digital images in
creating new methodologies

40. 1 2
Detail comparison (1 – left; 2 – right)

41. Images scaled and layered in Photoshop
with an adjusted opacity of the second layer (0-100%)

42. Two images (1, 2) compared and analyzed using Resemble.js
http://huddle.github.io/Resemble.js/
The generated image (3) highlights the differences between the images (7.18 %)
1 2 3

43. effective research?

44. THANK YOU
karolinabadz.com
badzmiek@tcd.ie
@karolinabadz
Karolina
Badzmierowska