Data Processing via Digital Technology and Semantic Web
The new Corpus of Baroque Ceiling Painting in Germany (CbDD) will make all research results available to the public in an internet platform in accordance with Open Access guidelines in a continuous publication process. The project will remain open to new standards and follow the flow of continuous development within the world of the Semantic Web. The online publication database, adapted for the specific needs of this image-based research-project, will be hosted at the Deutsche Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
Art Historical Research and Digital Humanities
The comprehensive overview and accessible internet publication will make Baroque ceiling painting accessible for researchers, for the general public, and on an international level. Mural painting of the Early Modern period is a specific form of pictorial art, which is especially important because of its architectural setting. It is a subject of transnational and interdisciplinary interest and it deserved special attention. The database with links to further working tools will provide the reader with new opportunities a book publication cannot offer in the same way. The documentation relies on the new technologies of digital photography, and on new forms of multimedia visualisations, too. Thus, the art historical research on the Baroque can profit from the potentials of the latest innovations within the field of digital humanities.
Web-Based Work Provides New Perspectives
The project Corpus of Baroque Ceiling Painting in Germany works with a virtual research environment named WissKI, short for the IT platform „Wissenschaftliche KommunikationsInfrastruktur“. WissKI represents the systematic advancement of the Wiki idea. All data are entered and stored on this work platform, providing the project’s researchers with the opportunity to work independent from the location in mutual collaboration.
Multiple Combinations of Image and Text
Compared to the traditional print publications the web-based method of work and publication offers a number of advantages with regard to research, presentation and distribution of research results. At the same time this method a can form the base for printed publications supplying research material for manual use and, last but not least, for decentralised archiving.
New Forms of Visualisation
The digital processing and publication of the material opens up new opportunities for multiple combinations of image and text as well as new forms of visualisation, among them hyperlinks within digital illustrations. Furthermore, 3D modelling will be tested: It can offer new possibilities for the visualisation of the spatial relations between this special form of interior decoration and architecture, creating new possibilities for comparison and research in the future.
IT Work Platform WissKI
WissKI provides all functions necessary for interactive work with multimedia records. It allows for producing structured texts and linking them with photos, graphs, maps and 3D visualisations. Using the latest technologies, data storage takes place ontology-based in a triple store. This allows for globally interconnecting research results with other data repositories via Linked Data.
Global Interlinking of Research Results
The data model used is compatible with ISO Standard 21127 (CIDOC-CRM), for exchange and integration of scientific information regarding cultural heritage. Furthermore the structured entering of objects and metadata employs controlled vocabulary and standard data (e.g. Getty-Thesauri, VIAF, GND) providing a global interlinking of research results as well.
Publishing According to the Principles of Open Access
Texts, graphs and images will be published on a publication platform and will be accessible online. This platform is especially developed for the specific purposes and needs of this corpus project and will provide structural data, describing texts and images in high resolution digital objects. Publication will take place step by step according to the principles of Open Access. A differentiated system will allow for a multiple queries.The publication platform of the Corpus of Baroque Ceiling Painting in Germany will be interlinked with other repositories like DDB or Europeana.
The digital platform is stored on long-term servers run and serviced by the LRZ.
The WissKI software is developed with funding of the DFG as a Joint Venture of the Digital Humanities Research Group of Computer Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the Museum-Computer-Science-Department at the Germanische Nationalmuseum (GNM) in Nürnberg and the Biodiversity Informatics Group at the Zoologische Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) in Bonn.