Learning from Many Images

Annotations of Historical Images for Cultural Heritage and Education

The research project at the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture ( University of Salzburg ) explores the untapped potential of annotations on historical visual media for art and cultural heritage mediation as well as for educational institutions. These annotations originate from citizen science projects, museum collections, and digital humanities research and have so far been used primarily for image retrieval or to improve AI-based annotation systems. The project aims to prepare these data for innovative formats in museum education and teacher training.

About the Project

Using the case study “Material boy? Depictions of Materials in the Work of Michael Pacher and His Circle”, the project investigates how image annotation and visualization techniques based on the distant viewing approach can open new perspectives on artworks. Specific materials – such as wood, stone, pearls, or brocade fabrics – are systematically identified and made comparable across numerous works.

The technical foundation is provided by data from the REALonline image database , which are reviewed, revised, and optimized for export to visualization software. In parallel, suitable visualization tools for cultural heritage applications are evaluated and, if necessary, adapted. Early cooperation interests from the museum sector, including the Austrian Gallery Belvedere, underline the relevance of this approach.

The results will be published on the Digital Humanities Blog of the University of Salzburg . Where possible, the developed software code will be released as open source (e.g., via GitHub). The project thus contributes to the Digital Humanities Austria Strategy 2021+ , particularly to the goals of strengthening cooperation between research institutions and memory organizations and facilitating knowledge transfer in teacher training.