Lev Manovich, Jeremy Douglass, Sergie Magdalin, Falko Kuester, So Yamaoko: Cultural Analytics Research Environment
Artist(s):
Title:
- Cultural Analytics Research Environment
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2009
Category:
Artist Statement:
Our team of specialists in visual arts, communication, cognitive science, and structural engineering produces interactive visualizations of cultural flows, patterns, and relationships based on analysis of large sets of data comparable in size to datasets used in sciences.
Contemporary science increasingly relies on computer-based analysis and visualization of large datasets and data flows. The availability of large cultural datasets (through the web and digitization efforts by museums and libraries) and tools already employed in the sciences to analyze big datasets makes feasible a new methodology for the study of cultural processes and artifacts. Whereas humanities specialists have typically relied on manual analysis of a small number of cultural objects, we can now create information visualizations of large cultural datasets to discover patterns that have not been visible previously. We believe that we can make field-defining progress in this area by bringing together people who study and create digital cultural artifacts, people who study distributed human cognition, and people who are developing computational tools for analysis, display, and interaction with large datasets.
Our team creates new kinds of multi-modal interfaces appropriate for the study and experience of large sets of cultural artifacts in different media. We will also combine the visualization techniques normally used in science with the techniques developed in digital design and new-media art. The practical outcome of our research is the Cultural Analytics Research Environment, an open platform that supports analysis of different types of visual and media data and a variety of visualization and mapping techniques. We believe that such visualization environments will be used by social scientists and cultural theorists, students in art history, media studies, and communication studies classes; museum visitors; and cultural creators who want to better understand how their work fits within a larger context.
