The Digital U-Turn in Art History

The Digital U-Turn in Art History Anna Näslund Amanda Wasielewski

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The Digital U-Turn in Art History 2021 Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History 10.1080/00233609.2021.2006774 n-slund2021-the-digital-u-turn-in-art-history n-slund2021-the-digital-u-turn-in-art-history.txt, the project's staged copy 6fef6ba9e55eb929d2f089fe0b39369143d899af open-access art-history

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0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them The citation and theory profile of digital art history compared with mainstream art history, read as an explanation of why the field has not adopted computational methods. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanism Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. uptake of digital methods in art history Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. corpus-analysis corpus-analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms DAH and mainstream art history rest on incompatible theoretical foundations, and that incompatibility - not merely missing technical skill - is what keeps art historians from taking up computational methods. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms Citing the Renaissance-focused founders of the discipline borrows their legitimacy, which is how a self-declared new field secures a place inside existing disciplinary boundaries. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms The image-analysis tools were built for law enforcement, warfare and science rather than for art history, so their inherited design pushes users toward superficial formal, iconographic and colour-based classification. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms Because art history's primary material is images and artefacts rather than text, computational treatment is harder for it than for text-based disciplines, which partly explains its slower uptake. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Digital art history is not resisted because it is new but because the theory it imports is old - formalist and iconographic methods the field spent sixty years moving away from Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Citing early art historians as if they were contemporaries strips the theories of their historical context and hides the ideological commitments built into them Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The available image tools shape the questions asked, because they were built for classification and pattern-matching in other domains entirely Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Iconographic analysis and nineteenth-century scientific practice share a historical root, so the tools and the revived theory reinforce each other Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Frequency lists were generated over all names rather than a list the researchers supplied, specifically so the method could return names they had not thought of Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Counting the number of ARTICLES an author appears in, rather than total mentions, stops one heavily citing article from standing in for a field Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The prominence of Walter Benjamin as the one author shared by all three samples is left unexplained, being outside the paper's scope. what this limits: the Benjamin result specifically: HIS SINGULAR PROMINENCE IN THE FIELD OF ART HISTORY AS REPRESENTED BY OUR SAMPLE - DESERVES A LONG[er treatment], left unexplained here Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Bias is built into the study because the researchers themselves had to decide what counted as a representative sample. what this limits: every computational result in the paper, and in the genre: THE RESEARCHER MUST ALWAYS DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTES A COMPLETE, COMPREHENSIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE, WHICH MEANS THAT BIAS IS BUILT IN Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The computational methods are not described in technical detail in this article, being reported elsewhere. what this limits: any methodological reuse of the study: WE HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO DESCRIBE OUR TEXT MINING METHODS IN TECHNICA[l detail], being aimed at a broad art history audience Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The mainstream comparison rests on two journals chosen to reduce interdisciplinary noise, while the authors acknowledge art history is published far more widely what this limits: the mainstream comparison: it rests on two journals chosen to reduce interdisciplinary noise, while ART HISTORY IS A DIVERSE, INTERDISCIPLINARY FIELD Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Any computational humanities study builds in bias at the point where the sample is defined, which the authors state rather than claim to have avoided duplicate of: limitations[1] · what this limits: the same scope as limitations[1] - bias enters where the sample is defined Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Text mining alone cannot say why a name appears, which is why the study needed close reading as a second layer what this limits: any interpretation of the mention counts: THEY DID NOT, HOWEVER, GIVE US ANY SENSE OF WHY THEY APPEAR so often, which is why close reading was added as a second layer Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The technical account of the text mining is not in this paper but in two earlier ones, so the method cannot be checked from this text alone what this limits: the same scope as limitations[2] - the technical account of the text mining is in two earlier papers, so the method cannot be checked from this text Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The single author shared across all three samples, Benjamin, is set aside as beyond scope although he is the strongest signal in the data duplicate of: limitations[0] · what this limits: the same scope as limitations[0] - Benjamin, the one author shared across all three samples and the strongest signal in the data, is set aside as beyond scope Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. text mining, a method the authors note is common in other disciplines but rare in art history, is turned back onto art-historical writing itself to study the discipline's own historiography Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. frequency lists produced over ALL names in the corpus, ordered by frequency, instead of searching the material for the key concepts and names the researchers could think of eliminates: CONFIRMATION BY THE ANALYST - the paper's own phrase is 'looking to confirm a theme or pattern'. A search for names you already have in mind returns them, and the enumeration removes the step where salience is decided by the reader · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digital art history - Baca and Helmreich's wide sense: five overlapping phases beginning with digitization of archives Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digital art history - Drucker's narrow sense: analytic computational techniques ONLY, explicitly excluding digitized repositories Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digital art history - as this paper uses it: the wider sense, adopted by explicit decision after setting out the alternatives Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. citation frequency - number of ARTICLES an author is cited in, which is what every number here means Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. citation frequency - total mentions, the alternative that was tried and rejected because one article could then stand in for a field Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. novelty of DAH - as its supporters mean it: new questions and new kinds of information about art Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. novelty of DAH - as its critics mean it: a symptom of new public management and the urge to quantify everything Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. phenomenon: uptake of digital methods in art history a second reading reaching the same value. Recorded: uptake of digital methods in art history — note: a second reading reaching the same value from a different sentence. Not applied - a person decides. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. extends → Johanna Drucker's definition of digital art history in 'Is There a "Digital" Art History?' Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. builds-on → Paul Jaskot's question about which critical art-historical questions suit digital methods Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. critiques → Manovich's argument that computational methods can approach scientific objectivity in the humanities Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. critiques → the positioning of digital art history as a methodological innovation new to the discipline Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. extends → Drucker's distinction between digitized and digital art history, adopted as a distinction but not as a boundary Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. supports → Jaskot's question about which critical art-historical questions are best suited to digital methods Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. critiques → Bishop's Against Digital Art History, whose diagnosis the paper shares while rejecting the conclusion that computation is inherently incompatible differs in: THE AXIS IS WHETHER THE DIAGNOSIS IMPLIES THE STRONGER CONCLUSION. 'WHILE THIS ARTICLE CRITIQUES THE ADHERENCE OF DAH RESEARCH TO THE OLD GUARD OF ART HISTORY, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE USE OF COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS IS INHERENTLY INCOMPATIBLE with contemporary critical theory perspectives in the discipline.' The paper shares the critics' diagnosis and refuses their conclusion, in one sentence - which is exactly the position this project occupies, and its [5] supplies the historical reason (DAH inherited the formalist half of the discipline). Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digital art history —distinct-from→ digitized art history digital art history digitized art history strength of the relation: 1 Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but attributed: the span quotes Drucker. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. text mining —same-as→ distant reading text mining distant reading strength of the relation: 0.9 Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span speaks of 'the distant reading of text mining'; same-as is loose. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. EVIDENCE CORRECTED (RE-GROUNDED) · text mining —contrasted-with→ close reading text mining close reading EVIDENCE CORRECTED: RE-GROUNDED. The old span named neither method. This sentence names both and states the contrast SYMMETRICALLY - neither method could have produced the other's result, which is a stronger and more careful claim than a one-way comparison. — strength of the relation: 1 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. critical theory —distinct-from→ digital art history critical theory digital art history differs in: THE AXIS IS WHICH PRE-DIGITAL TRADITION THE DIGITAL METHOD INHERITS. 'as this study shows, Quotation withheld commonly found in more [recent work].' Digital art history is not opposed to critical theory by argument - it INHERITED A DIFFERENT ANCESTOR, and the claim is historical rather than methodological. · strength of the relation: 0.9 Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span writes 'DAH' and ties it to formalist rather than critical theory methods; distinct-from is loose. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Erwin Panofsky —is-a→ iconographic Erwin Panofsky iconographic strength of the relation: 0.9 Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its span and kept, but the span groups Panofsky with iconographic approaches; is-a is loose. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. exploratory data analysis —same-as→ unsupervised learning exploratory data analysis unsupervised learning strength of the relation: 1 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digital art history —distinct-from→ canon digital art history canon strength of the relation: 0.9 Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its span and kept, but the span says DAH often fails to acknowledge a widened canon; distinct-from is loose. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. frequency count frequency count Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. text mining (word-frequency analysis in R) text mining (word-frequency analysis in R) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Across the three article corpora, Walter Benjamin was the single author cited in common by all three. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Apart from Benjamin, Art Journal had no author overlap with DAH. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The two mainstream art-history journals resemble each other far more than either resembles DAH, and Art Journal is the more distant of the two from DAH. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Besides Benjamin, only Erwin Panofsky, Aby Warburg and Hans Belting are shared between the Art History and DAH citation lists. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Wolfflin is not frequently cited in either the Art History or the Art Journal sample, but often appears in DAH literature. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. By omitting critique of Panofsky, DAH literature seems to treat his work as the final word until digitization. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Computational studies are closely tied to very particular, very traditional pre-digital methods and theories of art history. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. DAH appears to de-historicize art-historical theories and methods. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. An unremarked assumption, also a barrier in Manovich's methodology as generally applied, is that digital images of artworks are true to the artworks' brightness, hue and saturation. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. only one author, Walter Benjamin, is shared across all three samples Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. besides Benjamin, digital art history shares no author with Art Journal Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Wölfflin is prominent in digital art history and largely absent from both mainstream journals Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the two mainstream journals resemble each other more than either resembles digital art history Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. computational art history is not qualitatively different from analogue art history Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. DAH typically cites Benjamin's famous essay without further analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digital art history digital art history Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. meta-methodology meta-methodology Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. text mining text mining Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Kunstgeschichte ohne Namen Kunstgeschichte ohne Namen Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. digitized art history digitized art history Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. exploratory data analysis exploratory data analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. meta-methodology meta-methodology Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 61 — articles in the combined digital-art-history corpus (two Visual Resources special issues plus DAHJ 2015-2019) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 373 / 215 — articles drawn from Art History and from Art Journal for the 2010-2019 comparison corpora Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. thirty-five — number of top cited scholars extracted per corpus and compared in the Venn diagram Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 100 — length of the most-frequent-word list produced for each dataset after stopword removal Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. top thirty-five scholars — the size of the citation list compared across the three samples Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 2010 and 2019 — the decade of mainstream art history sampled Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. three overlapping authors — the entire shared ground between DAH and Art History besides Benjamin Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. five ‘roughly chronological’ and overlapping phases — the structure of the wide definition of the field Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1080/00233609.2021.2006774.