George Fuller/Marissa Rhodes
LIS514
February 8, 2011
Indexing Digital Representations of Art:
A Proposed Discussion of the Problems and Triumphs within the Field
For our concept paper, we would like to discuss the indexing of artistic images. There are
varying theories and techniques discussed amongst experts regarding the indexing of images but
we would like to focus on providing intellectual access to artistic images in particular.
There are multiple methods of image indexing such as concept-based (also known as text-based)
indexing or content-based indexing and more. Image indexing studies are now focused on
making the process more cost-effective without sacrificing efficiency. Artistic images, however,
require special consideration; less research has been conducted with a focus on artistic images
though they are often included under the purview of the cataloging of cultural objects. Since little
research has gone past the theoretical phase, our paper will be highly theoretical but we will
certainly discuss instances of these theories in practice as we find them.
The reasons behind users’ desire to retrieve artistic images have been shown to be diverse and
very much related to the personality of the user. Users may seek a specific art image; they may
seek an image of a particular color, mood, or one by a particular artist. Because of the
multifaceted ways that people experience art, it is possible that the user seeks art images for their
aesthetic appearance, their subject-matter or the historical context of their creation.
These qualities of art by which a user might wish to identify a certain image tend to be subjective
and ambiguous. This can even be said of the physical characteristics of the art though strides
have been made to reduce indexing cost by allowing computer systems to analyze and
automatically index the art image’s physical qualities. It is nearly impossible, at least at this stage
in time, for an art image’s context to be determined by computers. We will discuss the various
attributes of art images and how they may be indexed.
We will thus explore techniques such as user analysis and collective emotional indexing which
have emerged to better accommodate the representation of artistic images. Experts have not yet
developed and designated a standardized system; the research in this subfield seems to be in its
preliminary phases. We hope to discuss the relative merits of these present techniques as well as
the future of those that are in their infancy.
Fuller/Rhodes/p.2
Bibliography
Antani, S., Kasturi, R., & Jain, R. (January 01, 2002). A survey on the use of pattern recognition
methods for abstraction, indexing and retrieval of images and video. Pattern Recognition,
35, 945-966.
Jorgensen, C. (January 01, 1996). Indexing Images: Testing an Image Description Template.
Proceedings of the Asis Annual Meeting, 33, 209-13.
McRae, L. (January 01, 2000). Features - The Construct of Indexing: Thought Processes in
Subject Analysis - Indexing Images for Subject Access: Controlled Vocabularies in the
Vision Project. Art Documentation : Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North
America, 19, 2, 4.
Murphy, J. (January 01, 2003). Link It or Lump It: Basic Access Strategies for Digital Art
Representation. Journal of Library Administration, 39, 139-160.
Schmidt, Stefanie and Wolfgang G. Stock (2009). Collective Indexing of Emotions in Images. A
Study in Emotional Information Retrieval. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 60 (5), 863-876.
Wang, J. Z., Wiederhold, G., Firschein, O., & Wei, S. X. (January 01, 1997). Content-based
image indexing and searching using Daubechies'wavelets. International Journal on
Digital Libraries, 1, 4, 311-328.
Wang, J. Z., Wiederhold, G., Firschein, O., Wei, S. X., & Forum. (January 01, 1997). WaveletBased Image Indexing Techniques with Partial Sketch Retrieval Capability.