baroqueart at arts, humanities, and complex networks — 2nd leonardo satellite symposium at...

Sustaining a Global Community: Art and Religion in the Network of Baroque

Hispanic-American Paintings

Juan Luis Suárez, Fernando Sancho, Javier de la [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



2 | Internal use only2 | Suárez, JL; Sancho, F; de la Rosa, J | Art and Religion in the Network of Baroque Hispanic-American Paintings

Introduction (1)

• Paper at Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks — 2nd

Leonardo satellite symposium at NetSci2011.

– Multi-disciplinary collaboration.

– Multi-scale analysis.

– Hispanic Monarchy from the 16th through the 18th

centuries.

– Thousands artworks & their descriptions.


Introduction (2)

• Origin:

– Filemaker and MySQL databases.

– Web based: http://baroqueart.cultureplex.ca.

http://baroqueart.cultureplex.ca/


Introduction (3)

• Storing semantic information.

– Text fields.

– Ad-hoc descriptors.

– Formal ontology:

http://ontologies.cultureplex.ca.

http://ontologies.cultureplex.ca/


Methodology (1)

• Huge amount of data (aprox.):

– 100,000 total topics.

– 77,000 atomic descriptions.

– 11,000 artworks.

– 1,600 creators.

• We should have a network... But how?


Methodology (2)

• Undertstanding the model (schema).


Methodology (3)

• Undertstanding the objects (data).


Methodology (4)

• And the relations among them.

• There's no only one possible graph:

– We chose the one created from descriptors and

artworks.


Methodology (5)

• Step 1: Visualize artworks as nodes and take each pair of

them.

Artwork 1

Artwork 2


Methodology (6)

• Step 2: Add descriptors as properties.

Artwork 1

Artwork 2

Descriptor 1

Descriptor 3

Descriptor 5

Descriptor 4

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 7

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 4

Descriptor 6


Methodology (7)

• Step 3: Remove the distinct descriptors between each pair

of nodes.

Artwork 1

Artwork 2

Descriptor 4

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 4


Methodology (8)

• Step 4: Create an edge between the nodes if there are

shared descriptors.

Artwork 1

Artwork 2

Descriptor 4

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 4


Methodology (9)

• Step 5: Weigh the edge with the number of shared

descriptors.

Artwork 1

Artwork 2

Descriptor 4

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 2

Descriptor 4

2 Descriptor 4

Descriptor 2


Methodology (10)

• Step 6: Remove the descriptors.

Artwork 1

Artwork 2

2


Methodology (11)

• Limiations:

– Too many relational JOINs: PC's crashing!

– Close to billions of edges: Unmanageable.

• Solutions:

– Create edges if at least 6 shared descriptors.

– Split the entire dataset into 12 sections, each one

relative to 25 years: from 1550-1575 to 1825-1850.

– And...


Methodology (12)

Visualizations

Visualizations

Visualizations


Visualizations (1)

• Raw graphs.

– Layout algorithms: Philogeny3D, OpenOrd, Yigan Hu &

Force Atlas.

– Modularity classes analysis.• Only those that represent at least 1% of the total nodes.

– Topological filtering.• Degree range > 4.

– Partition and colouring.


Visualizations (2)

• Raw graphs.


Visualizations (3)

• Clustered graphs.

– From raw graphs.

– Clustering by modularity class.

– Dual circle layout.• High degree nodes outside.

• Sorting by number of children.


Visualizations (4)

• Clustered graphs.


Visualizations (5)

• Semantic Maps.

– According to certain descriptors.• Religious, Civil. Portrait, Saint, Virgin & Christ.

– Multidimensional scaling-like algorithm.• Representation in a 2D space by similarity.


Visualizations (6)

• Semantic Maps.


Interpretation

• And now, what could we do with all this?

– Know what questions to ask.

– Interpret the data and the visualizations.

– Answer them!• Support the solutions with statistics.


Research questions

• Is it possible to create and sustain global communities

through a shared network of images and symbols?

• In the case of the network of paintings we are considering,

what type of religion and what type of art contribute to

the very existence of the network?

• Is art a candidate for one of the institutions that help

sustain large-scale societies and large-scale

interactions?


Conclusions

• The descriptor “civil” takes over the first position in our

network.

• The importance of the descriptors “virgins” and “saints”

over most of the time studied here.

• The role of the “portrait” descriptor is especially relevant as

a bridge between the religious and the civil paintings.


Further Work

• Improve the geo-locations of sources of paintings.

• Compare modularity classes to places.

• Reveal transfers of topics and culture across the space and

time.


Thanks

Questions?

baroqueart at arts, humanities, and complex networks — 2nd leonardo satellite symposium at...

Technology

hispanic monarchy

fernando sancho

art andreligion

distinct descriptors

descriptors andartworks

areshared descriptors

raw graphs

clustered graphs