Do we really need Digital Art History? Artls Lecture Series in DAH 2023-2024.
Artls/Visual Contagions Lecture Series in Digital Art History.

Organizers: Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel (UNIGE), Catherine Dossin (Purdue University), and Nicola Carboni (UNIGE)

The Artls Lectures are a series of conversations that Artls will organize throughout the 2023-2024 academic year on the theme of "Narrowing the Divide: A Dialogue between Art History and Digital Art History".

The field of Digital Art history is experiencing a shift towards establishing its autonomy as a distinct discipline. However, its survival is challenged by the limitations of its investigations. The lack of relationships between computational effort and traditional analysis often limits the generation of novel insight. Digital Art History (DAH) risks becoming a mere spectacle when it relies solely on stunning visualizations without engaging in rigorous research questions. Conversely, art history limits itself from harnessing robust methodologies by disregarding computational approaches.

The digital approach increasingly demands advanced technical skills, thereby often placing art historians in a position where they lack the means and expertise to engage with it. Yet, art historians possess a keen awareness of the pressing issues within the discipline and possess the knowledge of which corpuses are relevant for addressing them. They could potentially provide their questions and corpuses to experts in Digital Art History (DAH).

Hence, it is crucial to establish more frequent and substantive opportunities for collaboration between these two approaches. The 2023-2024 Artls Conversation Series aims to cultivate a convergence between the field of Digital Art History and the discipline of Art History. The exchange of ideas and results among digital art history specialists, art historians, and the audience will foster a deeper understanding of the possibilities and implications of computational methodologies in the study of art history.

Each event will facilitate a unique encounter between two experts engaged in overlapping subject areas but employing markedly different methodologies. Within this framework, art historians will put forth inquiries and collections to experts in digital approaches, while scholars in Digital Art History will present the outcomes of their methodologies, along with the aspects they would readily suggest for monographic or non-digital explorations. The aim is to foster collaborations and a heightened mutual understanding of the outcomes between the realms of art history and Digital Art History.

These gatherings provide valuable opportunities for aspiring PhD students in digital humanities and art history to discover new subjects and gain insights into the notable progress being made in both disciplines.

PROGRAM

The sessions will take place via video conference on Fridays from 14:15 to 15:45 (European time) / 8:15 to 9:30 (Eastern Standard Time). First Semester’s Conversations will take place on September 8, September 29, October 13, November 17, and December 8, 2023.
Second Semester’s Conversations will take place on January 26th, 2024; February 23, 2024; March 15, 2024; April 12, 2024; and May 17, 2024

1. AI for art history, art history of AI
08-09-2023
Recording: https://drive.switch.ch/index.php/s/XCHNb6ZJOq1PPTy
Leonardo Impett, University of Cambridge
Pascal Griener, Université de Neuchatel

2. Do we need digital visual studies?
29-09-2023 14:15-15:45 ||
Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Université de Geneve
Leora Auslander, University of Chicago

3. Does Art History Need Cultural Analytics?
13-10-2023 14:15-15:45
Maximilian Schich, Tallinn University
Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Université de Genève

4. Does Data Science Enrich Art History?
17-11-2023 14:15-15:45
Harald Klinke, Ludwig Maximilian Universität Munich
Nicola Carboni, Université de Geneve

5. Exhibition Studies and Digital Approaches
08-12-2023 14:15-15:45
Nuria Rodriguez, Málaga university
Marta Edling, Södertörn University

Art historians and specialists of Digital Art History interested in participating in further conversations in the spring are invited to send a one-page proposal for a 20 min presentation, along with a short CV in the same document. Proposals should be sent to Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel (Beatrice.Joyeux-Prunelunige.ch), Catherine Dossin (cdossinpurdue.edu), and Nicola Carboni (Nicola.Carboniunige.ch) by 1 November 2023.

Website : https://www.unige.ch/visualcontagions/seminars/dah-conversation