Online Symposium: “Technological Revolutions and Art History” on 12 Nov. 2020

In the spring of 2018, the Frick Art Reference Library’s Digital Art History Lab hosted a two-day symposium examining how recent advances in technology were motivating changes in art-historical research. “Searching Through Seeing: Optimizing Computer Vision Technology for the Arts” convened approximately 160 professionals from the fields of computer science and art history to explore image-based searching as a tool and a methodology.

Starting this fall, the Frick is continuing this evolving discussion with a second symposium, “Technological Revolutions in Art History,” organized in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art. Similar to its predecessor, the goal of this virtual event is to bring together art historians, computer scientists, and cultural heritage professionals to examine how advances in computer vision technologies are impacting the fields of art history and heritage studies and how scholars and museum professionals might influence future developments in digital imaging, data curation, and artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, presentations will consider how current practices—from digital preservation to photography and 3D modeling to blockchain—are affecting art-historical research, as well as how gaps in access to vital digital tools might be addressed. The collaboration with MoMA (whose library is a partner along with the Frick’s and Brooklyn Museum’s in the New York Art Resources Consortium) enables a wide breadth of topics, including issues related to digitization and museum practice.

The conference is divided into four sessions online, of which the first already took place on October 15, 2020. Next up is the second session, which will take place on November 12, 2020. The third will take place on January 14, 2021, and the fourth on March 11, 2021.

Anyone interested in these pressing and relevant subjects is invited to attend the symposium via Zoom. Please sign up for one or all four live sessions through the Library Programs page.

For more information, please visit this website.