Digital Art Technical Sources for the Netherlands: Integration and Improvement of Sources on Glass for a Sustainable Future – Art DATIS

Abstract

Art DATIS (Digital Art Technical sources for the Netherlands: Integration and improvement of sources on glass for a Sustainable future) is a five-year research project (2018-2023) within the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research’s (NWO) Big Data / Digital Humanities program. The project is a collaboration between the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam, RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Vrij Glas Foundation, and Picturae. The project investigates how to approach the automatic transcription and documentation of heterogeneous archival resources. The central object of the project is the archive of the Dutch glass artist Sybren Valkema (1916–96). Documents were digitised, and their content was made searchable through the processes of OCR and HTR. Through digitisation and the analysis of archival documents, the project aims to understand how traditional knowledge and practices of glassmaking were innovated during the twentieth century.