Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and
their
potential
applications
in
museums
a conference sponsored by
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
supported by
A GRANT FROM THE IBM CORPORATION
^
FOREWORD*
second Street and Sixth Avenue called Bryant Park. At that time it was
called one of the most dangerous parks in the country and we decided to
social programs and events. One of the things we did was install a com-
puter, one of those programmed to match you up with your soulmate. One
evening a personable young man approached the computer and said to it:
million dollars," he went on, "dance like a dream, make love divinely.
devastating wit and crushing charm. I have been chosen, four years
running, the best dressed ..." whereupon the machine heaved itself around
There are those among us who would feel, after the strange pro-
ceedings of the past three days, that we've all been mugged. And to cap
apologists of the humanistic tradition, breaking bread with the new tech-
nology.
skeptics, the twenty papers delivered this week, from Mr. Furth's intro-
1679S2
computer to a kind of souped-up thinking-man's washing machine — to Mr.
Schoener's and Dr. Lee's remarks late this afternoon on the Electronic
effect.
tell me that I was selling out to the barbarians. He saw himself and me
and museums as Rome in the first century, clutching the glories of the
past to its bosom, dewy-eyed with nostalgia for the old days, uncertain
of the city gates, the incoherent din outside the walls of barbaric tribes
who had descended with raw, brutal vitality from the northern wastes.
And I was accused of being one of those who betrayed by opening the gates
to the hordes from Armonk and Poughkeepsie. I think what set him off was
Trojan Horse of Technology, I say wheel it in. I, for one, have been
thinking on the subject that goes back to 1956 when I first read Norbert
Wiener's The Human Use of Human Beings. The title itself, incidentally,
vi
is immensely significant—the human use of human beings. It is a great
ticular age. I had picked up the Wiener book in Milan during a stopover
in a long train trip from Sicily where I had spent several months on an
suited than the brain to deal with masses of fragmented material, to work
where I was a graduate student, they would take to the idea, and I was
didn't, not with any great enthusiasm, anyway. There they were, the Two
Cultures, the humanistic and the scientific, dug in at the heels and dis-
trustful of each other, and God prevent them from ever coming together.
There is, however, some basis for the incompatibility. There _is
a gap between technology and the humanities. Some of the intricate prob-
do with these analyses is often quite another matter. It would seem that
I would remind us all that Vannevar Bush, one of our most brilliant scien-
tists, called his latest book, Science Is Not Enough. Well, I might
advance the observation that today the humanities are not enough either,
but that together with science, perhaps they would be enough. I don't
And that, really, is the larger purpose behind this three-day conference.
vii
It is in the nature of our times that the rate at which things
The times change too fast for many people, and since the change is largely
hazardous to our health, and this, too, I think, is at the heart of our
alize it, the argument goes. But is it true? Consider the sensually
charged sequence 40-24-38. What can more swiftly flesh out one particular
image than those three numbers, which are after all merely a set of
moderate and sensible one; the 1920s, an era with a fixation on the
tubular, had its own, which must have been something like 29-29-29. I'd
hate to think what the Willendorf Venus measured, but in those numbers
some deep sociocultural insight must lurk, I'm sure. It is the Pythago-
rean concept that reality can be broken down into digits, into the quan-
tifiable. The question is, can we break down art into numbers? And that,
particularly familiar with two projects that are being done here in the
viii
house: Carl Dauterman's work with Sevres porcelain, and Virginia Burton's
research into ancient Egyptian pottery using an IBM 2250 graphic unit.
thing they tell me is that after a while you want to push the new tech-
niques to newer and newer limits. New possibilities arise. Fresh avenues
of application appear.
think that they will begin to impose a rigorous and perhaps a harsh
discipline upon us. They will require us to rethink some of our assump-
cleanse our terminology. William James, when he was finishing his great
look for facts, and in the search discover, I think, what may have been
overlooked, and experience the fresh perception, the intuitive flash, the
least, was cold comfort, because these machines are going to put us on
our toes as never before. That is why I find them so challenging. They
to sift out the relevant facts from the irrelevant, and this is what the
a pilot project at The Cloisters, dealing with one of the most fascinating
deal about this object, its history, its iconography, its symbolism, the
religious and social climate of its time. In fact, more is known about
this object than any one person can assimilate unless he makes it an
of the University of Illinois and his assistant Nancy Risser, and Sabrina
program this vast wealth of information and see if we can get out of it
tion that can be instantly retrieved—this alone is worth all the effort
because it frees the scholar from some of the time-consuming and nonpro-
Museum as the great institution that it is, that this first conference to
explore the use of computers in the fine arts was held here. The Museum
Computer Network, started last year under the impetus of this museum and
the Museum of Modern Art has already grown, under its energetic Executive
and now includes the Institute of Fine Arts in Chicago, and the National
studies under way, one dealing with drawings in New York collections,
another with pre-Columbian art, and the third with the works of Picasso.
Thanks to support from the New York State Council on the Arts, and from
the Old Dominion Foundation, the Museum Computer Network has gotten off
x
to a promising start. I'd like to comment here on the enthusiasm and
generous cooperation with which people have greeted this endeavor. I'm
thinking of Richard Koch and David Vance of the Museum of Modern Art, for
advice and guidance for Carl Dauterman's project and is doing the same
itself, we owe a lot to IBM, our cosponsor, and to the sensitive and
pendence. It may be, too, that the computer will provide a way out of
This black box may ultimately break down the walls of our respective
pigeonholes, and make possible for the first time in history a truly
lescence. Will all our systems be compatible, and will those developed
xi
in 1970 be compatible with what the year 2000 will bring? There are
constant K to search for. Can we train the people to do the job, and will
there be anyone qualified to judge the results? And will we have the
surely lie ahead. There always will be difficulties. But this, after
xii
CONTENTS
DOCUMENTARY APPLICATIONS
VISUAL APPLICATIONS
by
Edmund A. Bowles
IBM
to learn that the machine has entered the garden, and in many fields,
for certain types of problems, the use of the computer has already become
the role and potential of the computer as a tool in a number of key dis-
variety of ways. I mention this not to advertise IBM but to point out
that the humanities, libraries, and museums have been, and are, areas of
but a logical step in our continuing relationship with the academic and
It has been our hope and intention to present a broad survey of computer
texts, it was felt that there was little need to spend precious hours
xvi
Consequently, the conference will concentrate on those aspects
within the museum environment that bear on the collections and their
first session, will loom large in any automated system because the infor-
far exceed the rather limited capacities of the human brain. Indeed, it
I would suggest that one of the most important advantages of the computer
is that quite literally for the first time it frees the researcher from
having to limit severely his data base within the capacity of hand tabu-
examined -- not merely for one trait, but for many stylistic characteris-
teristics of, and making inferences from, any given written, pictorial,
indeed, these new techniques are often called content analysis. In place
xvii
Tomorrow afternoon we of IBM will have the pleasure of playing
profitably see, but this one is sure to pique your curiosity and suggest
many potential applications. I hope you will bear with us in that, owing
to limitations of both space and time, it may not be possible for every-
one to see this device, but we will do our best. Concurrently, and
field which, above all others, deals with the visual image as its stock-
in-trade. While you are waiting for these two scheduled demonstrations,
three short color films, two of them by Charles Eames, will be shown in
The first of the third day's sessions will deal with visual
applications from two points of view, the scholarly and the artistic.
give away the demonstrations, so I will merely say that the visual ter-
minal allows the researcher to record, process, and analyze data, as well
as to retrieve, alter, and store again both graphic and statistical and
descriptive information.
xviii
Computerized Museum Networks, the next item on the conference
agenda, has already received a fair amount of attention, both within the
profession itself and in the press. This is only proper, for the concept
whole. Only when the curator, the academic scholar, the registrar, and
the exhibit designer, for example, have at ready access data banks in
lections throughout the country -- if not the world -- will the "museum
I think, that the impetus for this concept is centered right here in New
cation. I am as fascinated by, and curious about, this part of the con-
are going through a period of rapid change and redefinition. They are
beginning to play -- and they must play -- a more vital role in the com-
munities they serve. At the same time, museums are becoming educational
centers with a vast range of programs and facilities to bring their arti-
environment in the complete sense of the term, the computer, as but one
of the available technologies, must surely find its place in this new
physiognomy.
xix
This conference is beginning auspiciously at a time of year asso-
ciated traditionally with rebirth. One might suggest that the institu-
tion of the museum is experiencing a rebirth of its own, and that the com-
puter may well become in time one of the instruments of this renascence.
this is so, then we here havp a stake in insuring that the computer play
Metropolitan Museum
basic requirements for the proper application of computers to art and art
by
Stephen E. Fürth
things or people.
are:
budgets
article - price
material - weight
as:
name - man number
tions in the use of language and require the use of dictionaries and
context.
of equipment that may serve the needs of the librarian or museum curator
may be more complex than other, more familiar devices, and because it
does many things automatically, may appear to have the ability to "think,"
to make decisions, etc. The fact is that the more automatic the equip-
by people who know what is being done today and what should be done. The
the information to the system -- the input. Other forms will have to be
output.
few of us see them, use them, or work with them. It may surprise you,
but the washing machine is a computer in its own right. It has the same
two and get a basic idea of what the computer can do. The basic simi-
the processing is their washing, and the output is the same clothes --
clean.
sing is when the computer uses the program to operate on the data -- to
choose. You can wash delicate fabrics in a gentle cold-water cycle, you
can wash cotton fabrics in a stronger warm-water cycle, and you can get
cycles are no more than the programs of your washing machine. Cycle one
-- call it program One -- gives you cold water, easy washing action,
three rinses, no deep rinse, and a spin. Program Two gives you warm
water, hard washing action, three rinses, a deep rinse and a long spin.
And so on. When you wash your clothes, you simply specify the program
Let's say you have a computer with eight programs. Program One
will add a number three times, multiply it twice, and subtract it twice.
Program Two will add a number six times, multiply it three times, sub-
tract it four times, and divide it once. When you have some numbers you
wish to add, subtract, multiply, or divide, you simply specify the program
you want. You might put the numbers into your computer from a special
typewriter, and designate the program you want by turning a knob or push-
ing a button.
Eight programs for your washing machine may be ample, but only
eight programs for your computer are far too few. What would happen if
Let's redesign the washing machine and see what happens. We can
now choose the water temperature separately, the number of rinses, the
precise way any action will occur, and moreover, choose the sequence in
which the actions will occur. You might instruct your washing machine
to rinse 101 times, or you could start your washing program with three
long spins. This flexibility would allow you to instruct the machine to
do precisely what you want it to do to get your clothes clean (Figure 8).
to do any number of actions in any sequence you wish, to solve any prob-
program.
First, speed. For instance, let's say it takes you ten seconds
adding a computer can do in ten seconds would take you more than a hun-
dred days, and that's allowing no time for sleeping, eating, or pencil
sharpening.
one mistake, not even one penny in error. That's what the computer can
do, and it performs with unerring accuracy second after second, hour
after hour,
9
The third reason is the discipline it implies. To solve a prob-
lem with a computer you must, first, understand the problem, and, second,
program the computer to give you the right answer. Understanding a prob-
lem is one thing, but understanding it to the depth of detail and insight
you can get a wide variety of laundry clean. However, you could get any
one type of laundry cleaner if you could specify exact water tempera-
tures, exact length of wash cycle, speed of agitator, and so on. But you
would have to know much more about the laundry -- and its conditions --
flexibility (Figure 9 ) .
than just add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It's a little like a
washing machine that can wash the clothes, sort them out, iron them,
and put them away for you, too. Similarly a computer, by using instruc-
tions, can sort data, straighten data out, and store it away for you.
find out if one is larger than, smaller than, or equal to the other. By
order into another list of any other order. It does this with a sort
program.
(that's exactly what a program is). Suppose you do not want all the
orders in sequence but would prefer Order 15 to come after Order 10.
10
You specify this with a branch, or transfer, instruction (Figure 10).
tions. How efficient your washing machine would be if you could write
Put-Away Program
Put pillowcases in the linen closet
Put handkerchiefs in bureau drawer -- top left
Put shirts in closet (to the right of pants)
Put crib sheets in baby's room
Put Grandma's quilt in the attic
Put green towels in the blue bathroom
Put blue towels in the green bathroom
Put any stones, marbles, string, etc., from
children's pants in the trash
of the computer in any of several other forms (Figure 11). Punched cards
and magnetic tape are popular means of storage for data kept outside the
computer. But the computer also needs storage space inside to work with.
storage is usually called the computer memory. Data is read into the
memory from punched cards or magnetic tape (or another external storage
device), processed, and then written out on cards or tape (or some other
be in a form that can be "read" by the computer. The input devices that
data or text in such a manner that we can perform the general functions
It is obvious that the size of the file and the fact that it is
of the computer, but that the data would have to be brought into this
very fast, limited capacity storage unit from auxiliary storage devices,
which, while slower in the rate in which one can get access to any piece
added under the control of the computer program. The reels of tape,
discs, or cells are demountable so that a facility which has only one
reading device, i.e., one tape unit or one disc drive, would have unlim-
one disc after another, but the computer could get access to only that
information that is mounted on the reading device at any one time. We,
therefore, will have access only to that portion of the total file that
The speed of access to any item within that portion of the file
of a serial search, and the optimum speed of search would depend on the
speed at which the magnetic tape can be read. Because the computer can
process many questions in one pass of the tape, that is, we accumulate
questions until we have a batch to process in one pass of the data file.
When we use discs or data cells (Figure 24), devices that permit
subject, etc. The use of indexes will immediately reduce the number of
the system from remote points by the input devices mentioned above, on-
line via telephone wire, and for responses to be transmitted back the same
people in the computer the text, abstract, or the index terms of incoming
14
Other areas related to information storage, dissemination, and
retrieval could be discussed, but the foregoing covers most of the essen-
tial basic points about this powerful tool that modern technology has
offered us.
15
FIGURES O N E - EIGHT
Accountable Non-Accountable
L 0i,i, aH H H V H f
1 """" things or people
Budget Article/Price
inventory Material/Weight
Wm *
13
BRANCH or
TRANSFER INSTRUCTION
w*"»
10 14
11 15
OFF-LINE
1 CARD
•HBk PAPER TAPE
KEYBOARD • MAGNETIC TAPE
OPTICAL
MARK SENSED ^ MARK
SHEET •y SENSING *f fl H CARD
' READER
12 16
FIGURES SEVENTEEN-TWENTY-FOUR
17 21
18 22
19 23
20 24
COMPUTER INPUT FORM FOR ART WORKS:
by
Kenneth C. Lindsay
The computer looms on the horizon of art history like a new girl
in town. Although word of her arrival has been out for a few years, we
tism, and slimness of pocketbook -- have covered our eyes with our hands
when she passed. Lately, however, more than a few eyes have leered out
cently during the past thirty years. She became both fast and expensive.
this glittering girl friend soon made all local types appear homespun.
libraries, museum catalogues, the Art Index, Pigler, Reau, Bartsch, the
Frick Archives, the Index of Christian Art, and the Decimal Index to the
spun friends, on the one hand, and realize on the other hand, the vast-
ness of our archival troubles. Librarians can scarcely keep up with the
19
orgy of publication. Scholars have real difficulty keeping abreast of
centers, museums are expected to harbor and display the art that once
further behind. Scholars suffer from the agony of libraries and museums,
continue with our standard ways and means, the crisis will grow. The
computer, the cool cat of the McLuhan age, begins to look like the only
way out.
what other reasons are there which impel us to develop a storage and
retrieval system for art historical information? Reasons are not hard
to come by. The very act of making a large archive of the world's art
would force us to find out what we have and where it is located. This
to anyone. Depending upon the way we gathered the original data and
programmed the computer, the machine could, by link searching, cut and
equipment, with its connecting tissues of wire and air waves, has demo-
richness equal to what his colleague in the large city enjoys. The old
20
sales-pitch argument about saving time could also be resuscitated here.
Students and scholars would have more time to think creatively as the
machine relieves them from routine tasks. Finally, we can imagine the
systems and giving free range to our imagination at this virginal stage
any value at all, it is better to start this way than to plunge in prag-
However, our ability to imagine ideal systems and establish policy must
selves three questions. Once the program for the system is outlined,
who will make it, who will use it, and who will maintain it?
Keypunchers offer no special problem. They are typists who type cata-
logued information onto IBM cards so that the machine can be fed in
industry tolerates no more than two errors per thousand key strikes.
Moreover, there are ways in which certain errors can be discovered and
rectified.
21
Cataloguers are a more complicated and rare breed. They are
responsible for recording information about the art work onto work
sheets (which are then given to the keypunchers). Depending upon the
desired sophistication of data, they will find information from the art
work itself, from records, and from published data. None of this is
to do the job?
We might trim our sails way down and predicate our system on the
cutting down complexity and precision jeopardize the value of the com-
puter to us?
up one machine system that will give the high school art teacher, the
art merchant, the small museum, and the scholar answers commensurate
with their needs and with their ability to make judicious requests? It
seems doubtful. Yet this question may be answered when we know to what
extent our system can incorporate a machine request dialogue system that
will refine and narrow down the request. For example, if a user fool-
and if I give it all to you, you will blow your computer budget for the
tain artist?"
become as real as the future. What army of specialists will purge the
system after a catastrophe such as the Second World War or the flood in
Florence? Who will read all the new books and journals so that the
all of the major fields, personnel from both large and small museums,
starting point for the discussion because they diagnose levels of mean-
3
ing. Figure 1 presents Ackerman's system and Figure 2 compares the two
column of Figure 2 indicates which part of the two systems are applicable
to cataloguing and computer input. The "Yes" for the first part and the
23
FIGURE ONE ACKERMAN
Range of
Objectification spectrum individual- Information
Levels of our statement ization theory
IIa. (Connoisseurship)
Style of individual
artists
I. Empirical Yes
I. Pr imary
A. Factual -v
B. Expressional
(C. Pseudo-formal)
B. Symbolic
conventions
II. Secondary
1. Control numbers
(internal & external)
2. Dates
3. Place of origin
4. Present location
5. Patron's name
6. Uncertainty registrations
7. Special information
25
FIGURE THREE POSSIBLE DATA ITEMS FOR COMPUTER INPUT :
information bank
II III IV
Uncertainty levels
W. Column Signficance Specific or alternatives
(Panofsky I & II
Ackerman II)
Bookkeeping information
26
"No" for the third part should be self-evident. It is in the middle
Figure 3 takes the next step and lists the possible data input
Column II interprets what the "W" words mean generally. Column III
indicates what this all means for art history. Column IV introduces
tions. We must neither forget the enigmas and confusions that shroud
the perishable art object nor the way in which man, by copying with the
obscuration of time, has left the impress of his fallibility upon his
data.
1. Computer control item number. Every item introduced into the Infor-
do not think this excessive, since New York City alone contains an
requested by this number alone, once our need for it has been
27
2. Local control. Here the possessor of the art object registers three
tered. Let us assume the metric system and detail needs for the
Height
m cm mm
021 13 10
4. Genre and medium. This category will register the type of the art
work and the material out of which it is made. Under genre we would
coded, would need 8 units. For the medium area we could expand the
28
seventeen items used by the Index of Christian Art to include tech-
niques beyond the scope of that famous project. One second division
stages and editions of prints are taken care of in the coded listing
ture of art history. We must know what was done, when. For some
Both ways can and probably should be used. But we are confronted
we say we know the date for a fact or that we guess at it, or should
spans for doubt? How do we take care of an object whose making was
accommodate an object that could have been made between 1895 and
1901?
Names are tricky, and the machine does not respond well to the
antee that the computer will know we mean Chao. Solving these prob-
and rectify this list where needed, and then assign a code to each
requirement seems simple until one realizes that some artists change
"Florentine."
30
Of the remaining six input categories, numbers eight, nine, ten,
and eleven offer no special problems. Item seven -- the name, title, or
without too much difficulty and therefore can also be bypassed. However,
here, but once the computer has accomplished its task by situating a
these things, and how are they related to one another as events or
synonym we should use for naming things. We will have to ponder the
various depth.
referencing, clumsy though it may be, is needed at both the input and
the indexer and the searcher must coincide if the computer is to work.
For another example, consider the instrumentalist in Vermeer's
costume, age, class, and mood is something to reckon with. The descrip-
forth with results that would relate to ours. Unfortunately, the com-
we program it to so do.
him: he can reject pictures showing flutes and organs and concentrate
an easy solution until we ask ourselves who will make the judgment for
conventions. For the sake of argument, let us accept the Decimal Index
index and find "snake(s), see also serpent." Under these headings he
are included.
Once these systems are frozen by the research disposition of the present,
read the future this incredibly expensive computer enterprise might well
could like like. Each horizontal band represents the space capability
beyond the three shown and actual text comment could be entered for
by machine needs, ignore the human need of clear visual gestalt. If the
m color
sr 2T
control a c q u i s i t i o n number photo number p h o t o number height width depth weight genre
one
c
o
o îTdate date
n C o ~
1 t 3 ++ iS
E E begun ..compi period artist patron o r i g i n of present
genre D
two from., .to object location
0) «I ° «
either. .or
E E
-H- H-t-t- -H-+ -t-M- M i l l I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I | I I I I
11 12
private meaning
information
etc.
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I M I I I I I I I I I I I
e t c . , if n e e d e d
Yet during the hard work that may follow, the ideal of the dream
lish the basic rules now. One of the basic rules is a universally
fanatical independence.
scholars.
35
NOTES
2. This was the main point in my paper, "Computers and Art: A Recom-
mendation for an International Center of the Visual Arts," delivered
at the conference, The Computer and Research in the Humanities, held
at Chapel Hill, March, 1967.
6. See, for example, the Shelf Item Transmittal form used by the music
library of Harpur College (SUNY at Binghamton) for producing its
Automated Music and Score Catalogue. The gentlemen who planned this
catalogue, especially Mr. Alfred Lynn, have been most helpful to me
during the preparation of this paper.
37
A PROTOTYPE COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
by
Dee F. Green
collections is, I take it, a major reason for this conference. I need
not, therefore, elaborate this point but only pause to call attention to
lections. As you are all aware, the archaeologist is far less discrim-
before the artifacts are finally stored away, I think there is a great
deal more that can be done to improve analysis, and I am going to pro-
tial for display purposes, and similar kinds of record keeping. The
39
second problem is that of control over the research potential of a
I cannot answer this question because the answer obviously varies from
believe all would agree that museums exist not just to display things
community.
1. Catalogue Number
2. Provenience
3. Date
4. Quantity
5. Apparently Significant Associations
B. Descriptive Attributes
for specific classes of artifacts rather than a system for all arti-
and then move to higher comparative levels. In order for this procedure
(1967), especially with regard to artifacts from the Old World. His
ceramic code is much more detailed with regard to shape, due in part to
has not designed his system specifically for museums, it does more
attribute detail.
The first, based on the museum's own catalogue and internal control pro-
cedures, would be used by the museum staff for its various purposes and
overall system for this area be adopted around the country. Rather,
ity a new frontier for museums. Because of the analysis time involved
sooner or later awake to the fact that only through data processing
(1946) Brew made the plea for the creation of more and more artifact
this the need has not diminished, and I suspect there is not a collec-
tion yet which has had all the important information drained out of it.
This is not finding fault with archaeologists. After all, one can spend
only so much time sorting sherds or other artifacts from pile to pile
and making observations about them. With the advent of the modern elec-
need for the category Greatest Body Diameter when one is analyzing
42
broken pottery. On the other hand, such a category may be very useful
codes constructed for use in archaeology have been of the numeric kind;
that is, a number was used to represent an attribute: 1,, sand temper;
2., crushed sherd temper; 3., shell temper, and so on. Numeric codes
very thoroughly educated to the code in order to remember what the num-
more, it is discouraging for anyone other than the writer of the code or
sherd temper, and shell temper, rather than numbers, provide the user
using punch cards. The choice of code, then, depends partly on the fac-
A sec end and much thornier problem develops when one sits down
those for which there are immediate problems at hand involves the risk
43
of having to go through the whole collection again in order to observe
something that one missed the first time through, something that became
with the suggestion that one should observe only those attributes that
as an excuse to cut down the number of observations one may make. Nor
although we certainly recognize many of them. On the other hand one can
I should like to thank Janet Scott, Carol Scott Price, and James E.
that the present system does not yet include codes for every potential
ment, as are codes for such categories as chipped stone tools other than
projectiles (this code may wind up combined with the former), ground and
codes as soon as we can get them finished and criticized. Of the three
codes (Ceramic, Basketry, and Bone Tool) to be presented below only one,
44
the Ceramic Code, has actually been tried out on a collection. It was
Anna Shepard's Ceramics for the Archaeologist (1961). It was used with
Arkansas Museum (see Green and McGimsey, 1965). The version presented
punch cards with ample room for adding new attributes especially on card
whole pots. Some of these attributes are shown on the left-hand side
most of which is applicable only to whole vessels. Cards three and four
detailed portions of the code, including the format used (Figure 2) and
such items as the Type Name List of ceramics from the Lower Mississippi
tions (Figures 4,5), and rim and lip profile chart (Figure 6 ) .
attributes on the cards. I have used seven spaces for catalogue number
By Dee F . Green
Ceramic Code O u t l i n e
Rim and Lip Class (4) 12- 13 Neck Diameter (45) 14-16
Interior Surface
Hardness (15) 29
(1) (4)
0000000-999999999 00-99
00 - Unknown
00-99 (5)
00 - Unknown Handles 14-15
0-9
00-99 2 - Basket
00 - Unknown 3 - Loop
04 - Food Cooking 7 -
05 - Ceremonial General 8 -
07 - Digie 2 Placement
08 - 0-3
09 - 0 - Unknown
10 - 1 - Vertical
2 - Horizontal
FIGURE THREE TYPE NAME LIST
48
unrestricted vessels
simple contours
composite contours
Q
inflected contours complex contours
complex contours
^----•»s
horizontal ellipsoid 3
^J Ö
inverted ovaloid 4
^ >,
upright ovaloid 5
cylinder
V w J
hyperboloid 7
cone
Q O ^
FIGURE FIVE GEOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION
Ol 08 15 22 29
02 09 16 23 30
03 10 17 24 31
04 11 18 25 32
05 12 19 26 33
06 13 20 27 34
07 14 21 28 35
51
placed them in the first columns because I prefer to work with them
careful to specify where and in what shape his data is found, it can be
data from column to column and from card to card. In formulating this
system I have in mind only a working model, not a set of rigid boun-
daries .
are doing the coding it is best to divide up the attributes rather than
the pots. This is not so critical with items such as measurement, but
color there is greater probability that vessels vary nearly the same
sible with the Munsell Guide are used. Another useful device not illus-
trated is a multiple factor for sherds; that is, many sherds in a col-
lection can be described with exactly the same set of attributes. Where
this occurs, columns 79 and 80 of punch card one are reserved for the
purpose. Rather than make a card for each sherd, the total number is
numeric designations on a work card from which the keypunching and veri-
called the 1092 Programmed Keyboard; although I have not used it myself,
taining the options available (in our case the various ceramic attri-
butes), are placed over the keyboard. The various keys can then be
made an error or you change your mind before the data is sent, a correc-
tion key allows you to make a new selection. When you are satisfied
that all the observations have been made correctly, the data is sent all
tandemn, these devices allow you to put such constants as serial number
archaeological laboratory.
those already illustrated for Ceramics. Besides the numeric and verbal
ure 9 ) .
1. Serial Number
2. Type Name
3. Use or Function
5. O u t l i n e Shape of Tool
7. C r o s s - S e c t i o n
10. Finish
11. Decoration
12. Length
54
FIGURE EIGHT SELECTED LIST OF ATTRIBUTES
FROM BASKETRY CODE
1. Serial Number
2. Use or Function
3. Structural Class
4. Geometric Class
5. Orifice Diameter
6. Body Diameter
7. Throat Diameter
8. Diameter of Standard
9. Diameter of Thread
10. Weight
11. Volume
55
tied stratified lashed woven
single
m- JX
a
-o
standard
7iK -/Q=CX
d 3
c
o i i
a
bunch
III ^
-a standard
1
a b-i-fir -
TTTT-PH 12 13 14
-tifltif-
flat
start ils mm -s-
ilTìfìT- <S>\X-
b
i l I i i -j;-j;-j;-srJ?J(- V'/if-J! « « «
b 16 S-Ji-
15 17 «««18 19 20 21
O 17A
"O o >r
8»
c
o linear L.|_LIJ_IJ
start -/-/-/-/-/-/- fJJJ.U
•a b 'V>v/
cu
4) 23 24 24A 25 27 28
26
o
start
from
>41^1JKLi>
edge
29 30 31 31 A 32 33 34 35
G
^ )
36 37 38 39
FIGURE N I N E BASKETRY S T A R T I N G
Bibliography
57
THE ANALYSIS OF MUSEUM SYSTEMS
by
Robert G. Chenhall
lems of museums. The first is, perhaps, implicit in the title of the
Its ultimate purpose has been stated as the attempt "to help Man make
fullest use of the knowledge he discovers and records" (Becker and Hayes
59
sciences. However, this is not a necessary association, and we should
(Meadow 1967: 3 ) . The concern is not with the meaning or the semantic
inhibit the free flow of this semantic content. Instead, the primary
it.
tenance.
size systems analysis, for in the kinds of organizations with which most
military and space enterprises, very few organizations ever stop to con-
is fine, but where can the United States Government find some more
McNamaras to make it work the way it did at Ford and in the Pentagon?
Whatever else may be said of it, however, systems analysis does inject a
been used, it has produced results that, overall, were more effective
Optner 1960: 3-19 for a clear exposition of the basic principles) arose
in common with each of the others: known inputs, certain resultant out-
known inputs, and feedback and control mechanisms that adjust the inputs
These physical systems are also called closed systems, because they are
relatively free from variation or disturbance and because they work more
If we use the same model and compare these physical systems with
five operational characteristics, but that the properties are the same.
For example:
stable unstable
62
A convenient way of looking at the functional relationships that
exist among the five properties of any system can be borrowed from the
ever worked with one can readily attest. A recent experience with an
after the first output was obtained, and the runs produced accounting
the human feedback system go to work to set up better controls over the
control
1
in put T • p r o c e s sor ~^ output
feed back
FIGURE ONE
more and more about how to set up our controls and feedback to adjust
63
physical system within a computer, a partially structured, man-machine
Now let us look at the museum as a system, in the same way that
the eyes of a systems engineer. The first logical question to ask is,
what are the outputs? Always start with the output, since this estab-
lishes the purpose for which the system exists; and, always start with
the largest system first, for the subsystems will not be meaningful
in the modular form of Figure 2. The outputs will vary from one museum
other purposes, perhaps in combination, are the reasons why the organi-
64
control
legal requirements
policies, o r g a n i z a t i o n , plan of operation
input
processor
I output
labor — viewing public
t b
supplies W museum operation — research
w — teaching
capital
f e e d back
attendance
use of f a c i l i t i e s
continued financial support
FIGURE TWO
Note that here the museum operation is the system under study, and that
its place in the module is as the processor. Controls are of two types:
ment to monitor the way in which operations are conducted. Capital may
not the feedback mechanism works to adjust the action of the processor
ity use falls off, do you know what segment of your public is involved
65
so that you can investigate and take corrective action quickly? This,
determine who uses the facilities and why? By the time financial sup-
above.
ture items from all over the world, and an excellent photographic record
66
of t h e w o r l d ' s s o c i e t i e s and customs. The t h r e e primary f u n c t i o n s of
the museum a r e :
result of t h i s training);
and
and f a c u l t y members.
training students
museum
- • <( teaching aids
operat ions
research materials
FIGURE THREE
these subsystems and their relationship to each other and to the larger
available? Is it accessible?"
67
other information storage
subsystems subsystem subsystem
feed back
I _J
Note that the feedback mechanism shown here does not work just
for the total museum operation, and in terms of the question: are the
primary functions (the outputs) accomplished -- that is, are the faculty
and students actually using the facilities in the ways that they were
intended to be used?
total or larger museum system, and with inputs, a processor, and con-
Arizona State University. This will serve our purpose adequately and,
68
oriented. Furthermore, it is designed to take advantage of the tremen-
entire system is not completed yet, but the computer programs necessary
and what information would the users of the system probably expect from
such as this, cannot merely point to the location of the object and tell
At Arizona State University, the needs are all local and the
logue number and a brief description of the object. However, note that
that catalogue number must also provide ready access to the physical
torily.
The next consideration was input. How would the users of the
tion of man's activities, they will almost always think in terms of one
1. Category
2. Class
3. Culture
5. Provenience
7. Value
9. Photographic cross-reference
10. Condition
11. Comments
70
The selection of these data elements cannot be described in
detail here. Both the framework for the descriptive categories and the
(Chenhall 1967; 1968). The first two elements -- category and class --
more limited taxonomie unit for describing the apparent function or use
intended for the object by the artisan who created it. For example,
reached on the output and inputs to the Information System, was the
available here, but the processor that was finally decided upon works
thus:
pared, setting forth the eleven elements of input data. For the descrip-
to our own needs but is patterned after the dictionary Ricciardelli and
logue number and brief description -- are keypunched for entry into a
computer-prepared index.
3. Approximately once every six months, the new items that have been
master tape file. The master tape file is then sorted into four dif-
These are the hierarchical sequences of these listings, with the major
the data here, with categories first and within each category, the
number.
72
Systems flow sheets, showing in simplified form the files and
programs associated with the file maintenance operation and the sorting
the technical knowledge that must be on hand, and perhaps others; but
even aside from these problems, we finally decided that this was not the
best way to meet our particular needs. Instead, we now conceive of the
the book. The entries and the listings may in some cases answer the
counts and correlations. However, more often the entries serve only as
interface. This is the next phase of our program, not a present reality.
(2) In our field of research, some of the data has displayed a great
use photographs, maps, diagrams, and, in fact, field notes of all kinds
new
accession
list
sort by
accession number
and card code
new
master
list
sort
sequence index list B
c a b d e f
sort
sequence index I ist C
d a b c e f
sort
sequence index list D
e a b c d f
a category
b class
c culture
d material and method of manufacture
e provenience
f catalogue number and brief description
might also be somewhat embarrassing to have all of our rough notes
to select any single frame from a file of over one million, and to pro-
duce a photocopy of that frame, all in less than fifteen seconds (Lally
1968).
attributes of any object we have, and he can take off the catalogue num-
It doesn't all work this way yet, and it is still too early for
truly effective in terms of the purposes set forth as the outputs of the
ticular needs -- the outputs -- of this museum system, the level of com-
tems analysis that were employed. Perhaps we would have reached the
important thing to notice, though, is that once again we are: (1) start-
ing with the outputs; and (2) starting with the largest or highest-level
system in our analysis and integrating the subsystems into this larger
system.
CONCLUSIONS
black box when viewed by the systems engineer. Using the data at his
ing similarities between the way physical systems and human or man-
gest that we can learn something about the way any system should operate
are more numerous, more varied, and have more disturbances; numerous
unstable; and a processor that is more loosely defined than that of the
78
REFERENCES
Chanhall, Robert G., 1968. The Logic of Models Used for Processing
Archaeological Data on Computers. Proceedings of the 1966 Interna-
tional Symposium on Mathematical and Computational Methods in the
Social Sciences. International Computation Center, Rome.
79
D i s c u s s i o n following paper by Robert Chenhall
would i t c o s t you t o p r o c e s s i t ?
t h a t sense.
Miss Tamaradze: And do you pass the charge on t o the person who
requests this?
t h i s i s simply a s e r v i c e t h a t we supply.
80
INVENTORYING ETHNOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS IN MUSEUMS
by
Alex F. Ricciardelli
University of Oklahoma
collections have not been dashed. They have, however, been tempered by
some interesting (but practical) and challenging (but grubby) hard work.
lems that required solution before a data bank could come into being
will enable you to anticipate those peculiar to your own studies, and
you will, I hope, have an idea of the kinds of problems -- and chal-
By way of background let me first tell you about the pilot study
grant from the National Science Foundation for a pilot study to devise
the inventory this summer of the few remaining state museums. Twenty
remarks.
data bank. Of what use would it be? Would it realize the hopes of
museum directors and other personnel for, on the one hand, a more effi-
cient operation? On the other hand, would it serve the people who use
when otherwise the task might take months, even years? These, then,
information did we need to serve the purposes we envisioned for the data
bank? How detailed should that information be? How would we actually
Would the other museums in the state cooperate with us? And, most
tions that had to be taken into account. I can give you only a brief
so forth) are now in machine-ready form for each of our twenty thousand
82
specimens. Currently we are putting the information into the computer
and deriving from it an index, listing the type of item, the culture,
and the owner museum for each specimen. The resultant printout will be
five museums. The rest are housed in the other 545 museums. And here
is where we thought the data bank could provide an extremely useful ser-
the great museums. But the collections of the many smaller museums --
that begins with the smaller museums, could provide a valuable research
source.
within museums? The data bank we have created for the Oklahoma museums
revealed that our strongest holdings were for the Indians of the South-
materials from other parts of the world. No one museum was rich in
African materials, for example. Not until the Gilcrease Museum recently
acquired the Akeley collection did we have more than 160 items from
Africa -- and these were scattered in several museums across the state.
discover them. And the data bank will make possible other equally
effective exhibits.
with this problem realistically we began our pilot study with a working
for the most part involved in one way or another with museum research.
mally found in museum files is concerned, one can add little else.
the entries within the various categories be made? That is, how much
was agreed at the time of the conference that the fewer classification
systems imposed on the data the better, and it was decided that, for the
most part, the inventory process should be used to generate the diction-
aries.
84
In practice, we discovered that a middle course was desirable.
That is, by taking specific terms and also classifying them into broader
record both the specific item of clothing and the generic term, clothing.
we had to settle for somewhat less than we had hoped for. The state of
the catalogue systems in many museums simply will not provide for a
major museum in Oklahoma did not have any of its ethnological collec-
Where catalogue card systems exist, you will find that the for-
mat will differ from one museum to another and will give varying degrees
on cards may even differ within the same museum. The catalogue cards
museum collections can certainly verify this. What we settled for was a
minimum of culture and object entries. Any information we could get was
acceptable.
ous, erroneous information will be entered into the data bank. It can
worked out.
pology is about to launch a study that will give more insight into
training problems that may not have been uncovered in the Oklahoma pro-
ject.
86
At this point, we feel that training a team to canvass the
museums cannot spare the personnel to perform the task and furthermore,
instruct the personnel in each museum. And with this procedure the
to see how uniform our results were. Each member of the team was given
the same set of forty catalogue cards from our museum file. The manner
in which they inventoried the specimens was then compared. Of the forty
cards inventoried there were only two for which complete agreement was
obtained.
87
This is not as serious as it may seem, however, nor is it sur-
prising in view of the variables involved. We must accept the fact that
spelled out, there will always be some areas of uncertainty and ques-
After this period we began the second phase of our pilot project.
them that in the course of the inventory program we could provide them
with some tangible benefits, that is, help provide additional documenta-
tion for their specimens, give advice on museum catalogue systems, and
88
many found that a copy of our inventory was of benefit. Those museums
one.
The picture, however, was not entirely rosy. There was some
and must be handled with forethought, especially when you are dealing
Perhaps of more concern to some was the fear that the inventory
bad publicity because their storage or catalogue system was not in good
quate and the number of cards voluminous, we photocopied them and did
enabled us to leave the host museum quickly and meant a saving in expen-
diture for meals and lodging. However, we must accept the fact that
we may even be forced to face the fact that some museums may not be
willing to cooperate.
mens. For example, in the year since our inventory was completed in the
Stovall Museum, we have acquired 250 new specimens. Also, museums are
89
continually lending, trading, and also losing parts of their collec-
statewide basis in Oklahoma. Forms are being sent to each museum and,
if they are properly filled out and returned periodically, we can enter
or delete the pertinent information from the bank. If this system does
questions we are concerned with are: Has adequate information been com-
will want to know not only how the scholars use the information but how
important they feel it is. This approach will provide the project with
clear that many museums are considering the use of computers. Many are
respective museums can be merged into one union file. The information
from small museums, those which cannot afford the cost of such inven-
tories, can be brought into the data bank effectively. Only thus can
we realize the many hopes we had when this project was begun.
91
Discussion following paper by Alex Ricciardelli
objects, the medium, the sizes, but I cannot get this information and
tion shown on the data sheet prepared by Mr. Lindsay, which shows the
height, width, depth, weight, value, and other description of the mate-
I would estimate that today the cost of insurance and packing for
dollars the first year this system was put into effect, it would be worth
considering.
mind was primarily a system which would first help locate things. As I
and their overriding concern was with the location of these things. We
but I think you have just got to look at how much the system is going to
cost. So far, nobody has suggested who is going to pay the tab for all
in several small museums, similar to the ones you have worked in in Okla-
homa, where a lot of the people are not skilled but just love museum work,
or they are old-timers who may know one field but not everything else.
I wonder whether the same operation that you finally found successful,
even to some of the museums here in New York, where it would be economical
Mr. Ricciardelli: I agree with you, and the point is you may
into a bank, such as what you know of the origin of a piece, where it
came from, and who the rightful owners were, aren't you opening the door
to a lot of very wild possibilities? You have a museum that for years
had a painting and is not quite sure how it got into the collection, and
minute that stuff gets into a computer system, how are you going to guard
the information against inquiries, say, from the Tax Department, or legal
matter of how to reserve information that is within the data bank -- what
do you propose? 93
Mr. Lindsay: You have a very serious point, there. It would
there for -- private information. I think that each house, each museum,
only within that house. Now when that museum makes its contract on a
that information then goes out, say, to a major data bank, you simply
program your computer to punch that section. This can be done. Anything
you want kept within the house can be flagged for that purpose.
Mr. Chenhall: May I speak to this? You may or may not be aware
even within one field, you are talking of a computer utility. There are
several companies have to protect the items that are confidential data.
I am talking now not just in terms of museums or art works or any of the
There are means of coding the data, coding the individual who is
calling for information from that utility, and complex intercodes, and so
one, so that they have done a fair job, so far, of maintaining the
basis. But this is a major problem of the entire computer industry, not
answered.
working with computer sciences, and with art history. I want to address
94
my comments to Mr. Lindsay.
As I look over your trial field layout chart, I have been working
had numerical coding for the cross-referencing. But I found it very use-
those in this field, and which would include alphabetic information for
eventual output. In this, you can include items relative to the history
of the article and special instructions for handling, and things like
that.
want to get too much into the situation where almost everything is coded,
and comes out coded, because that is difficult to read and it throws
people off. They don't dig that. In other words, it may be coded when
it goes into the machine. The machine can be programmed to decode when
Miss Leonard: But I could also have additional things that would
not be necessary for the cross-referencing part of the program, but could
involved, a person who wanted to ask a question could simply put his
finger on the push-button and say he wants, for example, all paintings in
the early part of the sixteenth century -- better make it specific, 1500
to 1550 -- in Florence with the Madonna. Whatever else you may have with
the Madonna, just ask for that and that is all he gets. The rest he
95
Miss Leonard: What are you choosing to be in the input?
Mr. Lindsay: The output would be exactly how you phrase your
question. You give a question and you will get an output, the answer
Mr. Lindsay: If you want that. You may not be interested in the
acquisition of it. Maybe you are; if you are, you push that button so
Miss Leonard: Specify the certain types of class that you want,
as you just pointed out, and then do the research and sort procedures.
It would narrow down to output only through the relevant pieces, but then
with respect to these relevant pieces, you would be getting your descrip-
The Chairman: Did I get your question right? You are talking
about new institutions which are considering, for the first time, com-
puters?
96
Miss Johnson: Museums which have no collections as yet; in
other words, still in the planning stage. What we are dealing with here
are museums that are already established. Is it too soon to ask this
question?
Mr. Green: No. Hire a consultant and do it. Don't even hesitate.
will congratulate the panel, not only for giving us a very excellent
97
stylistic analysis
by computer
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS BY COMPUTER
Joseph V. Noble
Metropolitan Museum
is always the hardest day to get people started. We are glad you are
the first conference ever held specifically on the application and use of
what we have in store for you this morning. Our subject is "Stylistic
that we will have a computer that you will be able to wheel a painting in
front of, the computer will send out its ultrasilent, infrared presensors,
and print out the results that, "Yes, indeed it is a Rembrandt, late
in front of this magic computer, we will dream about the computer which
looks at it, makes one short test, sends 1,600 volts directly through the
of the cause." Today, computers are not anywhere near this magical
instrument, and perhaps it is just as well that they never do get that
powerful. 101
Our speakers are going to describe how they have applied in an
available. The computer itself does not do the stylistic analysis. This
has been based largely on the very clever thinking of the scholar who has
fragmented the problem, who has analyzed the problem, who has derived
various points from the material under study. The material has been fed
into the computer, allowing the computer to do the thing it does best:
averages and the norms, and the deviance. Afterward, the scholar makes
Our papers have been arranged so that we start with one speaking
into various case histories of how they have been used in stylistic
analysis, and finally we come to a paper which, at the end of it, goes
off into the wild blue yonder, perhaps ten years, fifteen years, into the
future.
102
ON SOME RECIPROCAL REQUIREMENTS OF SCHOLARS AND
by
J.-C. Gardin
For the purpose of the present discussion, only one kind of com-
pora, etc.). The reason for this restriction is twofold: (a) the range
adding one more survey (Gardin 1965a; Cowgill 1967) within the limits
of a short paper would bring no new light on the subject; (b) conversely,
one may hope to gain insight on the real issues involved, beyond popular
still common among archaeologists and art specialists. From this stand-
intellectual work in the profession, and examine both the conditions and
103
1. The role of catalogues, present and future
graphical, etc. One such order, for instance, is that of a museum cata-
etc.) are listed and occasionally described in more or less detail, fol-
that arise from the growing volume of data that have to be taken into
Until recently, the mere fact of gathering scattered data within the
facts of the Bronze and Iron Age in Europe, in either of which the con-
indexes worthy of the name, finally disparages the utility of the whole
project.)
process concerns material data that are perceived and recorded in simi-
riWr\ In a g i v e n p e r i o d , d i f f e r e n t s c h o l a r s c a r r y o u t i n d e p e n d e n t analyses
of t h e s a m e d a t a , f o r i n d i v i d u a l s t o r a g e in s e p a r a t e and sometimes
guarded f i l e s .
y y s' S
i 2
O O
O o
I n f o r m a t i o n goes through an endless cycle of analysis and synthesis, e a c h scholar isolating d a t a which have been
assembled by others and reassembling them in a new presentation, which in turn is to be broken into pieces, etc.
L»
D The proposed a l t e r n a t i v e is t h a t f a c t u a l d a t a should be kept in a n a l y t i c a l f o r m w i t h i n the d a t a b a n k ; synthesis
can then be u n d e r t a k e n more r e a d i l y , f i l i n g being each time l i m i t e d to a d d i t i o n a l d a t a .
classifications, typologies, etc.), and the continuity of the filing
tion tools, both in time (see the more or less random succession of
printed catalogues in any given area) and in space (see the completely
convenient tool for a data bank, but it is by no means the only one.
Other kinds of machines exist, and more are likely to appear in the
future, to carry out the sorting operations that play the essential part
in this picture. One should not, however, be concerned so much with the
banks have one unique purpose, which is to provide scholars with a tool
108
is meant the compilation of the more elementary series that are the con-
issues in the design and use of data banks lie in the theoretical
point. Any flaw in the formulation of the data, as regards meaning and
ambiguous (if there are terms with more than one meaning, or too broad
stored description is inconsistent (if there are several terms for the
109
Innumerable studies have been published on this subject in the last ten
This is not the place to go into the technicalities of the subject, such
(see, for instance, Cros et al. 1964). Suffice it to state two points
that stand out against this general background and are relevant to our
archaeology and the fine arts included. The other concerns a formal
characteristic that most such languages have in common, and which can
our own area: that is, the substitution of analytical expressions made
and retrieval. A number of such codes have already been devised for
Weyer 1964), projectile points (Binford 1963), metal tools and weapons
the design of new codes in the future (see, for instance, the recurrence
posed to contrast them (1955; see also Gardin 1965b, 1967; Cowgill 1967),
etc. Without prejudging the issue, one may safely suggest that both
the more advanced data banks, for two converse reasons. On the one
temporary their acceptance may be. Both viewpoints are well grounded,
111
and in fact easy to reconcile through some semiological refinements that
that has been the subject of many discussions lately, with reference to
from the same archetype, namely the Code for the Analysis of Pottery
logie in 1956: Leenhardt 1965, Herteig 1967; see also Cowgill 1967:
processing techniques, one should not overdo the connection: the lan-
authors and readers. It may be true that the incipient attention that
originally stemmed from a fancy for punched cards and computers; but one
should know better, and realize that those problems are as basic here as
device which is to be used for processing the data. The so-called exact
sciences draw their name from a quality which is in the language and
sense.
fied. For the present discussion, it covers any kind of order that may
113
be brought to bear on a given corpus. Any museum catalogue, for
are usually not listed in a random order, but grouped according to ori-
the finer groupings of archaeological and art sciences, but does not,
and probably cannot reflect them all in detail. Those finer groupings
etc.; (b) an ordering of those features, in the wide sense of the word
criptive matrix).
In all such procedures, the raw material is none other than the
^\CODE
Fl F2 F3 F4 Fn
CORPUS^^
El 1 1 0 0
E2 0 1 0 1
E3 1 0 1 0
E4 0 0 1 1
L
r
1
r-
1 En
1
Fl, with F2 and F3 as secondary splitting criteria, then F4, with F2 and
gests that much of the clerical work that goes into the editing of cata-
logues can be taken over by a sorting machine of some kind, provided the
115
author of the catalogue is able to state clearly the features that are
tion, or both, in all cases when they are not. Here again, mechaniza-
evoked earlier. Two additional factors then come into play: (a) on the
one hand, external criteria of many kinds have to be taken into account,
from the specialist's standpoint; (b) on the other hand, no simple hier-
sis, etc., such as have been reviewed in recent papers (Tugby 1965;
116
Here again, our concern is not so much with the technicalities
have been fostered by computers, to the extent that they involved long
tion in this case rests once more in the added obligations it lays on
ings that may prove more meaningful and/or economical, in ordering given
lelism between the two pairs of antithetical concepts; and the same
question arises here, as to the relation between the two extreme kinds
117
bank restrict itself to compilations of the first order (descriptive
and for the same reasons: both productions are necessary insofar as the
Rouse 1960).
2.3. Summary
and art studies. The basic requirement is the design of elaborate des-
criptive codes, for recording the data in the most detailed and unambigu-
ous fashion; freedom is left to consider multiple coding systems for the
118
objects, monuments
intellectual
means
mechanical
products
119
Standing instructions for the compilation of printed catalogues in given
stage; in return, scholars are rid of the clerical tasks associated with
they gain assistance from the computer to build up models and test
computers as they have just been summarized in accordance with the title
of this paper.
3. Institutional implications
120
For one thing, the first steps that have been taken in the direction of
(a) in the last ten years have shown that the more competent scholars
objects, whatever these may be, and the more trivial physical facts that
logists, as one now tends to call them) to elucidate the elements and
that many scholars have, quite rightly, against losing egocentric con-
hand, and command on the other, both terms referring to the same comple-
been the rule in this case for centuries, there is not much to command
weigh rational displeasure (Figures la, lb). The right to fear collec-
which "control" refers to the actual command of files that have escaped
private owners to fall into the hands of public bodies. Then, possible
121
large-scale uncritical information material, for the more organic and
assumably rigid organization of the data in a master file and the multi-
tually have the power to control the whos and whats of scientific
inquiry, etc.? These are indeed sensible questions, ones that cannot
be dealt with in detail within the limits of this paper. Let us recall
increases, the chances diminish that any single mind will be able to
fact; so are such schemes as the Index of Christian Art, the Human Rela-
tions Area Files, and a few others, in which the emphasis on analytic
the modern data bank, as defined above. Now, few scholars have com-
to the new environment and keep out the elleged dangers of the day, as
public indexes and files improve in quality and efficiency, through the
122
mere use of more sophisticated means, intellectual (descriptive codes)
Literature Cited
Binford, Lewis Robt. and Quimby, G. I., 1963. Indian Sites and Chipped
Stone Materials in the Northern Lake Michigan Area, Fieldiana,
Subtitle: Anthropology, vol. 36, no. 12, Chicago Natural History
Museum.
Christophe, J., and Deshayes, J., 1964. Index de l'Outillage sur cartes
perforées: outils de l'âge du Bronze des Balkans a 1'Indus, Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
Cros, R.-C, Gardin, J.-C, and Levy, F., 1964. (2nd edition 1968)
L'automatisation des recherches documentaires, un modele general:
le SYNTOL, Gauthier-Villars, Paris.
Henderson, Madeleine M., Moats, John S., Stevens, Mary E., and Newman,
Simon S., 1966. Cooperation, Convertibility and Compatibility among
Information Systems: a Literature Review, National Bureau of Stan-
dards, Washington.
123
Krieger, Alex D., and Weyer, Edward M., 1964. New World Lithic
Typology Project, Parts I-II, American Antiquity, vol. 29, no. 4,
pp. 487-493, Salt Lake City.
124
Discussion following paper by Jean-Claude Gardin
Mr. Ronald Globus: Mr. Gardin, you talked about building a known,
Mr. Gardin: This is, of course, a solution which has been con-
sidered many, many times -- that is, substituting the digital descriptions
trouble, then, is that for purposes of comparison one does not know how
to use the data if it is stored in that form. You all know that one
needs a typology to refer to. Now in essence, those direct and logical
methods of recording data do not have typology in them. That is, you use
a kind of TV grid which may be as fine as you wish. To compare two dif-
ferent objects with reference to these two grids, where you do not know
features. And one does not know either how to go from there to the
the logical sense of the word -- to this quantification which is the sub-
language. So these are two reasons why photographs have not been con-
sidered as input.
125
THE USE OF COMPUTERS IN THE ANALYSIS OF TEXTILE DATA:
by
Junius B. Bird
time only under the most favorable conditions such as prevail in certain
numbers they pose no problems in analysis and recording. Only when they
able details and features with varied structural and decorative tech-
and a quantity of related scraps, yarns, and cords. These had been
127
produced during a period roughly from 2500 to 500 B.C., at and near the
Hauca Prieta, a site on the north coast of Peru. We knew that an analy-
here. First, there was the cleaning and preparation for study, a full-
time job for one skilled assistant for one year. Then came the record-
marize, and present the information. The problem seemed a logical one
the Spaniards first entered Peru in the sixteenth century they found a
some form or other and all were clothed. To be otherwise was barbarous.
a much lesser degree, from the wild vicuffa. Bast and hard fibers,
Production was largely a family craft. All girls and some boys
learned to spin in childhood, and probably all women did some weaving.
The major part of their time, in fact, was devoted to the production of
Knox. Such hoards were drawn on to clothe the armies, more was dis-
rituals. Especially fine garments were created for the rulers and offi-
cials, and certain women were employed solely for this work.
We do not know when fabric production started, but it was well estab-
lished by 2500 B.C. By the beginning of the Christian era, some impor-
cotton and wool cloth, including many separate products, was used for
the same period had been packed away with seventy-five garments and
129
other fabrics, the largest a single-loom product with four finished sel-
calculated that to make this piece, 107 miles of two-ply yarn had been
used.
All the dead were not so bountifully supplied, yet the total
amount so disposed must have been enormous. In one area the practice
is on the basis of technology, the manner in which the fabrics were con-
no attempt to cover all the elaborations and possibilities, nor does she
treat with secondary details, such as variable side and end selvage con-
130
computer analysis, is that it points out a basis of relationship and how
the material at hand, or one that would have broader application and
would be useful in the future. We knew that there were radical differ-
ences between the early fabrics and those available from later periods,
and that to prepare a code to encompass all would be a much more complex
jevic; she has worked on the collection, knows textile technology, and
for any complex problem, patience, hard work, and integrity are of para-
experienced in coding other data, and through him the staff of the Ser-
had been devised, support was received from the National Science Founda-
One of the first points we had determined was that a single card
could not carry all data for all types of textile specimens. Only if a
warps and wefts working in opposition to each other, that is, two sets
of elements, there can be more entries than the space on one card per-
mits. For them, within our plan, Card 1 carries warp data and major
in twelve columns.
tion personnel to reserve one column for the machines, in this case
Column 1. Only after the data sheets were printed and data entries made
preparatory to card punching was it brought out that this was not really
rows for entry of information. The space beyond the eightieth column,
convenience only and nothing entered there was intended to modify the
ings, thirty-one were for coded information, six for catalogue numbers,
museums.
132
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FIGURE ONE Data sheet for textile information with sample entries for five fabrics : two t w i n e d , one woven, and two of
single-element construction. Entries in columns 2 to 21 correlate Cards 1 and 2 and were repeated auto-
matically on Card 2 . Entries under COMMENTS are simply annotations and were not cut on cards.
The VALLEY OR AREA code utilized an existing numerical ordering
SITE columns are for numbered sites within one valley or area.
While certain geographical units may ultimately have more than 999
needed.
one site. The material with which we were directly concerned was
was used. The fourth column in this area was reserved for future use,
suffice. For this, Rowe's system, adapted from earlier work, is good.
Eight entries cover the time spanning the Preceramic to the Historic,
specimen can be specifically placed at the time when one period ends and
another begins, it is assigned to the later period and the fact noted by
arately woven products, eight cards will be needed to carry all data.
only the usual two cards. From one set of figures we have the count of
loom products providing the information; from the other, the number of
and some of their combinations. The variations within the major divi-
sions are dealt with in the separate codes LOOPING AND NETTING, PLAITING
might have been combined into one large code under TECHNIQUE. They are
details, which may apply to more than one of the major technique divi-
sions, are dealt with under the codes for WARP MOVEMENT (Figure 2 ) , WEFT
ENDS, and END FINISH. All of these codes are provided with drawings of
not sufficient card space allocated for all possible entries, reference
The data on the yarns and fibers might, to the uninitiated, seem
an easy problem for coding. It is, however, not simple, for the factors
135
directions, versus fibers or combinations of fibers. There are fre-
quently several types of yarn occurring in the warp, or weft, and super-
these fibers are distributed in the pairs of yarns used for warp and for
columns alloted permits recording of three different yarn types for the
warp on Card 1, three for the weft on Card 2. If more than three occur,
or lay of the elements in yarns of two or more ply, were proposed by the
each specimen and the end results would not justify the effort. Instead,
our policy has been to make sample checks within selected lots.
alphabetical yarn structure code for those yarns used for repair and
sewing and could also include embroidery yarns. Where two types occur,
5ZLÏÏ
ni
M
K
m
Ki
FIGURE TWO Diagrams used in the TWINING : WARP MOVEMENT code. There are nine major types, w i t h some minor vari-
ants, among the material dealt with. Other variants that may appear in the future can be added within this
numbering system.
WEFT COUiïoE Column 3k
Ust Card J. f o r f r a g m e n t s w h i c h h a v e par-,s jf H One continuous weft from point of entry to last row of weft Two or more continuous wefts laid in successive sheds and
b o t h s i d e s e l v a g e s ; Card 2 for f r a g m e n t s w i t h insertion traveling in the same direction
cme s e l v a g e o n l y .
C
Weft p a s s a g e s B, D, E , and G « r e .Limited i i
=
t w i n i n g ; o t h e r s a p p l i c a b l e t o l o t h t w i n i n g and
weaving.
I Two or more continuous wefts alternating as shown, advances made
at same selvage
A Weft c o u r s e n o t c o h e r e d b y following:
¿----------------H
One or more wefts used regionally with wefts turning within oody
B J t n r t s a t one e d g e , e n d s wich k n o t a t other of fabric. Use for both continuous and discontinuous wefts
\t
Two a r s e v e r a l complete passages, Lhen e n d s w i t h k n o t s (C,D,E,F) J Two continuous wefts l i k e I , advancing s h i f t s on opposite selvages Two continuous wefts interlocked at selvage (this occurs in some
djULile cloth)
. . /
\ Eccentric, i.e., weft running at other than right angles to the
warp for outlining in tapestry
Di
K Two or more continuous wefts used in creation of weft stripes and Eccentric, i.e., weft at other tnan right angles to warp for ca
advanced along the selvages; similar zo I and J vilinear construction
(
)
„t Q.
~>
M Two continuous wefts entering the same shed from opposite edges
( 1 and shifting to the next 3hed whenever they meet
( T> c . )
v
G One continuous weft fram point of entry to last row or pic!; K Three continuous wefts alternating in successive sheds and entering
twisted within spen of advance at selvage in opposite directions
FIGURE THREE WEFT COURSE code, a code for the variations of weft yarn passage in twined and woven fabrics.
Code X V I I YARN STRUCTURE
Columns 44-45; 46-47; 48-49
Use Card 1 for warp or for single element construction; Card 2 for weft
This code is a numerical-alphabetical code in which Nos. 0-8 refer to the yarn m a t e r i a l , and Letters A - Z to the yarn
structure.
Up to three types of warp and weft may be recorded in the f o l l o w i n g pairs of columns: 44-45; 4 6 - 4 7 ; 4 8 - 4 9 .
Yarn material is entered in the even columns, the first of each pair; yarn structure in the odd columns, the second.
When more than three types of warp or weft occur in a specimen, also enter 8 i n Special Features c o d e .
Fiber, M a t e r i a l — Columns 4 4 , 4 6 , 4
0 Unlisted G 2-ply / A /
1 Cotton H 2-ply W \
A Unlisted S 3 - p l y redoubled A /
C Single / V 3 2-ply \ A
D 2-ply V X M o r e than 3 2 - p l y \ A
E 2-ply A Y M o r e than 3 2 - p l y A V
FIGURE FOUR YARN STRUCTURE code, in which the material used is correlated with the
spinning and subsequent twist directions. The symbols indicate the lay or
slant of the fibers and united strands.
The COLOR: TYPE, APPLICATION code records colors as natural, a
fabric may be dyed after it is created or, more commonly in Peru, the
problem.
plified; it permits entry of only four major colors in the warp and four
in the weft per specimen. If more are present, this is recorded in the
code requiring many card columns for different color combinations if the
wishes to attempt this, supplementary cards could be used. Our own con-
clusion is that the work is not warranted because one is faced with
color variations resulting from aging and fading, as well as the unin-
procedure; it was more difficult for the ancients working with unrefined
mordants and a multitude of dye sources. For these reasons our COLORS
140
Textile design and decoration lends itself to coding, provided
one has sufficient card columns to cover the possibilities. Faced with
three numerical, the others alphabetical. The first records whether the
so on. The second records how these were achieved. The third is a
tional motifs. The fifth and sixth cover the layout and orientation of
SIONS, COUNTS (warp and weft or row counts), and END: NUMBER OF WEFT
ROWS. Measurements are in the metric system. Warp and weft counts are
recorded for the span of 2.5 centimeters. The reason for this is that
most published records are in counts per inch. Moreover, the average
accurately for 1 cm. without using two decimal places. A count per
2.5 cm., using only one decimal place, provides all the accuracy needed.
tion and revision before they reached the forms described. There must
be ways in which the whole could be improved, but there were no major
during the entry of data where the original recorded information on the
catalogue cards was not clear in detail. Otherwise the work of data-
sheet entry proceeded quite rapidly. In the end, the information for
4181 specimens and groups of specimens, on 225 data sheets, was covered
by the entries for 7148 cards. At the Service Bureau Corporation the
programming the questions was not difficult; except for a few cases, our
Sorting was done with an IBM 407 machine, since we were not ask-
ing for figures other than scores. As the reports came in, the results
of each question were assembled on graph paper with the figures grouped
the end we have the most complete and detailed analysis of textile infor-
that has already proven most useful in judging miscellaneous small lots
errors on our part and some in the work at the Service Bureau. Ours
ferent terms. Only in a few cases were the errors caused by transposi-
that there would be errors, and they came to light as the Service Bureau
142
reports were studied and analyzed. The checking of these reports was
simplified by the fact that they were subdivided on the basis of the
cases the data-sheet entries and the sources of information on the cata-
logue file cards were compared. Where card entries were unclear or
the code for TWINING: WARP MOVEMENT, columns 30, 31 on the data sheet,
was ultimately so revised that almost all entries for the various ways
warp yarns were manipulated had to be changed on the data sheets. For-
tunately, the number of specimens with this feature is small, and the
195 out of 265 entries were changed. There are changes resulting from
49 specimens as follows:
The errors noted are admittedly only those that were detected;
one can rightly wonder if others occurred. However, the search for mis-
takes was rigorous, and while one cannot claim perfection in such work,
of how or why mistakes occurred. The fact that there were only nine
instances of entries made in the wrong place on the data sheets where
over 500,000 entry spaces were dealt with indicates that the data-sheet
plan and work of entry was reasonable. Virtually all of the other mis-
takes can be attributed to the manner in which the basic information was
coded.
ever made of textiles of the types and age dealt with; that at the
Equally important, we did not then know that the statistical analysis
plan worked out for the printed catalogue cards was adequate for certain
144
basic data and records, but it was inadequate for the varied information
we worked with the type of card we now envisage as desirable, with the
code plan as a guide, most errors and changes would have been avoided.
We would now enter the code data for each item on the catalogue cards.
The card punchers could work directly from them, but unless such cards
were duplicated, this would not be advisable. There is too much labor
The most embarrassing mistake at the Service Bureau was the per-
us that for smaller lots of textiles the data should be coded and
sible form, but forces one into orderly thinking about a complex subject.
145
Discussion following paper by Junius Bird
Miss Tamaradze: Dr. Bird, what was the object of this project?
in time, where they occurred, the degree to which they occurred, and what
during a period dating from 2500 B.C. to about 500 B.C. This was a study
Miss Tamaradze: Has the project reached the point where you have
the results?
intriguing how certain things, such as twining twist direction, held on,
generation after generation, when they had some alternative system they
might have used. They are extremely conservative through that early
period; the rate of change is slow. Some of the most complicated tech-
niques were flourishing at the very start in time at one community, and
you feel, as you expand this project, that you will get into general
museums?
of this sort, we could take a small collection such as yours, program it,
and tell you exactly where it fits in time and in cultural connection --
by
Jeanette Wakin
Columbia University
lizations can offer such a rich and varied source, and in periods when
literary materials are few or unreliable, and even when they are abundant,
They are also official documents, for the striking of coins in Islam was
147
material, they are valuable for interpreting the ideologies of rulers or
usually inscribed on Islamic coins can be useful; mint names, for in-
trative centers.
for many aspects of Near Eastern economic history. Not the least of
international trade, the circulation of gold and silver, and mint produc-
kind.
148
The initial problem of analyzing these coins, each of which was
seek an efficient technique that would systematize and bring under con-
ine the influence of more than one attribute at a time by breaking down
And so, although the coins themselves posed a number of problems of great
interest for the history of the Ayyubid dynasty, I decided to leave these
for a later date and, instead, pursue the research procedures. Thus, the
To make efficient use of the method, a large variety of data must first
the British Museum, and 248 from the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
The Catalogue of the Khedivial Library in Cairo lists 170 Ayyubid coins.
The other collections are mentioned in the bibliography that forms part
of the code book accompanying the analysis. It should be noted that in
some cases published coins were excluded from the analysis, the data
being regarded as unreliable; in other cases, new attributions had to be
made.
149
Yet, investigations along these lines have not been widely pur-
sued, and the few such studies that have been carried on in recent years
criteria for measuring and interpretation. Even then, only the results
The research for this study was undertaken at the American Numis-
matic Society, where I had the privilege of examining the rich collection
2
of Islamic coins in the Society's vaults. Those which formed the basis
for the study consisted of the 736 unpublished specimens of coins of the
_ 3
periodicals. In all, nearly 2,000 coins were used, although this was far
tasks, the simpler one of counting and sorting the many categories of
Furthermore, the punched IBM cards, each containing all the data
for a single coin, or the computer tape to which the same information can
chooses for his purpose. Future researchers need only consult the code
book, or key to the categories or variables, and then use the same cards
nine sovereign rulers and eleven vassal princes, the coins were struck
The period spans some 80 years, from the time when Saladin issued the
first coin in his own name in the year 1174 (570 A.H.) until the dynasty
151
century, by the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria and by the Mongol invasions in
of Ayyubid coinage and to suggest a few broad trends shown by the study.
1 2 3
i
The l a s t Ayyubid coins were s t r u c k by Al-Mansür Muhammad I I of
Hamä, by Al-Ashraf MiisS, nominally r u l i n g i n Cairo under the Mamlük Aybak,
and by Âl-Nasir Yusuf a t Aleppo. The l a s t coin i s dated 658 (1260).
This study does not i n c l u d e the Ayyübids of Hisn Kayfâ or the Yemen. For
t h e s e b r a n c h e s , see G. C. M i l e s , "The Ayyubid dynasty of the Yaman and
t h e i r Coinage," Numismatic C h r o n i c l e , 5th s e r . , XIX (1939), pp. 62-97,
and Ahmed Tevhid, "Monnaies des Ayoubites de Hisn Kayfa," Procès-Verbaux
e t Memoires du Congrès I n t e r n a t i o n a l e de Numismatique ( B r u x e l l e s , 1910),
pp. 493-505 (coins in the a u t h o r ' s c o l l e c t i o n ) .
152
The first three photographs show the obverse and reverse of three
gold coins from Egypt, representing the evolution of the dinar under the
— 1 2
year 1191 (587). The inscription, which is often contained in three cir-
the date and the mint, the royal protocol, the protocol of the Caliph in
Baghdad, and generally employs some epithet to indicate that the coin is
of full weight and value. The last is quite superfluous in the case of
appeared at the end of the preceding Fatimid period, and abandoned the
weight standard. His coins weigh anywhere from under three grams to
nearly six, and later, the variations in size and weight are even greater.
Neither Saladin's successors nor the Mamluks after them, ever returned to
the weight standard, and from this time on we can no longer speak of
dinars in the strict sense of the word, but of stamped pieces of gold
that had to be weighed every time they were exchanged in the market. In
other words, it is during this period that gold loses its place as a
the second great Ayyubid ruler, Saladin's brother Al- c Adil. It shows the
graphy.
who headed the Ayyubid house from 1218 to 1237 (615-635), after his cele-
brated reform of the year 1225 (622), and in keeping with the spirit of
mm m
*3*
154
If only one type of dinar circulated in Egypt at any given time,
there were several types of dirhams. Coin No. 4 is a rare example of the
nuqra dirham, the silver coin par excellence, and the basis for all
nuqra dirham was probably not for general use in the internal Egyptian
market, where the people used the cut fragments shown in the next photo-
graph. These were called waraq or misri or "black" dirhams and their
alloy was about 30% silver and 70% copper. They were official coins, cut
from ribbons and minted by Saladin and his successors in Egypt until
tell us that Al-Kamil had the next group of round dirhams struck. The
alloy of these miniscule kamilis was supposed to have been 70% silver and
2
30% copper, but an analysis made recently by Dr. Paul Balog shows that
actually their alloy was about the same, if not worse, than the fragments
they were to replace. So even if a new dirham type was invented, the
problems, but much more representative of the Ayyubid dirham were those
from the Syrian mints, which also circulated in Egypt, as we know from
remained standard for that town throughout Ayyubid rule and which was
inscribed in the six spaces formed between the hexagram and the circle.
Saladin, struck in the year 1177 (573). Coin No. 9 shows a second and
although the data on these coins has been collected, they have not been
included in the catalogue or the tables at this time.
by Al-Salih Ayyub in 1242 (640). These Damascus types were the ones that
(there are no copper specimens at all from Egypt) show by their great
variety both in weight and appearance that there was no accepted standard
throughout the Ayyubid domains. And since copper coins were intended for
types were known and accepted by the local population, the Ayyubids con-
2
tinued to strike figurai coins, as Coins No. 10 and 11 show. Often
10 11
1
Catalogue No. 1249.
2
Coin No. 10, Cat. No. 1168; Coin No. 11, Cat. No. 353.
157
these coppers carry the puzzling designation "dirham," or silver coin,
Two more examples of copper types are shown in Coin No, 12, an
undated coin of Al-cAziz Muhammad of Aleppo, and in Coin No. 13, a coin
struck by Al-Zahir Ghazi in Aleppo in the year 1207 (604). The copper
coinage of the Ayyubids should have special interest for the economic
historian, for aside from the trends already suggested, it is during this
period that copper really comes into its own. Formerly a token currency,
the same way that silver had once supported gold. This, perhaps, was the
12 13
technique. The basic question that must first be answered is: To what
1
Coin No. 12, Cat. No. 1106; Coin No. 13, Cat. No. 1012.
158
extent do the total number of specimens that exist in museums and col-
place?
we can examine a small, carefully selected sample, and then apply our
findings to the entire class. Ideally, the researcher has at his dis-
posal all the units of the class from which to draw his sample. And the
at all. It is, rather, forced upon us. The number and quality of the
coins from any given period will be largely a matter of chance, with the
possibility that a major hoard find in the future may upset the distribu-
have a random sample; that is, every coin minted by a dynasty or within
a given period would have an equal and specified chance of being selected.
Since this is not the case, are we justified in making inferences about a
on data and on the sample that is available. Such studies utilize the
In the case of a numismatic study, there are the historical materials and
interpretations from the textual evidence. There are also the well-
understand how the selection of the sample occurs, we can avoid making
comparisons that are not valid. For example, we could not compare copper
and silver coins in terms of mint production, since we know that copper
deteriorates much more rapidly than silver and, besides, may not find its
studies within each type of metal and with a sufficiently large number of
limitations imposed by the nature of the coin sample, we can discuss some
studies.
The Idea of Property Space and the IBM Card. The principle that
surface can be described by defining its distance from any two base
points that we choose, from the left and from the bottom, for instance.
160
Purely quantitative measurements can be replaced with others: with rank-
year
mint
where there is a formal, if not actual, zero point and where there may be
equal intervals. The date of a coin and its weight are two examples of
this. But more often the dimension will consist of unordered classes,
forth. Third, although the categories into which the coins under study
have been broken down do not usually fall into rank-ordered classes, many
the type of information one wishes to elicit from the coins. Rulers, for
161
types, Egyptian mints/Syrian and Mesopotamian mints, gold/nongold. The
two coordinates or variables, date and mint. Now there is no reason why
the further attribute of metal, and instead of looking at the coin on two
plane dimensions, from the left and from the bottom, we now observe it in
terms of a cube, locating it by distance from the left, from the bottom,
more than two or three dimensions can be illustrated with an example from
coinage. One of the measured he took was to replace the debased silver
coinage minted in Egypt up to that date with new round (or mustadira)
The term mustadira may refer to the new naskhi or cursive script
that appeared on these miniscule round coins. This is stated by
Ehrenkreutz in "Contribution to the Knowledge of the Fiscal Administra-
tion of Egypt in the Middle Ages," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies, XVI (1954), pp. 502-514. However, naskhT writing
appeared on Ayyubid coins much earlier than this date, and seemed to be
standard for some coin types. For example, see Al-Afdal CA1T's silver
coin of Damascus, struck in the year 1195 (592), illustrated in the Cata-
logue of the British Museum, IV, Pl. Ill, No. 285.
Al-Kamil's reform, however, did not appear to affect the s i l v e r
coinage in Syria, where the wide-flan dirham remained in c i r c u l a t i o n .
But we may wish to chart the Syrian dirham in a property space, to try
and discover i f the reform was f e l t in Syria in some way that is not
obvious. Using the Damascus dirham as a base, and s t a r t i n g with the
f i r s t two dimensions of mint and date, both of which are dichotomized,
we have the following fourfold table:
MINT
Damascus Non-Damascus
pre-reform
DATE
post reform
163
TYPE 0 4 OTHER T H A N TYPE 0 4
Damascus Non-Damascus Damascus Non-Damascus
pre- pre-
reform reform
post post
reform reform
pre- pre-
WITH reform reform
FULL
HONORIFIC post post
reform reform
pre- pre-
WITHOUT reform reform
FULL
post post
HONORIFIC
reform reform
165
variables. And just as we can specify the conditions under which a rela-
tionship will or will not occur, we can also test whether or not the
variables. That is, observing that two factors seem related to one
another, we usually consider whether or not a third factor plays any role
how this third factor (or additional fourth or fifth) can be used for
reduces it. Or, it may turn out that the third factor has no bearing at
traditionally employed at these two mints were for Aleppo, the triple
hexagram, and for Damascus, the double square inscribed in a circle. But
a great many coins produced by these two mints did not conform to these
1
The sample used here meets the logical requirements of classi-
fication since it is exhaustive and mutually exclusive for the two mints.
But the case has been chosen to illustrate the general principle and the
substantive results can be accepted only with the following reservations:
First, the example does not include a variable which can still be intro-
duced into the analysis. This is the distinction between silver and
copper coins which may behave differently in terms of the other variables
under study. Second, there is the ever present fact that the sample is
not a random one and the totals may have been influenced by a large num-
ber within one coin type, perhaps as the result of a sample containing
part of a hoard. Thus, while the conclusions must be regarded with reser-
vations, the example illustrates the general technique.
166
two types, and so we have dichotomized the coin types into traditional
and nontraditional. Using the 622 coins in our sample that can be
TABLE I
t r a d i t i o n a l types 3 4 3 coins or 5 5 %
n o n - t r a d i t i o n a l types 2 7 9 coins or 4 5 %
TABLE II
Damascus Aleppo
167
Damascus Aleppo
Now we find that one of the two mints was more likely to produce
a traditional type than the other. At Aleppo, not only were 65% of the
the total percentage of traditional types for both mints (55%), the
types falls far below the proportion for both mints as a whole, and
assuming that our sample is accurate, we may say that Damascus was more
finding out if the influence of a particular ruler had any effect on the
type of coin produced at these mints. Since the role of Saladin in the
new orthodox militant tradition of the time has often been stressed, and
domestic policies, we may introduce this ruler as the test variable and
168
mints. We are now dealing with three v a r i a b l e s which w i l l give us three
tionship between ruler and type (shown below); and f i n a l l y , that between
TABLE III
traditional non-traditional
Keeping in mind our original findings that for all coins tradi-
tional types accounted for 55% of the coins, and nontraditional types for
45%, we can see here that under Saladin a higher proportion of tradi-
tional coins was produced than for traditional types as a whole. Further-
We can combine all three variables in one table, and with the
Saladin on both mints. To what extent did his use of traditional coin
types apply to each mint? This is the most important result of introduc-
ing the test variable, for it enables us to test the significance of the
TABLE IV
Saladin Successors
traditional 61 % 81 % 42 % 61 % traditional
TABLE V
Damascus Aleppo
(46%) (65 °/o)
where 81% of the coins struck during that period were likely to be of the
than half the coins minted were traditional types, the proportion rises
tainly the most conservative statement we can make is that during the
170
first twenty years of Ayyubid rule there is considerably less inclina-
policy, causing the mints to strike coins that conformed closely to one
type? Or did the mint determine its own policy? If the second were the
case, then the choice of mint would lead to a high proportion of one type
this problem lies partly outside the coins; but whpt the empirical treat-
duce additional variables into the relationship to see how the pattern
and weight patterns. The time periods can be broken down further to see
significant change.
high (81% minus 61%; 61% minus 42%); the procedure becomes vivid if we
Perhaps it has been apparent thus far that the number of observa-
tions that must be treated in any single operation will usually far
171
exceed the total number of coins, since several factors are measured
for the total number of coins but for many subgroups. It is this very
data. For even though the procedures described here help us to inter-
efficiently. This has always been the case, but the technological inno-
One of the first steps in this project was to try and establish
numismatic materials or, at least, Islamic coins. The data -- any fact
conveyed by the coin or that could be established about the coin -- was
then broken down into mutually exclusive categories, each defined within
same cards on magnetic tape and to compile the data by using a computer.
picion in some fields of scholarship, and while it is true that there are
many pitfalls, they are not intrinsic to the method. There is no merit
score may delude him into thinking that anything he does on the machine,
correlations from the data handled by the computer helps us to pose ques-
What this paper has tried to do was demonstrate how the combina-
the most elementary aspects of this mode of analysis will suggest that a
The sketch map following shows the fifteen known mints of the
Ayyubids for the span of 88 years during which they were active. A num-
during the study, and two in particular are worth noting here.
ANS collection) bear the name of Al-ZJahir Ghazi. According to the Arabic
173
chronicles, Zahir died in the year 613, yet these silver coins inscribed
with the triple hexagram continued to be struck in his name until the
year 629. These "posthumous" coins also bear the names of the caliphs
Al-Nasir or Al-Zahir, who died in 622 and 623. Furthermore, the name of
Zahir Ghazi's uncle and overlord, Al-Malik al- c Adil, also appears on the
coins, even though he outlived his nephew by only two years. It is also
curious that only 16 coins of the same type bearing the name of his son
c -™*
and successor at Aleppo, Al- Aziz Muhammad, appear in the sample; they
are spread over a relatively long period extending from 613 to 634. What
purpose could these coins have served, issued as they were up to 16 years
after the death of the ruler who was supposed to have struck them? Did
his son c Aziz reçut part of an old die, changing only the date, despite
the fact that coinage is one of the chief symbols of sovereignty? The
Ghazi in the collection of the ANS, The letters h-l-a ( >_>. ) preserved
of the date has been effaced, but the coin can probably be assigned to
the year 618, partly because of the name of the caliph Al-Nasir (who died
in 622) inscribed on it, and partly because Al-Ashraf Musa, whose name
there in 609. Akhlat, which had been the capital of a dynasty known as
Shah Arman for over a century, was captured by Al-Awhad, the son of
Al- c Adil, in 604. The town remained in Ashraf's hands until the
retaken by the Ayyubids and remained under their suzerainty until the Rum
175
SEVRES INCISED MARKS AND THE COMPUTER
by
Carl C. Dauterman
Let me make clear at the outset that this is not a success story
tion to other types of problems, and because we have by now had enough
exposure to the computer to know what it can and what it cannot do for
would like to review a few facts about the Sevres factory, its practices,
and its wares. I stress the word facts, since it is the special nature
intuitive opinions, concerning the pieces that have provided the material.
the 1740s, was unique in more than one respect. For one thing, it marked
its wares with coded symbols that provide us with the most complete self-
177
portion of the eighteenth century it produced porcelain of two entirely
hard paste.
The products of Sevres fall into four broad categories, all hand-
of marks. Our thesis is that with the help of the computer, we should be
able to gain some awareness of what is normal and what is abnormal in the
Take a piece of Sevres in your hand, and the chances are that it
will tell you many things about itself. The communication comes through
a set of marks painted in blue or other color on the underside, each com-
of the piece.
part of a large service for Mme. du Barry, it bears her monogram on the
medallions, the rims heightened with rich gilding. Turn the plate over
The decoding proceeds with the reading of the letter within the crossed
L's, this being a date letter to indicate the year in which the piece was
here stands for 1773. Already we have more information from the marks
than most other porcelains are able to give. But with Sevres this is
only a beginning. The little star above the cipher is the mark of a
painter of flowers named Bienfait. The script initials L.G. are those of
Leguay pere, who was both a gilder and a flower painter. And the con-
From all this, we can see that a well-marked piece of Sevres can
provide, via its painted marks alone, four or five factors that, in their
tools have been available for more than a century, in the form of charts
as published in 1906). Thus the scholar, collector, and faker alike have
employed by this factory during the best years of its production. And
But revealing as the painted marks can be, they are capable of
would like to deal with more correlatives. It is not enough to know only
the type of paste, the date, and the names of the painters and gilders.
Happily, there are certain other factors that can be added -- such things
as the size, the color of the ground, the nature of the decoration, and
observed. I refer to another whole set of marks that have been almost
marks, which add a pioneering zest to our study, are incised into the
themselves. They take the form of letters, numbers, and symbols, all
Figure 1.
against the other data. That is to say, I am matching them against the
scratched into the paste and frequently covered with glaze, are basically
processing marks, used by the men who worked with the porcelain before it
was ready for decoration. Therefore one can attribute several possible
180
1. ROMAN LETTERS
T V 3ono BRI
2. SCRIPT LETTERS
Se Jßr
3. COMBINATION OF ROMAN
AND SCRIPT LETTERS
i.. SYMBOLS $ f j f r O K I GB
5. NUMERALS )l|» 35 ¿^
7. VAEIOUS COMBINATIONS
181
exist in porcelain factories everywhere, between the so-called "white
crew" who prepare the clay and shape the ware, and the colorists who are
charged with the later stages of making the porcelain attractive to those
Sèvres porcelain bearing two sets of marks: that is, date marks and
would be set out in tabulated form, with ten columns for each item
spreading across each page. On this basis, the data I have in hand would
run to approximately 200 pages after being converted from my field notes,
such a checklist would be a new tool for the researcher whose basic need
is to look up one mark at a time, which is the way most books of marks
are used.
But somewhere along the way a tantalizing thought struck me: Why
stop with a checklist, when embedded in all these data were infinite pos-
the records for 2,000 examples, each offering ten items of interest, we
are dealing with a minimum of 20,000 facts. Sorting out the various com-
182
This is where the computer enters the picture. It seemed to me
that the computer would be able to pull together the data quickly and
that we might be able to get at the function of our marks if we could get
a little help from a computer. Through his lively interest I was steered
to Dr. Jack Heller of the NYU Institute for Computer Research in the
to throw away the Fortran cards, and put me through a ten-day course in
PL/1. Then he and Dr. George Logemann helped me to devise new says of
setting up our data. With their method, I was able to avoid the limita-
approach, and even to overcome the prevailing method of setting out infor-
mation on any card having the standard eighty columns for abbreviated
never saw the new punchcards, and it wouldn't have helped me much if I
such as 768 A's, 2,315 B's, etc. They also told me how many cups, plates,
vases, and the like were represented, and gave me a complete listing of
the corrections were made directly upon the storage discs, without
The intricacies of the project are too much for a short discus-
sion. Let it suffice that we are essentially concerned with breaking the
code of the incised marks by playing them against the established code of
the painted marks, and further, that we will have some means of checking
the Sevres manufactory. In the time I have left I will comment on one or
two procedures that have worked for us and may offer promise to other
into our province because about half of our incised marks are in the form
of letters, as shown on one of our field slips (Figure 2), where we see an
ae conjoined, a space, and an _s. We had to find some way to make them
among long series of letters that may look rather similar. This permits
given date, type of object, or any other correlative we may wish to inves-
Now for a concrete example of how we have actually put the hard-
ware to work. The end product is called by the computer experts a vari-
late; the computer can handle French too. A normal alphabetical listing,
marks and the names to which they might apply. Most of the listings give
only surnames. Thus, if we have a mark with two initials, such as C.C.,
we might have to comb through 75 C's in the hope of finding all C.C.'s
directory without knowing the first name but only the address. Things
185
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR^COMPUTER RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES
SÈVRES PORCELAIN PROJECT
OBJECT *TA*
CuP
DATE *TD* 17¿>7
*TK* AEjrfS
*TK*
A£:LOiSCRlPTiC0NT0lNED)AE^l
*TK* S:\JP>ROK\AN:,S)¿1
*TK*
AUTHENTICITY *TK*
*TK*
COLLECTION WW
ACCESSION NO. *TK* ZEBX135
MATCH. PIECES *TK* ÍWCH\MG ió PIECES
ARTIST *TK* XHROüET)*P£RE
ARTIST *TK*
ARTIST *TK*
GILDER *TK*
*TS*
*SP"OM Jrf MATCHING )/SAUCER
*TS*
*TS* ^/5"
to their addresses. In the same way, our search for a C.C. working in
set out alphabetically. We could then see who was working at each period,
and for how long. Nothing is simpler for the computer. All one needs
the variable index is served up. Similarly, if one wished to know how
many workers of each category were employed at a given period and pre-
cisely who they were, the machine again would be most obliging. It's
relationship. Thus the turning out of variable indexes, one of the easi-
est tricks of the computer, becomes a widely useful and very revealing
tigation to a single type of object, say a cup, and ask for a retrieval
of marks found on cups alone -- with the date of each given opposite.
stimulate new avenues of thought. Its somewhat like the unkempt desk
found it standing open. Its owner looked a little sheepish, then offered
this drawer, I get too many good ideas by the accidental juxtaposition
Of what use will this study be? We have set ourselves a series
the way into such other things as the division of work at the factory,
worker, the work spans of given individuals, the periods when certain
types of objects were in highest demand, and the pattern in which hard
paste gradually superseded soft paste. And one thing more -- if I may
through its variable indexes how the normal pattern of agreement among
as there is no other porcelain that has been more tampered with and faked
than Sevres.
the use of the computer, I requested a printout of our listings for hard-
during the second half of our study, that is, about 1768-1770. I asked
that the report be arranged according to year, object, mark, and refer-
ence number.
and 1765. The computer had pointed its electronic finger at a baker's
188
HARD P A S T E I N D E X
FIGURE FOUR
HARD PASTE INDEX
FIGURE FIVE
dozen of porcelains that were now suspect and would have to be re-examined
to determine whether the painted marks were falsified or just plain freak-
ish.
The other two sheets showed that during the very first years of
being made: stands, bowls, vases, jugs, cups, etc. I was intrigued to
see that in 1775 two saucers emerged with the incised letters da in
ently, what we needed was to find a worker whose name began with these
letters, and who was employed within these years. The Brunet list showed
of the factory's pay sheets for the nearest available year, which was
1776.
One factor that played directly into our hands was that the pay-
master kept separate records for the potters who worked in hard paste.
We ran down the double column of names, remembering that those on the
right were written by the paymaster, while those on the left were the
In every instance but one we found the names signed with a capital D.
The single exception was that of Danet the elder, whose name appeared
under a heading of Tourneurs, that is, potters who shape the clay by
potters in 1775. Here, again, the only signature beginning with a small
incised marks, and in the weeks ahead we expect to bring more out of
obscurity.
Did we really need the computer to help us with this? Yes, for
the computer has given us two shortcuts. First, it has given us a vari-
able index that clarifies the relationships of names, dates, and occupa-
tions among the potters; second, it has given us the means of retrieving
selecting for us the only eighteen objects that fitted our requirements
In this talk, I have skirted the edges of problems that may face
everyone who plans to use the computer. Fast as the machine is, there
puter takes time, mainly because of the inadequate supply of the heavy
hardware. And I would suggest that anyone planning to use the computer
be aware that the techniques and the equipment are constantly being modi-
fied and improved. My project was first slanted toward the computer
discovered that after a few months newer and better ways of structuring
it came into view. The moral is that unless you can stay with your
project from start to finish without interruption, you will find that
some part of your method will have become bosolete before you are through.
If this trend continues, no one will have to hurry about taking his place
among the pioneers; there will be new pioneers for years to come.
Discussion following paper by Carl Dauterman
The Chairman: Carl has been keeping me posted on what has been
going on in the Museum. He wasn't kidding; the printout you saw at the
records does the factory have besides those that you showed on the
slides?
records, itemizing the day-by-day sale over the counter at the factory of
these now priceless objects of Sevres, the prices paid, and the customers
who paid the prices, to the records of what was taken out of each kiln
records.
of the very thing you are trying to decipher, on your own, by means of
the computer?
importance, you would think that even today there would be many of the
legends carried on of the people who had worked there, and you know,
into employment. In one instance I remember a chap who was of less than
medium height, whose face was red and bumpy, who stuck out both front and
rear, and stood about five feet two inches off the floor. That's the
194
THE MUSEUM COMPUTER AND THE ANALYSIS OF ARTISTIC CONTENT*
by
William J. Paisley
Stanford University
self at a computer terminal in the research room, and ask to review all
art works depicting, say, sailing vessels. He will want to see bas-
expect to see works from all significant collections around the world,
travelling exhibitions.
The computer asks, if he would like to see all the 789 works that
.depict ships? Or will he narrow his request to include only those works
he sample every nth work in chronological order? The scholar says that
in the foreground.
location.
The request now clarified, the computer displays the first of the
234 works, drawing attribute data from digital storage and a reproduction
of the work from microform storage. The scholar reviews the file at his
own pace. He asks for, and immediately receives, a printed copy of cer-
tain reproductions and attribute data that he wishes to take away with
him.
century German paintings, using the attribute file only, neither request-
the text as it pages across his scope. When he has finished reading, the
computer prompts him to stop at the terminal again on his way out, to
A clerk inputs salary data. Another clerk adds new acquisitions to the
updated catalog that the computer will publish at the end of the month.
196
And the curator of the 20th century collection is searching availability
Even when all these terminals are idle, the computer keeps busy.
light-pen and scope; the plotter next to his terminal is having diffi-
roughly one decade from now. The technology of each of these applica-
be written. For that reason alone, this view will seem quite dated when
now view as feats of computation may be the most routine daily labor of
such a machine, while its true feats -- that is, recognized as such in
1980 -- may take place in creative and intellectual realms in which its
and problems. A look into the future only reassures me that the museum
is similar in its concerns and services to the library and the school --
197
archive like the library. Despite differences in setting and student
The scholar who sits at a museum terminal in 1980 does not feel
out of place; there are terminals in his research library and in his
office. The child who is learning about colors may feel that he is still
vidualized instruction).
The museum, like the library and the school, is a system with
there are salary records to be kept. Wherever goods are purchased, there
Yet the museum has unique tasks. Stated negatively, one task is
to the next. The first of these tasks amounts to warehousing, with dis-
works.
fussy about. Letters and notes, as well as all structures built from
them, are separable units. Literature and music share the attribute of
store the separate units as we choose. For some purposes, we can study
encoding systems the possible symbols are few and are easily translated
systems as Brook's "Plaine and Easie Code" (in press), also enters com-
must create units arbitrarily, as by gridding an art work into very small
199
squares. That is, a painting cannot be dismantled for storage in the
computer, except in the sense that tiny squares scanned across its sur-
the computer. We may agree, however, that storing the Mona Lisa in the
gray but not color or texture. The number of digits needed to represent
dimensions, more levels per dimension, and more digits -- for example,
more than a billion digits per point for 20 levels on each of 7 dimen-
sions.
Secondly, and more important, such units will not bear separate
*In this discussion, for simplicity, let "painting" stand for all
forms of visual art
of 3, chroma of 7, texture of 1, and gloss of 5, for a digital equivalent
seem to be decades away from the day when the computer will scan the Mona
puter. I have contrasted the visual arts with literature and music in
Scholarship in literature and music may advance rapidly with great assis-
tance from the computer, from this time forward, while scholarship in the
visual arts will have to make do with less computer assistance -- with a
scholar cannot compare or count very reliably, but the computer can. The
computer cannot make sense of most visual content, but the scholar can.
201
There are reliability and validity problems in telling the com-
puter that painting No. 1347 is a portrait of a woman, called Mona Lisa
literature and music). The computer will not know such facts unless we
mention them. For example, the computer could never guess a work's title
from its content. Too many alternate titles are possible, even for the
simplest work.
Therefore we have two different computer files for each art work.
work that a human brain has chosen for emphasis from an infinite number
(what is the work about?) can be inferred. That is, an attribute nor-
infer almost nothing from file A. In fact, creating file A from visual
will need to be told what a painting is about, down to the least detail
given.
202
Three Purposes of Artistic Content Analysis
its subtlety and scope. Purposes served by content analysis must justify
the effort and expense. We generally think of three reasons for analyz-
are similar in many ways, even beyond their common dependence on content-
analysis procedure.
ture: pointed arches, high vaults, pitched roofs, slender piers, thin
pp. 192-193).
203
still appropriate categories are Arnheim's balance, shape, form, growth,
bute is chosen on the basis of its aesthetic significance and its distri-
must first be visible) but are not easily quantified. Consider Wolfflin's
certain works are "painterly," but how can that attribute be captured in
afterthought. Artist and title are the most central attributes in clas-
facts.
tion: "To construct a retrieval system, we must first of all select art
works for inclusion in a store. For each art work, we must then select
204
one or more 'descriptors' by which the work can be described and dis-
for searching. We must then transform each user request into a set of
descriptors and compare this set with our physically recorded full set
have stored the works themselves in such a manner that we, when provided
system succeeds only when a user's request calls forth the works he
interest users (and not, for example, any number of easily specified
physical attributes that are never asked for, such as "paintings that are
have proven effective in previous searches. The user believes that some
as in my introductory example.
until all original content has been scanned for its presence.
ture, using the Stone "General Inquirer" retrieval program (Ellis and
readable version of the book for words associated with death and compiled,
When the computer has no file A or cannot make sense of its file
A for the purposes of the search, a deep and richly multidimensional file
ask a museum computer for such information, then file B must contain
museums, it is likely that file B will have to be very deep because file
A is very shallow. Moreover, file B will always be the more used, even
since most attributes that interest people are about the works rather
than in the works. File B also contains all attributes that are
206
administratively important; it is the acquisition, inventory, and main-
dane topic for banks. Pattern recognition is not the same as optical
character recognition, although the two terms are often used inter-
we have the bank's daily business. When the image is free-form and in
ing, the computer's other tasks in the museum are simple indeed.
Pattern recognition was not born with the computer. Morelli and
Ortolano I fell into raptures over the tragic pathos of the design. My
mentor . . . cut me short with, 'Yes, yes, but observe the little pebbles
'Observe the little pebbles' has become among my intimates a phrase for
which so large a part of activities like mine are spent" (Kiel, 1962,
pp. 145-146).
->£? ~~
"»O
Giovanni Bellini Bernardino de'Conti Bramantino Botticelli
208
another are the characteristics he does not share with others. If,
When the computer scans a poem for meter, that is pattern recognition.
relationships in the data are really there (are not just random combina-
tions) and can be interpreted in terms that make sense to us. The famil-
butes. Classification calls for attributes that users will think of.
6 - #
5 . #
# # - - 4 - # # # - -
- -#- 3 - # - - # -
- -#- 2 - # - - # -
- -#- 1 - # # # - -
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
then such attributes as the six # cells in the second column and the
three # cells in the fourth row help to locate both images in a certain
209
class (the h-b class -- they are the only members), but only the first
grasped this principle half a century before the rest of us. To over-
I will mention the hand, with bony fingers -- not beautiful, but always
full of life; the nails, which, as you perceive in the thumb here, are
the Mona Lisa smile. They stand at the opposite pole from attributes of
attributes in or about the work being analyzed. What they have in common
might be called the "taxonomie algorithm." That is, one fills files A
210
ATTRIBUTES
1 2 . . k k+1 . . . . n
I File A | 1 ---File B 1
OBJECTS 1
retrieval, and pattern recognition -- in much the same way. When two
basic files have been filed, one with a digitized representation of the
art work itself and the other with dictated attributes about the work,
tions well, poorly, or not at all with existing hardware and software is
211
have ever been intelligently predicated on existing hardware and software.
people who previously worked apart. The computer has already unified
on. It has even bridged the two cultures, as today's gathering of human-
ists and scientists in the Metropolitan Museum bears proof. Since there
are never enough clever ideas to go around, the computer's habit of unify-
ing its users must benefit all of us who, for one purpose or another,
these tasks:
(1) It must summarize the extent and kind of its holdings on any attri-
tates some current systems), "How many works contain word 'parlia-
212
(2) It must find any single work whose attributes match the attributes
(3) It must display, for any work found, all requested file B attributes.
by artist 'Titian.'"
(4) It must display the work itself. Neither in the present nor perhaps
Any known technology for printing a long work in file A would take
well as classification.
There are many running systems that accomplish task (1) with
Stone's "General Inquirer" (1966) and Sedelow's "VIA" and "Maptext" (in
general public. There are at least two running systems for scholars that
frames. Another (Ekman and Friesen, in press) uses videotape with codes
Libraries and schools have been adopting the computer quite early
filling a resource gap. Both the library and the school sorely need the
written locally, poorly, and many times over. The ever-eclectic museum,
needing the computer less urgently, can acquire the best computing sys-
itself.
physics, and so on. Virtually all present research stays within three
least seven dimensions of recognition power (the five cited early in this
content. Solutions developed for X rays, contour maps, and even aerial
214
photographs will be inadequate. The museum's unique contribution to the
References
Brook, Barry. The 'Plaine and Easie Code' of musical notation: some
recent developments. (In) Gerbner et al., op. cit.
Ekman, Paul, and Friesen, Wallace. VID-R and SCAN: tools and methods
for the automated analysis of visual records. (In) Gerbner et al.,
op. cit.
Kiel, Hanna (ed.). The Bernard Berenson treasury. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1962.
215
Parker, Edwin B. SPIRES: the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval Sys-
tem, annual report. Palo Alto: Stanford Institute for Communication
Research, 1967.
216
visual applications
VISUAL APPLICATIONS
Virginia Burton
Metropolitan Museum
for those of us in the fields of art, art history, and archaeology. Many
of the problems that you have heard discussed in the first two sessions
machine.
219
AN EXAMPLE OF COMPUTER-GRAPHIC TOOLS
by
Janice Lourie
requiring the use of aesthetic judgement. The solution involves the use
input and output of the initial and final graphic information, but also
permit the user to interact with the computer during the solution of the
problem. The use of these devices does not demand a technical under-
automobile works in order to drive it. The same can be said of a com-
application.
knitted must represent each stitch of the knitted mesh, and a design to
This process involves the use of both technical and aesthetic judgment
output is the pattern of the holes in these cards; for a Raschel machine,
a tool for the artist. It enables him to make the same aesthetic judg-
more rapidly than is possible when using traditional methods. The rapid
execution of the user's decisions is what gives this set of tools its
versatility.
222
Description of the Textile Designing Problem
all the threads in one set are parallel to each other and perpendicular
to all threads in the other set. The set of threads which run the
length of the fabric is called the warp; the set of crosswise threads is
called the weft. These two sets are interwoven to form a mesh or web.
with an artist's sketch. Since the threads within each set remain paral-
lines per inch in the same ratio as the number of weft and warp threads.
Each square represents the intersection of one warp and one weft thread,
that is, one interlacing. At each intersection the warp thread may
pass either over or under the weft thread. This binary choice is
begins by projecting the artist's sketch onto the point paper (at about
deciding the proper weave for an area, and its orientation within the
223
area, the designer must consider both the appearance (aesthetic rules)
and the use (structural rules) of the fabric. He then uses a paint
After the weaves have been inserted in the areas, another set of
versa) might cause this restriction to be violated when they are placed
in Figure 1.
FIGURE O N E
The right-hand drawing shows background weave altered to make the cen-
ter unit stand out.
half a million rectangles. Such designs take well over a hundred hours
to develop.
224
Computer-Aided Solution
stylus is coupled to the tablet. As the person tracing moves the stylus
along the design, the coordinates of the points over which the stylus
the original design and then drawing one section at a time, a process
FIGURE T W O
The particular tablet described here is called a GRAFACON and it is made
which the user can control the execution of a computer program. A pro-
gram is being executed, this condition occurs, then the strict sequence
will be violated and execution will resume at the indicated point. Such
keys. In this way the user causes the branching of the program out of
key.
has thirty-two keys. Each key may be associated with a different sub-
functions of all the other keys," we can generate the potential for
another thirty-two functions using the same keyboard. For each set of
which fits on the function keyboard labels the keys for a particular
minal. The light pen detects light. When it is pointed at the display,
which the user would like to perform certain functions. Using the func-
tion keys and the light pen, the designer-operator can translate,
If the design has symmetry, the operator may elect to trace only a por-
tion of it and request the computer to generate and display the remain-
/ X.
f \
""
\ _r*%
S. = JT 1
\ ; '«N /
\
| / v '•Jgf
\ ƒ\ \ ¥
"*—\ ^ " I F | . ,1 "=^~^~ 5
"""*--_ -I — _ j f r j - » ^ "
•r
- ~"~ <—u__
227
optical scanning process may be much more than is necessary for the par-
The reasons why the original artwork cannot be directly reproduced are
many. Let us consider one of them. A simple line drawn with varying
Even the artist would acknowledge this. It is not the intent which pro-
duces the original unevenness, he would say, but rather the carrying out
228
Development Phase: The development of the outline of a design
carried on as a dialogue between the computer and the user. The tools
of this dialogue are the display screen, the light pen with which one
may draw on the screen, and a set of function keys which perform func-
system.
keys the user depresses is the "label" key. This key will cause a
unique label to be given to each disjoint area of the design and will
display the label within the area on the screen. This function performs
user may be able to treat the separate areas independently. This func-
After this function has been executed, the user may point the
light pen at a given label and any function "keyed in" will be performed
229
¡!E
plain weave satin weave twill weave
FIGURE FOUR
library dialing system. For example, the user wishes to select Weave
112 from the library. He can push button 1 twice, followed by button
2 and then a "display" button and the screen will be filled with Weave
He can also generate a new weave on the screen with the light
function key. Then he points with the light pen to those dots which he
wants to represent warp over weft. They will become " 1 . " The others
will remain dots and will represent weft over warp. He can next execute
a function that will incorporate the new weave into the library and give
230
A user may want to introduce a weave into the library and not
want to check manually through every weave already in the library to see
key. Then, if the program searches the library and finds the weave
lar disjoint area. After selecting the weave, the user redisplays a
specific area of the design. Then, by pointing at the label in the area
with the light pen, the user causes the weave to appear in the area
within a few seconds. Without use of a computer, the designer must exe-
cute the process by painting the weave pattern into tiny squares, an
point paper.
desirable to have a function key that will equate the labels of several
-o it o o n
<i (t o o «>
<t o 41 <> o
4> «I 41 41 4r
231
areas so that when a weave or other operation is designated for one of
"equate" function key is depressed and the light pen is pointed at the
labels of each area to be equated, the labels will become equal to the
equated for the purpose of inserting the same weave in them. Another
If the equate labels are used for the purpose of labeling each area of
only to areas of the same color may be collected together in the com-
puter.
this is true was shown in Figure 1. If the user depresses the "invert"
key, every interlacing he subsequently detects with the light pen will
be changed to the opposite state. Warp over weft, that is, will become
weft over warp and vice versa. The change of an interlacing takes place
this, one must dip the paintbrush in water, apply it to the square, and
Since the screen is of a fixed size, all of the design may not
232
function key programmed to move the design either left, right, or up or
down. In this way other portions of the design may be brought into view
these functions.
punched card (or equivalent) for each row of the design. The holes in
the card represent warp threads to be raised during the weaving of that
card -- that is, a raised warp thread. If the O's and l's are printed
out row by row, they will constitute a "map" of the control cards. If,
however, each row is punched on an IBM card, the set of these cards can
plotted on paper or film, so that the designer can keep a visual record.
One such plotter, the Geospace plotter, uses paper or film measuring
separated films.
tion key, it will be woven by a loom connected to the computer. The loom
has been modified to accept control signals from the computer instead of
cycle in which every painted square on the point paper must be manually
Summary
tested than would be possible with manual execution. Similar tools and
234
Discussion following paper by Janice Lourie
Mr. Donald Puct [Newark Museum]: What did that terminal cost in
money?
I'm not really a salesman, even though I sometimes sound like it. So you
235
COMPUTER METHODS FOR THE PROCESSING, CLASSIFYING, AND
by
Herbert Freeman
This is the field that is concerned with the computer processing of pic-
torial data, that is, of data described in a graphical sense rather than
the purpose for which the graphical data are processed by the computer.
tion of interest from the given data. The opposite applies for synthesis,
in the computer, and the computer must generate the graphical presenta-
tion. For manipulation, both input and output are graphical in form;
however, the input graphical data must be operated upon in some specified
x
The research reported here was supported by the Information
Sciences Directorate, Air Force Office of Scientific Research,
237
manner so as to yield the desired output form. The removal of curvi-
supplied to the computer, and the computer must classify the data
deal solely with the analysis and pattern recognition of data of the
line-drawing type.
Since a digital computer can accept only data that are given in
uniform grid of arbitrary fineness. We next tract out the curve from end
to end and mark the grid nodes that lie closest to the intersections
and H). These nodes are then connected with short straight-line segments
line approximation for the curve, which we shall call the chain of the
given curve. The segments of the chain, called elements, will be of unit
length if they lie along a grid line, and of length V 2 if they cut
238
FIGURE ONE THE CURVE QUANTIZATION SCHEME
I =•
II =
unit spacing.
Since as a chain moves from node to node, each next node can only
be one of the eight grid nodes that surround the present node, we may
adopt a very simple coding scheme for the chains. We assign the numbers
departing from the present node, starting from the right horizontal,
segments. The curve of Figure 1 can be encoded into the number sequence
239
3 2 1
S \ 0
V. y f
4 S
(¿S 6 ^V 7
either carry out the encoding process manually, which is, of course, very
is guided along the curve and electrical signals, picked off from the
stylus, are furnished to the computer. The computer extracts the neces-
sary information from the signals to generate the chain code for the
curve. Such equipment has been built and employed for this purpose.
Special codes can be inserted into the number sequence to indicate the
we need merely total the number of even-valued elements (n ) and the num-
ing formula:
240
L = ne + n0 V2
The length of the chain 01210767 shown in Figure 1 is thus 4 + 4 V 2 =
9.656 units.
we merely break up each of the elements (which are really little vectors)
into their horizontal and vertical components. For height, we then com-
pute a running sum over all the vertical components, and take the differ-
ence between the maximum value of this sum and the minimum value. The
difference will be equal to the height of the chain. For width, a simi-
lar procedure is used, except that the horizontal components of the ele-
3
coarsely, any properties we obtain from its analysis will be less precise.
and short processing time (coarse grid). Criteria have been established
is well defined, everyone is familiar with it, and its solution requires
assuming that the pieces are turned on their backs, so that they all
assembled puzzle is both unknown and irregular, that all required pieces
are provided, and that no pieces that do not belong to the puzzle are
present.
special attention should be given to the puzzle junctions, that is, the
which three pieces come together a triradial junction, one at which four
in Figure 3.
242
FIGURE THREE
243
and regard each state as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, we find that there
is only one junction that is quadradial, namely, the point at which Ari-
zona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah join. All other state junctions are
look at commercial jigsaw puzzles, we find that only some of the simple
ones, made for small children, contain many triradial junctions. Vir-
tually all of the larger puzzles, containing hundreds of pieces and made
for adults, have exclusively quadradial junctions. The reason for this
through," from edge to edge, and such cutting can yield only quadradial
order radiality would be most rare, except where the breaking is done by
is, of course, not difficult to achieve if one sets one's mind to it.
J = 2n - 2
= N 3 + 2N 4 + 3N 5 + + (k-2)Nk
and where, for exterior junctions, the puzzle's exterior is also taken to
244
FIGURE FOUR puzzles with only triradial (À) or only
quadradial (B) ¡unctions
posed of j u n c t i o n s of r a d i a l i t y five or h i g h e r .
A most s i g n i f i c a n t f e a t u r e of j u n c t i o n s i s t h a t a t every j u n c t i o n
245
piece joins with two or more other pieces. Of course, a discontinuity
a puzzle may fit together. It is not difficult to see that there are
six distinct ways in which two pieces may "mate" with reference to dis-
type of mating, Type I, brings two pieces together so that each one fits
246
Type II mating, the two pieces start together, each with a discontinuity,
but they separate at a point at which only one of the pieces has a dis-
continuity. For Type III, mating starts and ends at points at which only
Figure 4a, the matings are all of Types II and III; in Figure 4b, they
the pieces that are given and examine them for discontinuities. We then
assign a unique number to each piece, and also label with a decimal frac-
discontinuities
in contour
247
In the next step, the chains of the curve sections are analyzed
chain, the straight-line distance between its end points, the maximum
separation between end points, the enclosed area lying between the chain
piece from which the chain was obtained. This is important, because when
maximum separations, enclosed areas, etc., must be the same (within some
chain, say, No. 8,1 (i.e., the No. 1 section of chain No. 8) and look up
each, the two chains must have closely matching properties. We search
through the catalog for all chains that have properties that match those
to how closely these properties agree. We select the one whose proper-
ties match most closely to those of 8.1 and rotate it (by means of a
as chain 8.1. Next we carefully determine whether the two chains indeed
mate by checking how well they match in fine detail, and whether the
248
enclosed area
maximum separation
straight-line distance
chain of
curve section 27.2
r--0
249
pieces to which they belong are compatible in other respects. For
example, suppose that in Figure 8, chain 5.3 matches most closely to 8.1;
however, because pieces 5 and 8 would overlap, the next best match,
chain 12.2, must be taken instead. Observe that we cannot expect perfect
mating since we are not dealing with the original curves but merely with
only for pieces that mate on a Type-I basis. Fortunately, this is the
most common type of mating. When only a few other types of matings are
later through the matings of other curve sections of the same pieces.
sible, for example, to construct a puzzle that has only Type-II matings!),
determined for two fixed-length portions of each chain, one from each
250
end. These will be entered in a special fixed-length chain property
catalog and then used in the same way as the main catalog.
come together at a single junction. When all the pieces around a junc-
tion have been properly assembled, we can have a fair degree of confi-
dence that the assembly is correct and that we have not been deceived by
an ambiguous match (though we can never be sure of this until the entire
251
In the foregoing, we have described only the assembly of jigsaw
parable process. As long as the individual pieces are fairly flat, the
difference from jigsaw puzzles is that missing pieces may be common; how-
ever, as long as not too many pieces are missing, they do not present a
serious problem. They will be treated simply as being part of the outside
ent.
References
252
5. H. Freeman and L. Gardner, "Apictorial Jigsaw Puzzles: The Computer
Solution of a Problem in Pattern Recognition," IEEE Trans. Electron.
Comp., vol. EC-13, 2, pp. 118-127, April 1964.
253
Discussion following paper by Herbert Freeman
pendently compared?
say, unlimited computer time, what type of storage does it take in order
puzzle? I'm thinking if that were expanded by a factor of 100, could you
handle this?
ate, and any large-scale computer with good secondary memory, such as
magnetic tape or disc units, could handle a very large puzzle without any
difficulty.
believe there are some people who have worked with it. I don't have their
names with me, but I could get them. This is certainly an application
fact that we tried to make the problem difficult; that is, we tried to
with this scheme, and still we were able to overcome almost every
dimensions?
type problems.
cal application, I'd like to tell you about one that's very closely
original form, was probably several hundred feet in length. At the time
this frieze was destroyed, the segments were widely used as building
this technique. Fortunately, they were aided by the fact that the frieze
center -- which gives you another factor in mating pieces, besides the
perimeter. The matching of a radial line that would cut across five or
this method, and I undetstand they are having great success. If anybody
would like to know more about this I could give you the name of a gentle-
Smith. If you want any further information on it, you can contact him
255
through the American Research Center in Egypt, or possibly in care of
was my impression last year, at least. Do you know that they use the CRT
at all? Is that what you are referring to? Or is it the coding system,
Mr. Ellin?
Mr. E11in: I thought they were using a system very much like the
one you just described, where they are refining their work after locating
the obvious matches through the radial line situation. They are now
by this kind of method. I'm not absolutely certain, however, about this.
The Chairman: If they are not using the CRT, we can tell by this
time that they should be. Are there any further questions?
graph of these segments and achieve the same result? In other words, the
system that the Bell Laboratories people use, where they can actually
digitize a photograph and then reproduce it, and then do the matching.
Mr. Schoener: The entire piece, which would also give you the
outline.
going to work with the outline, then keeping the entire piece in the com-
puter gives us a lot more data that we are not going to use. It simply
256
means a lot more to carry around. Also, some of the processing tech-
niques are not as efficient as the ones developed here. This coding
system has this dual advantage: if you are working with a contour --
solely with a contour, that's all you are interested in. It's very
This is important if there are other features throughout the piece that
you must also preserve. But if you are going to work only with the con-
tour, then I believe this method is more efficient, both from the point
Mr. Schoener: But if you then had visual symbols on the surface
that were also necessary to identify, not just simply the outline, digi-
Mr. Freeman: You might start that way. If you had, let's say,
some broken pottery that you wanted to assemble, you don't have to take
each piece of pottery by hand and do this. You might have some photo-
graphs of the pottery and you might digitize the entire photograph, first
minute ago.
actual piecing together -- you might convert the data that you have from
is very easy -- then continue the fitting, only now using the chain-
coded system. Then, when you find likely candidates -- that is, when you
find two pieces which look like these two mate -- you might go back and
starts on one and is supposed to run through another one, indeed does.
257
If it does, you have further confirmation that you have mated these
pieces correctly; if it does not, you might then look at other candidates.
going to work only with shape. But by all means, if you have other infor-
mation, you want to use it. But, as I said, I described some ambiguities
where you can fit two pieces together and later find this is the wrong
fit. Probably we could have turned those things upside down and noticed
that one was yellow and the other blue. This might have given us the
indication that these were not the right ones to use. However, we said,
"Let's take the more difficult task first. Let's look at shape only and
ments to make. One is that the microrecords exhibition and display across
the hall will be available all afternoon for those of you who haven't
seen the explanation of how these machines work, and for others of you
who would like perhaps to take home with you various types of printouts
or microfiche records. You can do this at any time for the rest of the
day.
concerning the Egyptian reliefs that are being assembled. Some of you,
The article is by Ray Smith, and it's called "The Okanocan Temple Project."
258
APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS IN MUSEUMS
by
Leslie Mezei
University of Toronto
art and of artists are only so many words until illustrations are added.
only natural to ask: "We do have numbers and words to deal with, but
our business is primarily graphics, and what can the computer do for us
in this regard?"
Let me declare at the outset the bias with which I approach this
new concepts they engender and the new questions we dare to ask with
their assistance.
things they had done before have found that they are not making effec-
tive use of this new tool. They have found that a complete
mating the old procedures was not good enough. You in museums are in
grave danger of making the same mistake over again. You have had to
259
spend much of your lives shuffling 3" by 5" cards. If you devote all
your resources to feeding cards into the mouth of the mechanical mon-
ster, you will miss many great opportunities that the computer and
related technologies offer you. After all, you seek understanding, not
index cards.
field of computer graphics and of the input anrl output equipment and the
ing you a series of slides which I have developed during the last year.
They were all drawn on a CALCOMP 565 incremental digital plotter, con-
line drawings.
each subject area discussed at this conference, and yet, were you to ask
me: "What projects of this type should we start on today?" I would have
difficulty answering. Much that I will talk about is but a pipe dream
ties now, so that the initial systems are designed in such a way that
point. Accordingly, I will use a broad brush, or, should I say, a wide
light pen.
Documentary Applications
this with a representation of the art object? Not yet, at least not in
know what kind of questions to formulate for the analysis of the pic-
tures.
developed. Here the visual information is stored only for the purpose
incorporated, which converts the slide into digital form for computer
261
processing. Looking further ahead, we can expect full color capability,
image. By that time optical computers will probably come to our rescue.
for the description of pictures for this purpose may well become more
the movie camera is the only means of recording at present. Here again,
When much art and design will be done at the graphic console of
a computer a good record will be provided by the initial data, the pro-
ing into the future with a crystal ball is a popular hobby. The current
issue of TV Guide talks about "the giant 3-D color screen in every room"
which "may literally become your 'window on the world.'" "You may be
262
able to dial exact reproductions of art masterpieces electronically
'hung' on your wall from the world's great museums." Will the museum,
become an electronic control center from which the displays are beamed
into the outer world? And what type of displays are we talking about?
about. I would think that it will take more effort and a longer time
attention to these trends now, we will leave a larger mess for future
Museum Networks
Does all this imply that computerized museum networks will take
over much of the importance of the museum itself? And will these be the
able that computer networks for museums should serve not only the pur-
puting centers for the individual museums, and, indeed, for the whole
cated equipment and manpower required into regional centers, I hope that
to help the evolution of the living arts and artists. Increasing num-
cannot himself afford to rent? Why not the museum computer network?
Exhibitions
was also considered, of course, and found to be the most difficult and
voluminous item.
this data can be displayed in the forms of charts, graphs, Venn diagrams,
Stylistic Analysis
For shape classifications, such as the ones we were shown by Dee Green,
used.
pictures transmitted from the moon and Mars has already been experimen-
265
filtering techniques bring out features not otherwise visible. These
may well become useful to those studying the fine texture of paintings,
this type of question: "In what way is a Picasso drawing different from
a Durer drawing?" When people say to me: "Your picture 'Bikini Shifted'
should be made. I do not for a moment suggest that all aspects of art
that depend on many things not explicitly in the picture. But the same
stop us from studying its syntax. Some parameters that have already
generate pictures of oak trees, then I have learned something about the
design. But what is a rose? In what way does it differ from the most
of roses, all different, but recognizably all roses? Since art often
266
questions become relevant. Again I believe that the questions themselves
and the search for answers to them will make a more important contribu-
tion than the uses to which we put the results. This has already hap-
translation of languages.
Education
studies which went into it. You could see the artist at work, and get a
glimpse into his inner world. If we seat him at a display console and
have him develop his studies with a light pen, we can record the process
ing, animated educational movies may become economical and easy to pro-
elements.
Design
I have really done no more here than point to some general areas
where computer graphics may make a contribution. With your more inti-
mate knowledge of museums, I am sure that you will think of many others.
I hope that these ideas, as well as the slides, have served to acquaint
you with a fascinating new area of computer technology that has great
Bibliography
Krampen, Martin (ed.). The Designer and the Computer, Print., XX, 6,
1966.
Krampen, Martin, and Peter Seitz (eds.). Design and Planning No. 2,
Computers in Design and Communication, New York, Hastings House,
1967.
Seitz, Peter. Design and the Computer, Design Quarterly 66/67, Minnea-
polis, Walker Art Center.
268
SURVEY ARTICLES ON COMPUTER GRAPHICS:
Mathews, M. V., Carol Lochbaum and Judith A. Moss. "Three Fonts of Com-
puter Drawn Letters," Communications of ACM.X, 627-30.
269
Mezei, Leslie. "SPARTA, a Procedure Oriented Programming Language for
the Manipulation of Arbitrary Line Drawings," Proceedings IFIP Con-
gress '68. In press
COMPUTER ART:
Mezei, Leslie. "Computers and the Visual Arts," Computers and the
Humanities, II, 1, 41-42.
Mezei, Leslie. "The Electronic Computer: A Tool for the Visual Arts,"
Proceedings, Computer Society of Canada National Conference, 1966,
108-112.
Miura, Takeo, Junzo Iwata and Junji Tsuda. "An application of Hybrid
Curve Generation to Cartoon Animation by Electronic Computers,"
AFIPS Conference Proceedings, XXX (May 1967), 141-48.
MUSEUMS:
270
Hutchinson, Bruce G. "Simulation of Exhibit Visitor Circulation in a
Digital Computer," Computers in Design and Communication: Design and
Planning No. 2, Martin Krampen and Peter Seitz, eds., New York,
Hastings House, 139-144.
271
COMPUTER GRAPHICS AS A MEDIUM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
by
J.C.R. Licklider
mixed with awe and fear. The awe is inspired partly by you and partly
at the same time wise prose and essential poetry. The fear arises from
too early exposure in a difficult leading role, will spoil the computer's
The main role in which the computer can serve art, I believe, is
273
within the context of computer graphics and visual art. The main point
is that the computer -- considered in the broad sense that includes input
and output devices and computer programs as well as the computing machine
constraints that are inherent in all the media presently employed and
is worth much more than all the inventory control and information
retrieval systems that will ever find their ways into museums, though
such systems will render valuable services and will do so relatively soon.
we have in our several minds quite different images of the computer and
with the same words. For example, one of us said a little while ago that
digital computers deal essentially with numbers and that whatever digital
said in at least equal truth that digital computers deal essentially with
beside the point that the main early applications of digital computers
know used a computer in which the basic "divide" instruction was miswired.
The group was not mathematically incompetent. It was doing things that
things.)
The main disparities among our images of computers, however, stem
with it. For many, the computer is a cold, precise machine that lives
of capital letters, and on the whole best dealt with not more often than
once a day, and then through its retinue of intermediaries -- its pro-
engineers. For some, but not yet many, on the other hand, the computer
arises from one man's thinking in terms of what is now actually working
for which he has just written a "letter of intent." If you are awed at
But not yet capable -- except in a few fields for which special
programs or "scenarios" have been developed -- of communicating with
people in their natural languages.
275
all by the "population explosion," in which there is a doubling in thirty
ten or fifteen, then it may be necessary for you to remind yourself con-
tinually to "think time scale," as the jargon puts it, in planning your
the amount of information processing achievable per unit cost -- all have
been at least doubling every two years. Doubling in two years means
tory, which it may well do, then today's dreams will be within the com-
puter's scope tomorrow, and "Ars longa, vita brevis" will take on a new
factor is not the computer's ability to execute large and complex pro-
ments that the user imposes upon the variable parts of the hardware of
next moment, the temporal course of a running program has a very differ-
ent character from the fixed pattern of a static program, that is, of the
276
same program when it is not being executed. Such facts about the nature
relate those entities to the world of art. I hope the following asser-
tions will communicate at least the tone of my feeling about the per-
tinence.
likes.
out revision at other levels. (For example, one can move a tree
unspecified.
2
What is an arrangement of variable parts (a program) in one com-
puter can be frozen into an arrangement of fixed parts in another (more
complex) computer. Moreover, the dichotomy of "fixed" and "variable"
breaks down into "fixed" plus several degrees of variability.
277
d. Existence in two forms, static and dynamic, the latter flow-
3
ing from the former.
artists; some of the programs they write are beautiful; and some of
feeling that anyone who does not get two or three hours a day at the
3
A motion picture film has the two forms. One can examine it
either frame by frame or as a motion picture. However, the static form
of the film is necessarily comprised of all the individual frames. The
essential static form of a computer program is just one frame, ordinarily
the first. It defines the initial state of the computer; the initial
state determines the second; the second, the third; and so on unless or
until the computer stops or an external agent intervenes.
278
in interaction with a good program that not only teaches but helps
you explore and experiment. There are as yet only two or three such
puter, and all of you will be good programmers, most of you will be
Computer Graphics
Computer programs are, I have been saying, the ideal medium for
graphics, let me now say, is what can transform the ideas from inacces-
Without graphics, computer programs cannot have the direct appeal to per-
ception and the interactive character that are essential to artistic (and
and his paper and others have provided a good introduction to computer
writer.
computer can make a bright dot at any point on the cathode-ray screen.
numerals, and punctuation marks, but which could just as well be, for
Because it can make its elementary marks in microseconds and the persis-
the display screen) holds each mark for centiseconds (or longer), the com-
the same marks over and over in the same locations to make a still pic-
ture, or it can gradually change the marks and/or their locations to make
280
a moving picture, or it can flood the eye with continually new and uncor-
upon the statistical mode of appreciation that sees "snow" when the tele-
not the pen is pointing at the cathode-ray beam that illuminates the
the screen. Since the computer is controlling the beam, it "knows" where
the pen is whenever the pen "sees" light. With the pen, therefore, one
And with the aid of programs that "track" the pen point as it moves
across the screen and "remember where the point has been, one can print
or write or draw on the screen -- and the computer will retain the corres-
The function keys and the typewriter keys merely send identifying
codes to the computer, and, upon receipt of the codes, the computer pro-
the computer receives the code for "a," the computer causes the typing
mechanism to print an "a," and so on. One can therefore type "normally"
on the typewriter and leave the message typed in the computer's memory.
But that is only one of many ways to use the typewriter. Press a func-
tion key to change the mode (that is, a parameter of the programs in the
computer's memory) and, for example, hitting typewriter keys "m," "m,"
and "a" will cause the computer to type "Metropolitan Museum of Art." In
short, however, the function keys and the typewriter keys are just con-
venient "controls" through which one can tell the computer what to do.
281
You have seen computer-generated patterns, and, whatever your
interaction generally -- did not come into the focus of the computer
technologists' attention until three or four years ago, and they have
therefore not had the benefit of the intensive development over two and
me ask you to look at today's computer art through a lens that augments
by a few of the powers of two mentioned earlier. The other set of facts
however, let us examine a little more closely the present state of com-
terms of a matrix of about 1000 x 1000 points. When the beam is posi-
brightness of which falls off gradually with distance from its center,
and which overlaps a few of the neighboring points in the 1000 x 1000
from my office) does display a 1000 x 1000 grid of points without overlap,
that there were about 11 pigment points per linear inch in a painting
perhaps 6 feet by 10 feet. That would make the total number of points
near to the even million of our capability measure that it must arise
4
from a convenient rather than an accurate memory. Of course, Seurat was
note that the computer display, with its 64 million possible center
283
"separate and distinct" dots. I doubt that Seurat's hand was steady
show, I think, that in each individual aspect today's very best does not
fall far short of meeting the demands of serious art. However, one can-
not find all the best capabilities combined in one available system, and
rapid advance of the technology -- about which there is yet one more
there is demand backed by money. That fact may have some bearing upon
about borrowed shoes, and borrowed shoes rarely fit well enough to wear
on a long journey. Nevertheless, some advances are being made that are
one that will hold its image until the computer wants to erase or modify
upon the same s c r e e n . When the viewer makes marks on the screen with a
s t y l u s ( s i m i l a r in function b u t not in t e c h n i c a l p r i n c i p l e to a l i g h t
q u i t e capable of p r o c e s s i n g and d i s p l a y i n g h a l f t o n e - l i k e p i c t u r e s w i t h
Charlton Walter had one in his laboratory at the Air Force Cambridge
Research Center six or seven years ago, and now there are several such
tion. I do not vouch for its practicality, but I do vouch for the strik-
regret of the Cambridge computer community he has now deserted for Utah,
binocular lorgnette -- in which disks with red, yellow, and blue sectors
rotated in synchrony with the display. (The glasses sent timing signals
to the computer, and it presented the red, yellow, and blue parts of the
picture at the proper times.) As I say, the colors were beautiful and
were separated by opaque sectors, and the sectors were arranged binocu-
larly in such a way that a colored sector was before one eye while an
opaque sector blocked the view of the other. With that arrangement, the
286
computer could present two different but correlated ("stereo") pictures
to the two eyes. The result was colored 3D -- and very striking.
perception, stereo is the better known and the "kinetic depth effect"
(Köhler and Wallach) is the stronger. One gets pure kinetic depth
effect when, with one eye closed, he walks around an object (or manipu-
lates it) and sees it from a continuously changing angle. Bert Green
and the technique has been used in a variety of applications since that
time.
sion of the ruse made famous by Potemkin -- that couples the computer-
in the modeled situation, and the computer displays to him what he would
see from his continually changing point of view if the modeled situation
were real. The image is projected into one of the viewer's eyes from a
small cathode-ray tube mounted on the viewer's head. The viewer sees a
head, the image changes at once into what, in the modeled situation, lies
looking at, Sutherland (or his computer) creates the impression that it
287
In my assessment, Sutherland's demonstration, although limited in
many ways, is a step that takes us into a new world. It does so not
cleverly selected part, but because the laws of this new world are the
laws the modeler programs into it. The effects that can be created are
than by the way things actually are on this still mainly Euclidian-
Newtonian earth.
earlier also limit what can now be done with Sutherland's technique.
scene in the moment of the turning of a head. One would of course like
to have the effect coupled to the eye as well as the head and to have
color and stereo as well as kinetic depth. And I should like, espe-
tial to the development of the experience.) The basic idea flows from
at which we are looking. When one looks with two eyes, there are of
course two such two-dimensional patterns. They are correlated with one
shock. The d i f f i c u l t y of the course and the levels of reward and shock
289
will be adjusted to the subject's capability in such a way as to keep him
will not come suddenly. At first there will be only glimmers or patches
of some new experience that makes the task easier. Toward the end there
will be only occasional relapse into the old way of seeing. Or at any
pilot, and I am quite sure that technology will advance fast enough to
let me be.
eral hands went up immediately, and there was complaint that such a thing
could not be imagined. "Well then," said the professor, "it will suf-
return to "reality." It seems both real and unreal when one "sculpts"
with a "Roberts wand." Before he took leave from the Lincoln Laboratory
contributions was a scheme through which the computer could sense the
290
projection), the viewer ("sculptor") could create a solid figure by trac-
ing its imaginary edges in the air in front of him. Roberts did not
develop his actual device to permit the carving of curved solids, but he
and others worked out promising techniques for the definition, manipula-
tion, and display of very general complex curves, and one can say that
all the component techniques exist that are required to create sculpture
display. Gravitational force may follow an inverse cube law, mass may
depend upon velocity in a way that neither Fitzgerald nor Lorentz nor
Einstein would have condoned, and pendulums may oscillate more frequently
logically and mathematically consistent with one another, but not with
physics.
suggesting have upon the arts? It is evident that every art must be
art until the rules of the game are gone and the game is gone with them.
will be easy to define many new arts. Most of them will fail at once.
291
Some will run the course of fads. Perhaps several will survive long
exact shape of the events, I believe that a major part of the future of
art must surely develop in close association with the computer, for --
as I shall try to convince you next -- it is the medium that can bring
Interactive Art
the organisms are the person(s) at the console, on the one hand, and the
action between people and computers is not yet widely known, but it is no
less strong for being discovered late. (Nuclear force, also, was unknown
speaking. Students neglect not only their courses but their girl friends
and stay up all night with the computer. Professors show up a little
members (at the RAND Corporation where the small but beautiful JOSS was
benefit." And so on. But the best way to understand man-computer inter-
and once last year, I was hooked so strongly that only a complete fore-
being created, a work of art responds to the artist, and he to it, each
influences him and changes his perception -- and, if one can say that he
responds to his perception of the work rather than to work itself, the
influences him further and further changes his perception. But all the
change actually takes place in the appreciator; the work itself is not
believe, for the fact that most artists are intensely dedicated to their
between living and observing. It is crucial not only to art but also to
293
education and to retaining sanity in modern civilization, which more and
the motivation of people, and I am sure that, in the world of art, inter-
fractionally valid, then it must follow that the most important things
computers can do for the arts are to enhance the interaction between the
artist and his work and to introduce true interaction into the relation
between the appreciator and the artist's product. Because the artist
already has so much going for him, and because the introduction of true
interaction into the appreciation will have the greater impact upon the
nature of the museums with which many of you are vitally concerned, I
becomes an artist -- and the role of the person I have been calling the
and the purveyor of art (for example, the curator of a collection) are
c
Something along this line has been happening for several years,
of course, particularly in connection with the development of nontradi-
tional art forms.
294
A weak but interesting form of interactive art is "adaptive art,"
That ability, one hopes, increases with experience. Adaptive art would
tion -- the problem of missing your audience completely if the work you
present is complex and losing your audience immediately if the work you
or a print is first hung on the living room wall, everyone in the family
tion for several days or weeks, but then it gradually fades into the wall
that such a painting would hold its interest -- indeed that it would
Of course, one could simply buy a lot of Cezanne prints and put
up a new one whenever the old one started to die out of conversation, but
that technique would either tax the picture-hanging power or limit the
295
repertoire of a family caught up in appreciation of adaptive art. Should
The main thrust would be the development of a new art form. All the
painter like the colors of his palette, and it would be his challenge to
use them well. He would program the responses of his work to feedback
from the viewer, while aiming to involve the viewer ever deeper in
But does anyone have time to examine carefully all his paintings
twice a day? My answer is "yes." Many people do, and more and more
people will have such time to spare, for leisure hours are increasing in
trated in a simple but germinal way the idea of interacting with a com-
the screen of a cathode-ray tube, leaving behind a bright trace like the
rather than constant length, and, if the dot moved very fast, the trail
filled the screen with an intricate lacework. The program, which Minsky
rectly. However, each cycle of operation set up new conditions for the
next, and given certain initial conditions the design did not begin to
repeat itself -- or would not have begun, even if it had been allowed to
run continually for months or years. The program took its initial
296
conditions from a set of 18 two-position switches on the console. Some
another to make the "best" designs, and theories of the effect occupied
We almost tried to make Tripos pay its way. The idea for making
time, but with several alternative hypotheses available to it, each one
having one or two parameters. We would set up the computer (a very small
one) at the fair and put the display screen -- a big one -- in a place
where a crowd could gather to watch it. The floor would be the platform
us could then try out his pet hypotheses objectively, and the computer
manufacturer would pay our company for drawing to his exhibit the largest
297
(not, of course, the one associated with this meeting) failed to seize
rate, one can imagine an interactive art museum without placing a firm
They are called "soloists." Each solo console provides "display" equip-
tures, and other forms of stimulation that I said I would not get into.
Roberts wand, and of course the sensors that provide the computer with
secondary or tertiary store contains not only all the programs that con-
Q
stitute the works of art in the museum's collection but also data about
sole, the stored values of his various parameters are made available to
298
9
the programs with which he may wish to interact. Each painting, each
hour it is "put on the air" and compares it with other works to which it
grams that he selects are mainly instructional programs that present prob-
9
If the individual is a newcomer, he communicates first with a
special "welcoming" program that explains the ground rules, explores his
tastes and abilities, and sets up initial values for the essential para-
meters. If the newcomer has a file at another museum, the welcoming
program of course asks permission to obtain it and, if permission is
granted, acquires the file forthwith through the museum network,
299
and advice. And so on and on, with each individual personality develop-
ing and expressing itself in its own way. Do not let the tenor of my
solo consoles that lets the members of a party face one another around a
cocktail table, all but incidental interactions among the members of the
party being effected through the computer. The other combines an actual,
experience together in interacting with art, for they find that the
ideas already suggested and ideas from the field of computer-aided teach-
shall not tax your patience by trying now to develop these three projec-
tions.
The consoles, not the computers. The museum's computer may not
be physically in the museum, and in any event any professional artist
could have his studio console connected to the museum's computer through
a coaxial cable.
300
The Time Scale
Are the notions I have been suggesting mere fantasy? Are they
plausible projections, but into some far distant future? Or are they
interactive art museum in 1980 if creators and purveyors of art set out
with determination to build one and program it. There are many computer
people who would gladly help, but they cannot reasonably take the lead.
agency it will turn out to be that will bear to the coming crisis of
leisure the relation that the WPA bore to the great depression. Waiting
least one of the first two groups will seize upon the idea of interaction
and develop it in the context of art and in the interest of the enrich-
the question of time scale -- I think we can beat George Orwell by about
four years.
301
Discussion following paper by J. C. R. Licklider
Mrs. Lourie: You talk about narrowing the gap between the appre-
ciating artist and the generating artist. Are you really emphasizing the
in which creating something, no matter how complex and out of the ordin-
ary, is only selecting that thing from an almost infinite set of things.
has some opportunity to do that with art, as we know it, but much less, I
think, than the artist. That is why everyone in this world enjoys con-
versation with another person, but only three or four or five per cent
through projection, and one gets that more in the performing arts than in
the visual arts. This interactive character will dominate the kinetic
everything else. It's the most important thing in human behavior, and
now there can be more of it in art - - o r over the years there will be.
302
computerized museum networks M
COMPUTERIZED MUSEUM NETWORKS
William D. Wilkinson
Metropolitan Museum
those on the Documentary Applications panel, might well have been speaking
delli. Messrs. Gardin and Paisley also touched upon areas of concern to
us. Perhaps some of the schemes previously discussed will ultimately have
Here in the New York area, some of us began to consider the pos-
fifteen leading museums and cultural institutions in the New York area
Guggenheim Museum, was made Executive Director for the project, which now
American Indian, Richard H. Koch of The Museum of Modern Art, and your
and disciplines within a museum, that is, the curatorial and academic,
able to obtain office facilities there for the period of research and
study. Now halfway through its first year, the Museum Computer Network
Research in the Humanities at New York University. Dr. Heller has con-
computer techniques that will be required for the operation of the network
system.
computer network from the museum side, and also some of the technical
306
THE VALUE OF A COMPUTERIZED DATA BANK
by
Jack Heller
tions. At the present time the more venerable institutions find that
their card catalogues are difficult to use and to maintain. These diffi-
ceived and organized for use by a small group of selected individuals who
readily found their way around the relatively small mass of data describ-
demand not only by scholars and specialists but by lay users as well.
director
administrative
comptroller director
curatorial
registrar department
treasurer
administration acquisition
cataloguing answering
accounting records
scholarly, and lay uses of such a catalogue will all be taken into account.
ings, and Artifacts (MANSPA). The card catalogue, under the jurisdiction
of the registrar, has as its function the servicing of the four mentioned
Accession number
Purchase price
Date of purchase
Present insurer
departments of MANSPA:
Ancient Art
American Art
Prehistoric Art
The objects are classified under the name of the artist, if known,
tion index cards describing accessions will presumably contain this infor-
mation:
309
Accession number
Artist
Title
Medium
Ex-collection history
Previous shows
Scholarly references
Comments
Condition of object
Authenticity
Slide numbers
Reproduction numbers
Photograph numbers
Iconographie information
Date of construction
the hierarchical organization of the card catalogue is more often than not
of the question.
ment would have to search the cards in the catalogue section of Western
card:
Date of construction
Artist
Title
Accession number
Photograph numbers
References
from the fact that a great deal of searching has to be done because the
311
Which objects have been purchased from the ABC fund since
could facilitate the granting of such requests and information, and could
for the storage of the textual content of a card catalogue within a mere
tual information for each 3 x 5 card answering the typical questions posed
above can be found and copied onto other storage devices at the rate of
312
devices attached to a computer are visual. However, within a decade even
in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, is
data bank. The technique is to copy information from the catalogues onto
2
work sheets (Figures 2, 3, 4, 5) that are organized into specific classes
work sheet. The numbers on the extreme right are used by the programs
mation need be filled in, for not every class of information applies to
Director, Everett Ellin, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
2
Designed by David Vance of the Museum Computer Network.
313
FIGURE TWO-MUSEUM COMPUTER NETWORK DATA SHEET FOR THE DRAWING
COLLECTION OF THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
march 1968 page one
ACC#
3 Drawing 36
4 United States 76
5 Artist 70
6 Title
7 (cont.) 31
8 Minimum date + 82
9 Date 83
10 Maximum date + 84
11 Medium
12 (cont.) 47
13 Important
material 48
14 (cont.) 48
15 (cont,) 48
16 Size 51
17 Credit line
18 (cont.) 5
19 Donor,
lender, 12
legator
20 (cont.) 12
21 Accession # WMAA 6
22 Negative #'s 61
FIGURE THREE-MUSEUM COMPUTER NETWORK DATA SHEET FOR THE DRAWING
COLLECTION OF THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
march 1968 page two
ACC#
1 Special
exhibition 92
2 92
3 92
4 92
5 92
6 92
7 92
8 92
9 92
10 92
11 Award 96
12 n 96
13 Related work 98
u it
14 98
15 n u 98
16 Published
reference 94
17 94
18 94
19 94
20 94
21 94
22 94
FIGURE FOUR MUSEUM COMPUTER NETWORK DATA SHEET FOR ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART march 1968
Keypunch
1 operator Artist 200
disregard
2 this column. United States 208
3 Name 202
7 Maximum death
date + 214
8 Former
nationality 210
9 n H
210
1 Artist 200
3 Name 202
7 Maximum death
date + 214
8 Former
nationality 210
210
316
FIGURE FIVE-MUSEUM COMPUTER NETWORK DATA SHEET FOR THE DRAWING
COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
march 1968 page one
11 Min. date + 82
12 Date 83
13 Max. date + 84
14 Medium Pencil.
15 (cont.) 47
16 Material(s) Pencil. 48
17 etc. 48
18 etc. 48
19 etc. 48
35 Status 10
317
The work sheets are checked at the local collections point, then
taken to a central keypunch group. This group converts the textual data
punch cards can be run through the computer and a printed listing of the
punched and under computer control inserted into the already established
input is essentially the same as that described above except that the
318
collect data
from catalogues
onto work sheets
Ï
proofread and
correct work sheets
I yes
insert corrections
under computer control
£
insert data
into data bank
319
computer through a data phone link. The data phone link can be con-
trolled by the computer and some checking of the input data can be per-
tually, to have all the textual data from a large card catalogue put
of the data will be introduced into a computer data bank. However, even
a partial bank is of great value and can be used as an index to the card
catalogue.
will have the same hierarchical organization as the card catalogue. Any
in the card catalogue, for the listing is by artist and the curatorial
sections of the card catalogue are organized under the name of the
frequency order. For example, a count can be made of all the different
320
Frequency Dictionary - MATERIAL used, by R.G. i n h i s work in I981*
1 Ash
1* Cardboard
3 Cardboard black
1 Cardboard, red
2 Cord
1 Copper mesh
12 Copper wire
5 Gold sheet
1 Lucite
1 Maple
2 Oak
1* Oak tag
1 Pine
1 Platinum
2 Paper blue
1 Paper yellow
1 Plaster
5 Sea shell
21 Steel
2 Steel mesh
5 Steel wire
2 Rubber
1 Ruby
3 Volcanic ash
1* Wood
321
keys can be used to impede the extraction of confidential and restricted
material from the data bank by users who should not have access to the
catalogue entries. Any class of item requested for the index that is
not present in the data bank will appear as a blank for each object in
tion about the object. Rudimentary devices for these purposes are
already being constructed, and if museums are to utilize and profit from
322
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND THE HUMANITIES:
A NEW RENAISSANCE
by
Everett Ellin
The affair began two thousand years ago when the first museum appeared --
the Roman Empire, and through the Middle Ages, there were no museums in
the modern sense, that is, no buildings or places in which works of art,
shown.
again in the acquisitive act of collecting. Art, oddities, and flora and
fauna were gathered by the leisure class in a ceaseless quest for knowledge.
Great service was paid to the didactic value of these collections by the
select audience of merchant princes, royalty, and scholars for whose use
323
they were maintained. With books in short supply, the holdings of the
which example merged with its literal context. The collected work or
specimen served the beholder's hunger for ideas, and word and image joined
system.
But this idyllic union of fact and artifact was regrettably short-
technology soon put an end to the romance. Once Napoleon opened the doors
of the Louvre to the people of France, the palazzo became the public
museum. While the citizens stormed the galleries, the scholars retreated
to the cellars and took their data with them. Learning moved from vitrine
oriented retrieval system that had worked so well in the cloistered days
of the Medici disappeared. Data, alas, were left to their own devices.
The shift was hardly noticed, and visual control of information faded
quietly away.
ciplined manners from its Renaissance predecessors, its sense of order was
were quite enough to assimilate and, with few exceptions, the information
324
The museologist was content so long as his special universe remained within
his ken. Scholars became specialists, not from zeal but for administrative
The museum visitor became a flaneur, and the information system became
nonsystemic.
come by. We fell in love with custodianship and neglected our traditional
uniquely within our charge has increasingly become less a matter of right
man with time to burn, a staff to command, or the means to travel. With
have changed little in the past hundred years, it is small wonder that the
serve its own needs for information, not to mention the stepped-up demands
with the same care shown the works themselves. If we are to save it from
the atrophy of disuse and endow it with the fuller expressive powers of
discharge our duty to education and scholarship and develop our unrealized
already exist that could, for example, reduce the complete catalogues of
all the art museums in New York City to a space no bigger than a desk
drawer, with full and instantaneous access to any item in the file assured
can be perused with the same sensitivity and interplay that the scholar
enjoys in scanning his own familiar array of index cards. The computer
can be made to organize data, to generate and print reference lists, and
scholarship are well within reach. The extent of what we may presume to
command and our own ingenuity in adapting the new technology to our emerg-
ing needs.
out the region which the archive serves. The actual assembly of data for
ing in a systems design as well as a general plan for the eventual imple-
mentation of the system proposed. Any such enterprise within the frame-
under way. Known as the Museum Computer Network project, this undertaking
out the country) is laying the groundwork for the establishment of a data
bank of the country's public art collections. The project, now in its
second year, has already made substantial progress toward its announced
system envisioned. This work is proceeding under grants received from the
New York State Council on the Arts and the Old Dominion Foundation. As
ment can itself supply. Once such studies are completed (they may require
this field activity would take place. In addition, monies will be even-
There is little doubt that the expense of creating one data bank,
overall cost of several smaller regional archives of the same total scope.
The systems development expense, and the initial investment in the basic
facilities for data dissemination do not vary appreciably with the size
aside from a very few of our largest institutions, it seems unlikely that
"real-time" mode for perhaps ten years to come). The major cost item that
would require half a million dollars to develop and design, and at least
gathering data for assembly of the data bank itself. The painstaking
328
conversion of existing museum records and related information into machine-
readable form is itself a prodigious and costly effort. If the public art
proper format for computer input at the rather optimistic rate of five
be involved in carrying out the task. Were this work to be done by speci-
$250 per week, this aspect of the project would alone cost five million
dollars.
tem for the nation's science museums, whose universe of data is far greater.
rate of one million accessions every year. That museum is already faced
storage, a sum far in excess of its annual operating budget would have to
ing all museums of the United States, in which the records of art, history,
tem that permits free communication across disciplinary lines, the possi-
a single thrust.
expense of getting under way, one must allow for deficits in the early
years of operation when no such system could hope to pass on any substan-
tial share of its running costs to outside users. Although museums can be
not cover the full expense. The participating museums would also be
supervision, but the financial support for the formation and early opera-
Federal establishment.
As the cost of any plan for conserving and developing the natural
derive from its synergistic potential for the advance of knowledge in the
activities in education and research that depend upon the data to which
museums are privy, state the obvious case for such a system. Yet do they,
when measured against other pressing needs of our society, give sufficient
justification for the appropriation of the vast sums that will be required?
for information may not soon put us in this position, as latent records
are given fresh vitality,) With the possible exception of our brethren
in the natural sciences, we are not yet threatened by the condition that
engulfs the scholar who should read thirteen hours a day just to keep up
reserves does, however, hold the key to a more real and pressing dilemma.
As the population curve, the implosion of leisure time, and the static
the demand for direct confrontation with our collections approaches satur-
The exponential growth of attendance will soon dilute the museum visit to
day, yet the public that may interface with our dominion of information
half a million people will want to visit the museums of this area on a
typical Sunday thirty years from now, compared to the two hundred thousand
awaits us, and its certain impact on recreational habits. The culture
boom is lowering much faster than we are willing to admit. To anyone with
courage to face the facts and the initiative to venture new solutions, it
By this means, we might hope to orient and serve the museum visitor in a
ments. It is not at all far-fetched to envision the time in the not too
distant future when the museum will offer not only such facilities but a
home or classroom.
332
A polity threatened with alienation and the vagaries of automation
and information overload, or channel the stream to turn new wheels. Des-
pite our best intentions to set matters right in the house of the Muse,
the incentive for dramatic and innovative change will only come when our
the further reaches of the electronic age that may bring us to the edge
of omniscience.
this potential: "Those who envision what our technology could even now
able to refer a query it was not equipped to handle to the appropriate one
shaped. . . . And while the principle that guides the shaping falls
333
within the unchallenged province of man, relieved by the machine of
activity."
the same ease as electricity, is the higher purpose that should inspire
ideal colleague would read widely, have total recall, evaluate what he
-334
scholars in which man may once again -- with renewed confidence in his
new Renaissance.
335
Discussion following papers by Jack Heller and Everett Ellin
that it has become obvious during this conference that many people have
been working on projects we have not heard about. We would like to know
more about them. There isn't going to be time between now and tonight to
get together with everybody informally. Therefore, during the next week
We hope that you will return them, giving us an idea of the projects you
Queens College has been working very hard to act as a communications link.
For some time now he has been publishing a periodical entitled Computers
and the Humanities, in which he has been listing projects that he hears
about. If you can keep him up to date, this is another way that we can
been implied by the different indications on when and how people are
collecting data. I'm talking about a person who is not an expert in the
you are going to use in your data bank before you start collecting the
information?
Some say yes, some say no. Three or four of us here attended a
City a few months ago. Perhaps they carried away a different idea from
that conference, but these were my conclusions: that your basic input
designed by what your needs are. Furthermore, you should have an open-
ended system, because no matter how well you plan it, it is going to come
progress reported on what they were going to do next to overcome the prob-
lems that they had discuvered in utilizing their system. From most of
what I have heard at this present conference -- aside from the research
open-ended, you have an escape hatch in both directions. The Museum Com-
puter Network is going in just that direction. They are starting off
that you can continue to add as you learn about the information you have
collected.
necessary data to Dr. Heller and to outline the parameters of his own
laborator.
337
It is in this spirit that the Museum Computer Network project is
the museum profession, and although we have acquired, I would say, more
much the same way that the museum director of fifty years ago had to
stand in its broad strokes, but we should not be intimidated by its com-
tors.
people like Dr. Heller and Edmund Bowles, and IBM's interest in general
puter scientists are delighted and challenged by our problems, and willing
a firm grip on our substantive demands, and learn only enough in the com-
puter area so that we can translate these demands to the computer tech-
nician in something akin to his own vocabulary. But his own vocabulary
is also a natural language. It doesn't take long to get onto it, and I
think those of us who don't have this language should begin to learn it,
so that we may use this valuable tool constructively for our own purposes,
338
Mr. Frank Sommer [Winterthur Museum]: We have run a project --
about five years, now. We use a system for information retrieval which
the five cataloguing systems all going at once. I would like to have
one, but it is very difficult for an outsider to learn anything about the
ography. Everett, you also have some material that you might be able to
add?
Mr. Ellin: I was going to add that the Museum Computer Network
cally pointed to the needs of the museum professional. The report will
would be desirable. Perhaps we could use the mailing list of the American
ing it out to a sensible and complete list, which we will take the respon-
sibility of doing.
339
Mr. David Vance [Museum of Modern Art] : I would li1,e to try to
input, because I think that is very important. One thing that has come
One other thing that to me, at least, has become very clear is
that we are talking about two different kinds of operation. For example,
records in which terms are not really defined or consistently used. Such
als for research, in general survey. It's an index. It's a basic tool.
But it will never be a tool for the kind of project that Dr. Bird des-
cribed, or the kind of project that Mr. Dauterman described. The infor-
project is always going to involve looking up some object that has never
the general data bank, and in those, all the terms would have to be as
wisely points out the distinction between the use of the computer to
assemble central archives or data banks for general use, and its use to
such as Dr. Bird's analysis of Peruvian textiles. The latter data bank
would have to have very explicit parameters in order to be useful for its
purposes.
340
Dr. Barnett: Do the panelists think that there will be a need
computers that people started off with the idea the scientist would pre-
sent the program to the computer expert. The trend, however, has been
for the scientist to do his own program. Do you see a possible analogy
here?
Dr. Heller: Yes, I have gone through this. The scientists who
originally came on the scene were confronted with a language that was
quite foreign to the way scientists were used to thinking. It was really
the way the engineers who built the computers were used to thinking about
classes of users. The early languages -- like Fortran, which stands for
Oriented Language -- were languages that people could write in, which
were essentially the kind of jargon that they were used to using in their
field. As soon as these languages came onto the 360 and the computer
could interpret them and then perform the kinds of operation that were
because it was the way they were used to describing things, anyway.
There are experiments, now, where people are writing libraries of routines
which are in the form that they are used to thinking in. When the program
talks about sorts, when it talks about print, rearrange, replace, and so
on, these are the kinds of words that the humanities people are using.
341
If these languages get sophisticated enough and can be pretty close to a
it may be that people may learn this language in a natural way with very
little effort. Then they may start programming it. At the present time,
the languages are such that they are more concerned with the way business
Mr. Mezei: You always have to be careful who the experts are
that you ask. You may learn to program one or two programs and know
absolutely nothing about computing. On the other hand, you may not
studying you have to do to figure out what the computer could or could
not do for you. So there are two sides to it. In the language, for
example, that did my pictures, you write the program by saying, "You
rotate," or "You move"; you can learn that easily. But there are a lot
of people who think they know about computing, and all they know is how
Dr. Heller: I think that's the language level that general users
will learn. It's only the computer systems engineers who will learn more.
between the research project and information storage and retrieval. The
too much information to be prepared and stored and filled and contained,
of the collections. When possible, one should use the general information
342
system to get the entrée, and thendevelop a more detailed bank of data.
We have not had an application of the two concepts except in the most
general way.
networks. I have just returned from England, where I have been in con-
versation with the British Museums Association, which has now taken over
museums of Britain. They are moving ahead on the premise that the
science, the history, the technology, the art museums, as well as his-
torical houses, et cetera, are all one kind of thing, and that there
data bank. Perhaps one could add to this the very interesting question
own primitive network, which consists of Mexico, Canada, and the United
The Chairman: Thank you very much, Dr. Squires, for bringing us
up to date.
344
new approaches
in museum education
NEW APPROACHES IN MUSEUM EDUCATION
Metropolitan Museum
347
THE COMPUTER: A FLEXIBLE GUIDE TO AN ART MUSEUM
by
Donald L. Bitzer
museum has evolved from a type of storehouse for art works to a cultural
institution which utilizes its art treasures to educate the general pub-
ful. No longer are the museum curators and their objets d'art spending
quiet Sunday afternoons with a few patrons. Museums have been dis-
covered! People are streaming through the halls; even the crowd at a
exciting and educational occasions for the casual visitor. The ever
use.
needed for museum usage. The principal components of the study are
exhibited at The Cloisters. The Bury St. Edmunds cross has been the
for Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations, has evolved from
however, the keys can be assigned any function that the instructor
extra keys.
350
(electronic book j
(electronic blackboard)
storage
device
student
stored in the slide selector is the type that would usually be found in
can all view the same slide at once or each one can look at a different
slide.
storage tube for each student station. Diagrams, symbols, and words are
pated. The images from the blackboard and from the electronic slide
methods of computer controlled teaching have been tested during the past
eight years. One method teaches in a tutorial fashion with the computer
leading the student by giving him facts, examples, and questions he must
but for the most part, he must determine the correct answers to ques-
tions between the student and the computer. The computer records both
the time and the sequence of each button pressed by the student. This
events that can be immediately scanned by the instructor; the other form
student data has been useful both in improving lesson material and in
very short period of time. The terminal must be simple to use, yet
The visitor begins by pressing the STORY button. This initiates a short
sound film which highlights some of the unique aspects of the art object.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES used by the artist, the STYLE, and HISTORY of
forces present when the object was created. Each of these areas may be
objects.
an opportunity for the visitor to test his knowledge. The CLUES button
able for those who desire the answer but do not wish to do the detective
354
glossary detailed views
materials and
inscriptions
techniques
history comments
who wishes to share his ideas and opinions via the computer. These com-
we are relying heavily on experience gained thus far in the PLATO class-
by computers.
using the computer as a guide to an art museum may have important appli-
Acknowledgements
Risser and Mrs. Muriel Scheinman for their suggestions and assistance in
the preparation of this paper. The project to study the use of PLATO as
356
a guide to an art museum is supported by a grant from the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. The PLATO classroom was developed with support from the
Bibliography
Easley, J. A., Jr., H. Gelder, and W. Golden, "A PLATO Program for
Instruction and Data Collection in Mathematical Problem Solving,"
CSL Report R-185 (1964).
357
THE ELECTRONIC MUSEUM AND INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION
by
Allon Schoener
with fostering direct responses to works of art. Great museums like the
audiences. Museum attendance has grown tenfold in the last twenty years.
359
consisted primarily of gallery talks, lectures, and publications devoted
States today who does not comprehend the revolution that has taken place
in styles of painting and sculpture during the last one hundred and
seventy-five years. During this period, we have seen art expression move
during the first decade of the twentieth century by cubism. A whole new
sage. This means that the person who created the object has by his act
of creation preselected the images that you experience. The role of ob-
recognition, which is the way that people view works of art today,
encing a work of art. With impressionist painting, the eye of the viewer
360
creates a recognizeable pattern from organized visual images. The work
of art is made in the eye and the mind of the viewer. The viewer has
cators are busy explaining modern art and what it means, they have failed
thought that clutter was bad and a manifestation of our sick society. I
am not convinced that this is not partially true; however, the dominance
Today, no one gets information from one source at a time and in logical
Station, having just returned from Washington, I was told of the tragedy
me what she had seen and heard on radio and television. I spent the rest
of the evening listening to the radio and watching television. The fol-
lowing morning, I read The New York Times. All of these sources -- the
361
chance informant, my wife, radio, television, and the newspaper -- com-
times.
loaded with visual stimuli. Just think of what happens when you walk
Last summer the Museum arranged to have a brass octet play in the great
medieval hall. My wife and I spent two hours in that part of the Museum,
and I think that I truly saw it for the first time. The music forced us
control on our experiences and helped us to get more out of our visit.
versely, you can appreciate a culture more fully by knowing its artifacts.
Where does the computer come into this picture? If one thinks of
computer and its information storage and retrieval mechanism must affect
If visitors entering the museum were to fill out a visitor profile ques-
the information outlets and get information that matched their personal
The computer has not yet been used either widely or effectively
Here is one of the ways in which the new devices can affect work-
were fascinated with the microfiche -- the film negative that stores
ninety visual images in the space of a standard punch card. Next year,
cultural capital of Black America. Harry was anxious to have our research
museum people can learn about computers -- that they are part of a total
must be conceived on a systems basis. This simply means that every com-
this does not mean that you must utilize every component in the total
design on a systems basis creates end products that are more efficient
puters for artifact research. The end product of the research must have
only be given wide distribution but will to a great extent determine the
366
THE FUTURE OF THE MUSEUM AS A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
by
Robert S. Lee
IBM Corporation
activities, the museum has always been concerned about public education
Today, with the continual rise in popular education and the marked
estimate the potential contribution that the museum can make to American
society. We have seen only the beginning of what the museum can be as
puter, we can turn our museums into highly powerful centers of popular
learning that can complement our schools and that can advance signifi-
and ideas in the field of education and human learning, there is reason
to believe that, potentially, the museum may in certain ways be the most
to come may well borrow techniques and model themselves after museums so
most museums and schools as they are today. However, these institutions
are changing. In the years ahead I think that they will come to resemble
each other and that the school of the future may become more like the
the role of the environment in learning, and then analyze the character
learn is from living -- from our experience in and with the environment.
human being occurs in the first two or three years of life. During this
brief period, the infant learns to master the entire basic language
abstract concepts and complicated usage patterns such as the words "you"
368
talking. This enormous amount of learning takes place whether or not
there is any formal attempt to teach the child. Primarily, the infant
testing, and by searching out new ways to use the exciting tool of
language.
with these findings, there is a growing body of evidence that the learn-
quality such as facilities, class size, and expenditures per pupil. The
study suggests that the amount of learning that a child takes away from
settings. Thus, for example, the study found that lower-class children
school where most of the children are from advantaged homes. The per-
lower. What evidently happens is that the peer environment in the school
from each other. This is particularly true for language skills and for
process. Accepting the idea that people learn from their environments, a
370
extent, as a coach and as a resource person. He sets up conditions and
the field of education. Maria Montessori, who was Italy's first female
physician and who was also a psychiatrist, did her pioneering work using
these principles with slum children in Rome shortly after the turn of
based on her assumption that things are the best teachers. As you
probably know, she invented a wide variety of games and puzzles ingeni-
ously designed to let the child work at his own pace and with a minimum
various useful things -- not only how to button his clothing and tie
might, for example, see children building towers and castles with
Cuisenaire rods. These are rods especially constructed and color coded
worked out for the rods so that they can be used not only at the pre-
school level, but also to help older children learn more advanced topics
such as algebra.
Despite the fact that Montessori did her basic work five decades
ago, we are only now beginning to see the s t a r t of a serious trend in
the use of self-directed inquiry and discovery in prepared environments
as a way to make learning happen. More recent developments along these
lines range from inexpensive children's toys such as the popular Creative
Playthings stool that has, in i t s seat, a large b u i l t - i n magnifying
g l a s s , to Omar Moore's well-known talking typewriter with which the
child learns to read and to touch-type by playing a cleverly constructed
series of games on a computerized typewriter keyboard. At Berkeley,
Richard Crutchfield and Martin Covington have developed a set of c h i l -
dren's books designed to be used as an independent self-study program
in inquiry s k i l l s . The children are taken through a series of i l l u s -
trated detective stories in which they get the opportunity to actively
apply certain principles of creative problem solving. The program is
designed to encourage youngsters to r a i s e fruitful questions, to d i s -
cover problems, to defer judgment, to develop s t r a t e g i e s of inquiry, to
t e s t out ideas, and so forth. These are considered by the authors to
be the basic a t t i t u d e s and cognitive s k i l l s needed for l a t e r work in
science, c r i t i c a l scholarship, and the creative a r t s .
actions.
The point of all this, and its relevance for museums, is that
the type of learning experience that visitors engage in when they visit
cess in schools.
then to test him. There is great emphasis on the spoken and written
in the most advanced schools, and despite all the publicity about inno-
are generally taught about things -- there is not very much in the way
to please teachers and parents. The visitor comes to the museum for
reasons of his own; he explores the environment at his own pace and in
setting where experiential learning can take place. For example, one
can truly get a feeling for the massive size, the power, and the essen-
pared with books, lectures, or pictures, exhibits can offer the drama
reality of a phenomenon.
374
In the school situation, the student generally proceeds into
the subject matter in an orderly way determined for him by the curricu-
He chooses what to look at and what not to look at. To a great extent
is that visitors are very diverse in terms of age, background, and the
orientations and attitudes they bring with them. Visitors usually come
discover things on their own in an environment where they can have direct
experiences that are enjoyable and that also serve their needs for intel-
highly rewarding.
covered much about this in our basic research study on the exhibit
at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. The results of our studies and
375
others made by the University of Washington, based on interviews and
people take away from the exhibit experience is often quite different
and frequently much less than what the exhibit designers intend. In the
Almost all of the exhibits studied held people for an extremely short
found, under these circumstances, that unless the visitor came to the
likely to appreciate its main point only. The typical visitor usually
missed the details and nuances that designers had hoped to communicate.
about the learning process suggested to us that there was a great dis-
parity between the prevailing state of the art and the potential for
Science Exhibit to see if we could combine what we had learned from the
exhibit that was reputed to be the poorest one in the hall. It was on
upstairs. That was the entire exhibit. Measurements showed that only
376
10 per cent of the passing youngsters stopped to look at it, and that
those who did stop stayed for an average of only ten seconds. The
on which there was a spotlighted telephone and a box with buttons and
tion about the subject as well as guidance on how to observe the crys-
he heard a bell sound over the telephone and a green light was displayed.
visitor could also press a special button to receive a sample rock that
he could pick up, feel, and examine as part of the learning experience.
ful interaction for twenty minutes -- the maximum length of time pos-
movement, and the telephone -- can adequately account for the holding
power that was achieved with this exhibit. After all, novelty is quite
ment with a responsive environment. The visitor did not just look at
the exhibit, or just touch it. The interchange was much more psycho-
something happen back to him. We also believe that the youngsters were
to be inadequate.
museum staff with periodic summary feedback information that can be used
future, some of us have come to feel quite uneasy about the Seattle
378
exhibit as a model for what might be done on a larger scale. For one
type of exhibit -- the exhibit deals with only one person at a time.
utilizing sound recordings, slides, short movies, and other graphic dis-
controlled cathode-ray tube and a light pen, the visitor can change the
values in the formula and see the consequences immediately come alive
mathematics into a phenomenon that you can prove and experiment with.
The museum visitor can test out various ideas and, in a few minutes,
mathematics.
With the aid of the computer, the science museum of the future
school where the student can directly deal with the phenomenon to become
conditions and by key decisions that they make for themselves. The cur-
with the computer it could become a highly powerful museum exhibit. Two
or three visitors would play the game together as a team. They are
named Mike from a low-income family. The players make decisions for
so forth. The game starts when the boy is sixteen, and it continues in
segments.
tion is that, after a particular game, the players could try again to
380
see if they can make better decisions to gain more life-satisfaction
points for Mike. One team of players, for example, discovered that they
could have Mike join the Army and exploit the Army's evening educational
resources. In this way, they gave him training for an occupation that
would otherwise be beyond his reach. This difficult but not unrealistic
find out something about a given region, the visitor touches that sec-
tion of the map and also one of a number of buttons to select a topic
that may be of interest, such as the economy, the people, daily life,
ferent regions. Or, he can stay with a single region and explore it
properly designed, it should be easy to change the slides and the audio
segments. This means that such an exhibit not only could be modified
duce the slides, audio segments, and the computer program, so that the
exhibit stations.
develop and to modify than are the highly didactic programmed instruc-
are also more efficient in handling the capacity problem, as they do not
other way around. Here the computer becomes a tool that magnifies the
382
This is an extension, both in method and in spirit, of the self-
experience.
there are larger implications. With the computer, the entire museum
future. The entrance hall, as is often the case today, might be devoted
to setting the mood and orienting the visitor to the diverse possibili-
ties open to him during his stay. On a high wall at the rear of the
placed throughout the hall. These are special stations where the incom-
ing visitor can make inquiries and get a preview of what is on display
gallery on a map of the museum to call forth a series of slides and com-
on his background and his interests, and would give his personal reac-
At the same time that the visitor learns about the museum
-- the visitor would never be asked to give his name and he would, of
used.
suggestions as to how he might most benefit from and enjoy his visit to
the museum that day. In addition, the visitor would get an individually
unique "key card," which he could use to start any of the interaction
out the museum. Each of these gallery exhibits would then be able to
tailor its content and its style of presentation to suit the needs,
Not only would the connoisseur be treated differently from the novice,
each connoisseur and each novice would be treated differently from each
museum of the future can become a place where every visitor, in a very
While the type of museum that I have just described does not now
start toward that goal. Someone has to take hold of the possibilities
384
and initiate a program of research and development. The early work
easy to try out new things and to test new ideas. The staff should have
tion to greatly extend and magnify its value with responsive computers.
Schools, on the other hand, may find it difficult to work with a tech-
research and development effort, the museum can become a highly powerful
385
learning environment that can significantly advance the nation's cul-
Selected Bibliography
Foote, N. N., 1966. The new media and our total society. In The new
media and education, ed. by P. H. Rossi and B. J. Biddle. Aldine.
386
Pines, M., 1967. Revolution in learning. Harper and Row.
387
THE CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
by
tion devoted to meeting human needs. I shall speak from the angle of
has been growing in recent years, and has been enriched by a number of
ity.
person who picks out museum personnel uniforms. Even the staging of an
389
affecting the perceptions and associations people have about the museum,
same visitors (and their friends) in the existing areas of the museum.
users, (3) to increase the number of users, or (4) to increase the num-
tify the positive and negative benefits to the user and to others of
ance, that is, the relationship between the goals that were set and
orientation toward users rather than merely toward the economics and
390
museum to communicate better with each other as to objectives, priori-
ties, and how the various parts of a museum should work together.
ing a need for additional sources of funds for the support of museum
tions of museums have been, what they are now, and what they might be in
the future. These questions have, in turn, placed an entirely new set
The concept that museums can be managed may seem obvious, yet
very little attention has been given to this subject in the literature,
trol.
managing -- a preexisting structure whose form and actions are only mar-
and people have to others. If one does not make an evaluation of the
actions must take place more rapidly, more explicitly, and in a fashion
are responsible for the success of the many programs and policies of
that organization.
392
Thus, in this time of change and challenge to the museum as an
what museums should do but whether or not museum executive and trustee
successfully develop the abilities and techniques and the means of suc-
or can help create for itself. Offered here are merely what are believed
conclusions our firm has come to in the past few years of work in this
field.
the objects stored, developing new ways of thinking about and classify-
ing objects, and helping the many people who wish access to the object
users are made up of representatives from almost all the social sciences.
Included here are those whose intellectual work is about the object
work is about those societies and activities of which the object library
which funds and support services can be provided for such work as well
the institution can meet, exchange, and present ideas. For this purpose
is doing what research and thinking on what topic. Thus the informal
ars and curators are presented in the form of special exhibitions and
display their work. Because the museum contains many of the most tan-
the past may seem to have less relevance to our present lives, we must
present and the future as well. From this point of view the museum is
not only a vehicle whereby scholars and curators can communicate intel-
not surprising that various sorts of influence and control over museum
the other hand, more serious definition is being given to various propos-
these functions.
facility users) and perhaps evaluating the user's need to achieve such
access.
395
encouraging museum visitors to be self-programming and developing their
some of the information access and retrieval facilities that are cur-
rently being proposed for the professional users of the museum informa-
tion file. The staff at Interaction Signal, Inc., have for the last
puter facilities and not, for use both in orientation centers and else-
where in the museum's public places. This work has been done on an
experimental basis and has now developed to the point where significant
The most significant new feature of the museum visitor's experience with
such devices and in such environments is that he has an active and often
creative control over the information that is coming to him and is not
But there are some areas where the influx of more users presents
lic, is the demand many museum exhibitions make that viewers understand
the historical time and artistic context within which the show finds its
theme. Very few people, even when "well educated," have such knowledge.
Thus, while the museum show on the surface seems to have broader mass
show.
396
Perhaps the greatest limitation upon the show is that it is in
and novelty with shows of other types now available in our society --
tion of the museum show decreases. Its level of preparation cannot com-
pete with those types of shows which can be reproduced and play to, and
ing the size of the object collection to keep pace with the growth of
larger collections are the solution to absorbing and serving ever larger
objects and floor space but primarily to the depth and variety of per-
for this sort of novelty is the mere novelty of acquisition, and once
397
the object is seen, its "novelty" (within the framework of an audience
This route to novelty depends not so much upon the novelty of the
radio); it also can have the tendency to "turn off" the audience's own
sonally with the object library need not involve actual changes in the
areas cannot be the only step. A whole series of steps can be taken
places where the community can stage concerts, meetings, festivals, and
other events. Another set of proposals calls for the staging of events
museum's object library, invent stories, and otherwise use the material
people come to create, rather than merely a place where verified and
action could be taken to encourage the more active and creative use of
ities.
ingly being tested and applied in the museum field. Imaginative and
399
for the community. You, and others like you, are moving forward on a
broad front, and I am aware that my voice is at best a very small con-
firmation of your activity and ambition from the point of view of the
accomplish what you can without costly change in the facilities and
400
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
401
J. C. R. Licklider. Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, Mass. 02139
Janice Lourie. Scientific Staff Member, New York Scientific Center, IBM
Corporation, 590 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022
Allon Schoener. Visual Arts Director, New York State Council on the Arts,
250 West 57 Street, New York, N.Y. 10019
402