ARLIS/NA 47th Annual Conference

Libraries are increasingly providing institutional support for technology-driven collaborative projects in the fine arts. This panel will explore how two academic libraries deployed digital tools to support scholarly inquiry and create unique experiences.

The recent proliferation of street art in Reno neighborhoods, coupled with the ephemeral nature of street art, inspired librarians at the University of Nevada, Reno to capture images of the art in order to create a digital archive and virtual reality (VR) experience. The Libraries assembled a team that photographed the art using traditional 2D digital cameras, and captured 360 VR footage of the art and of several artists creating interior and exterior murals. The team conducted on-camera interviews of prominent street artists in Reno, collected permission forms, generated metadata, preserved the images, and created an online archive. By providing an archive and VR experience that is accessible to students and community members, the UNR Libraries supports scholarly research in urban street art and creates ties with local communities.

Digital facial detection and recognition software techniques have many potential uses in Art History. Learn how a University of Mississippi Art History faculty member researching a photographic gender question collaborated with an Art and Design Digital Scholarship Librarian to look for answers. Using Adobe Photoshop, PicTriev and Betaface digital facial detection and recognition software to analyze composite portraits, the pair was able to open up meaningful inquires about the truth of a well-known women’s college class portrait made in the late 19th century era of “Positive Eugenics.” The collaboration led to figure proofs for a scholarly publication.

This panel will outline the workflow, equipment, software, manpower, and community outreach involved in creating and implementing the Reno Street Art project at UNR, as well as digital facial detection and recognition uses and concerns in Art History.

Learning Objective
Learn about new digital tools and their collaborative use in cultural preservation and Art History.