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This week we are looking at networks as tool to digitally represent relationships. To explore how digital humanists use this tool in their projects I choose to spend some time looking at the MoMA Inventing Abstraction (1910-1925) project. This digital project is part of their physical exhibition celebrating the centennial of the first abstract art presented in Europe. It was on display in the MoMA from Dec 2012 to April 2013 and looked to trace “the development of abstraction as it moved through a network of modern artists” (MoMA). To showcase this network of connections, MoMA created an interactive network to display the connections between the artists contributing to the development of abstract art.
The network’s nodes are the artists whose work is displayed as part of the physical exhibition. These artists all played meaningful roles in the development of modern art. The edges connect artists who had documented relationships between 1910 – 1925. Artists with over 25 connections within the networks are colored in red. The interactive nature of this project allows you to pick out specific artists and see only their individual networks. Doing this also provides additional information about the artist, including images of their works and biographical information. I really like how this interaction functions with the project as it allows me to learn a lot more about the specific artists while still maintaining the focus on connections and network.
I really enjoyed exploring this project. Not only does it provide a great example of how relationships can be visualized in a network but it also highlights how digital humanities projects can build upon non-digital projects and provide new information and ways to conceptualize data.
