INVESTIGATING MUSEUM COLLECTIONS: A COMBINATION OF DIGITAL AND TECHNICAL ART HISTORY

Digital Museums: Interfaces, Catalogues, and Applications
The module guides students in understanding and interpreting the digital resources used by major museums worldwide to study and communicate historical and artistic collections.
Museum platforms and contemporary art collections will be examined through their digital representations, highlighting their main features and functions. Particular attention will be paid to case studies analyzed through metadata standards and controlled vocabularies (thesauri).

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding
- Describe the main concepts of digital culture as applied to the contemporary art system and museums.
- Recognize the key features of digital museum platforms, online catalogues, and digitized collections.
- Identify the main strategies for researching, selecting, and presenting historical-artistic materials in digital environments.

Applying knowledge and understanding
- Access museum digital platforms, catalogues, and archives independently.
- Analyze data and metadata related to digital collections, understanding their structure, function, and descriptive purposes.
- Apply data organization and composition criteria useful for building and interpreting digital archives.

Making judgements
- Critically evaluate the quality, reliability, and effectiveness of digital resources used for the study and communication of collections.
- Compare different models of digital representation of artworks and collections, highlighting their strengths and limitations.

Communication skills
- Use specialist terminology appropriately and accurately in the fields of art history, museology, and digital humanities.
- Present content and case studies clearly, concisely, and in a well-argued manner, including in seminars and group discussions.

Learning skills
- Develop independent research methods for continuous updating on tools, standards, and practices in digital museology.
- Transfer the acquired skills to new contexts of study and analysis of historical-artistic collections.

There are no specific requirements. However, a basic knowledge of art history is preferable.

The course explores the concept of the digital museum, starting from early photographic documentation and cataloguing practices developed within art-historical scholarship between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, up to the most recent developments in online museum platforms and digital environments for the enhancement of cultural heritage.

Through the analysis of selected case studies, the course will present major virtual platforms and digital ecosystems developed by museums and cultural institutions at both national and international levels. Particular attention will be paid to modes of access, consultation, and representation of collections, with a focus on online catalogues, digital archives, and mediation tools designed for diverse audiences.

The course will also examine the digital strategies adopted by institutions for the communication and dissemination of cultural heritage, analyzing languages, formats, and open access policies aimed at knowledge sharing and user engagement. In this perspective, the museum will be presented as a laboratory for heritage education, fostering new forms of access, participation, and content production.

Special attention will be given to the representation of collections and to the role of cultural and creative industries in the design and curation of digital museum environments, with the aim of expanding access to artworks and their contexts.
A specific focus will be dedicated to IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) as a standard for the description, interoperability, and visualization of digital images of museum collections.
Lectures, combined with the study of the assigned bibliography, aim to provide both theoretical and practical tools to recognize digital resources as means of communication, sharing, and interpretation of cultural heritage; identify key features in the design of digital cultural platforms in terms of innovation, accessibility, and research.

Lewi, H., Smith, W., vom Lehn, D., & Cooke, S. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge International Handbook of New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites (1st ed.). Routledge.
Battro, A. M., From Malraux’s Imaginary Museum to the Virtual Museum, in Museum in a Digital Age, a cura di R. Parry, Leicester, Routledge, 2010.
Bishop, C., Radical museology. or, what’s ‘Contemporary’ in Museums of Contemporary Art? London Koenig Books, 2013.
Cohen, K., Elkins, J., Aronberg Lavin, M., Macko, N., Schwartz, G., Siegrfied L., S, Stafford, B., Digital Culture and the Practices of Art and Art history, in «Art bulletin», 79, n.2 (1997), pp.187-216.
D. England, T. Schiphorst, N. Bryan-Kins (edited by), Curating the Digital. Space for Art and Interaction, Springer, 2016
Frieling, R., The Museum as producer: Processing Art and Performing a Collection, in New Collecting: Exhibiting and Audience after New Media Art, a cura di Graham, B., London, New York, Ashgate, 2014, pp.133-158.
Brown, K. (Ed.). (2020). The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History. Routledge.
Grau, O., Hoth, J., & Wandl-Vogt, E. (Eds.). (2019). Digital Art Through the Looking Glass: New Strategies for Archiving, Collecting and Preserving in Digital Humanities. Edition Donau-Universität Krems.
Salarelli, A., International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF): a panoramic view, JLIST, 8 (2017).

Written and oral exam.
The examination will consist of an oral presentation of a project and an essay of 2500 words.
It will focus on a critical analysis of the new digital environment developed by the digital museum and the main changes in museum collections through the use of digital technologies. T
The evaluation will take into account the following elements
- The scholarly quality of the critical essay on the project developed (30%);
- The theoretical depth of the topics (30%);
- The clarity and accuracy of the project presentation (30%);
- The level of interaction in the lectures, seminar activities, and conferences offered (10%).

Attendance is strongly recommended.

The exam program for non-attending students remains the same, but they must contact the teacher to agree on the topic to develop.

oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

The oral examination requires students to present the topic developed in their written essay, which focuses on an exempted design subject.
The criteria for the assessment are: a) the academic quality and thoroughness of the essay, including in-depth bibliographic research and the clarity and coherence of the topic’s presentation; b)understanding of the key theories and themes related to the emergence of digital museology within the field of museum studies; c) the ability to critically evaluate the technological strategies adopted by museums for the virtual exhibition of art collections; d) In-depth engagement with specific topics and the use of relevant technologies and standards for accessing digital collections.

Grading will be based on the evaluation of the following knowledge, skills, and competencies:
Insufficient (≤17) – Limited knowledge. Inadequate to reflect and present ideas.
Sufficient (18-20) – Uncertain or partially reworked knowledge. Basic or adequate skills.
Fair (21-23) – Sufficient or fair knowledge, reworked with some uncertainties. Decent skills.
Good (24-26) – Correct or complete knowledge, confidently reworked. Good skills.
Distinct (27-28) – Complete and confident knowledge. Notable skills.
Excellent (29-30) – Extensive knowledge, independently reworked. Excellent skills.
Outstanding (30 with honors) – Broad and in-depth knowledge, independently reworked. Full mastery of the language.

Lectures will be given using slides and PowerPoint projections and will include the examination of online case studies, with the interaction between teacher and students. Students will be involved in workshops on critical reading and the design of virtual museum trails from the digital museums being studied.
Seminars, workshops, student presentations, and class discussions integrate the lessons.
The texts covered and discussed in class, with any supporting tools, are provided by the teacher during the course and made available on the Moodle platform. These texts, collected in a list at the end of the course, are an integral part of the exam program.

Attendance is highly recommended.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development