Suleiman Odat

s.odat@uq.edu.au

Introduction – 20th Century in Paint Project Online portal (www.20thcpaint.org)

o Architectureo Data Uploado Linked Datao Search Interface

What are ontologies, and why do we need them The Ontology of Paintings and PReservation of Art (OPPRA)

o The Semantic Modelo Classes, Properties and Reasoningo Reusing upper-level ontologieso Example querieso Visualizing answers

Future Work Conclusions

Funded by ARC 2008 – 2011 Collaborative project - 10 cultural institutions, 2 universities

across four continents:Uni of Melb / Uni of Qld / Getty / ArtLab / Tate / NSW Art Gal / QLD Art Gal / Tasmanian Museum / Malaysia Art Gal / SAMEO SPAFA

Develop a shared knowledge-base that answers questions relating to painting conservation◦ Art history (Ian Fairweather, Sidney Nolan, Rover Thomas)◦ Artistic techniques – which paints, thinners, whiteners were used◦ Provenance of painting◦ Materials characterisation – physical/chemical composition,

microstructure◦ Paint stability and deterioration mechanisms

Provide tools for data capture, upload, analysis Support online collaboration – Wiki to share expertise Understand issues that effect paint handling, performance and

permanence

QAG

AGNSW

CCMC

Web Interface

Apache Tomcat

Jackrabbit Repository

MySQL Database

Microscopy

ImagesArtists

Ontology

Paint ProvenanceReference

Libraries

Characterisation

DataPublications

User Ids, Passwords, Contact

Details, Access Rights

Public Secure Port Databases

...

Wiki Ontology

Gillian Osmond – investigating effects of temp, humidity & light on formation of zinc oxide crystals

China white – used to lighten acrylic paints◦ Reacts with organic base of acrylic paint

Zinc Soap aggregation has caused a bubbling and cracking in the paint

SEM shows strong correlation between zinc concentration and aggregates

Need to Integrate: Databases – Artists, Artworks/Images, Provenance, Paint

databases, Reference Libraries, Characterisation data, Condition assessments

Publications – text mining Different formats – images, video, text, .... Different metadata/terminologies

Want to answer complex queries: “What is the best way to treat zinc oxide soap crystals in oil

paintings by Ian Fairweather?”

Need Semantic Web Technologies – RDF – Resource Description Framework OWL – Ontology Web Language Semantic annotation tools – tag publications/images with

ontology-based terms

Metadata/Annotations in RDF

o Community knowledge and scholarly mark-up

o Machine processable tags/metadata

o RDF graphs -> OAI-ORE compound objects

Indexing, Search Services

o Full text indexing, keyword search

OWL Ontologies

o Collection organization and discovery

o Database integration and inferencing

SWRL Inferencing rules – 2D feature, 3D object recognition, relationship discovery

In the context of knowledge sharing and reuse

"Ontology” - term is borrowed from philosophy to describe the concepts and relationships about certain knowledge domains

Defined as a set of classes/sub-classes, properties/sub-properties and relationships

Represented as RDF/OWL

Can be processed/understood by computers

Create a set of sub-ontologies (classes/properties) that describe our sub-domains (use Art Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), CAMEO, INCCA, IRUG, etc)o Paintingso Provenanceo Materialso Conservation

Connect the sub-ontologies via an upper ontology Then use logical reasoning applications to connect these

facts and infer new informationo FACT++ / Palleto Ian Fairweather -> had_art_teacher -> Henry Tonks o Henry Tonks -> taught_technique -> tonkingo IanFairweather -> used_technique -> tonking (using absorbent material to soak

excess oil from canvas)

Shareable, re-usable, accessible via Web Defines hierarchies of classes and properties describing:

o Upper Ontology – Thing, Agent, Concept, PhysicalObject, TemporalEntity, SpatialEntity

o Paintings and artistso Painting materials

Chemical composition Structural composition – characterisation

o Provenance (owner, previous history)o Painting techniqueso Degradation/deterioration mechanisms

Cracking, Peeling

o Conservation approaches and materials Cleaning

undergoes

hasSubcla

ss

hasSub

cla

ss

hasSub

cla

ss

hasSub

cla

ss

undergoes

generates

hasSubcla

ss

usesMaterial

hasSubcla

ss

Analyse publications and databases

Map existing and newly generated data to our ontologies

Generate instance data that complies with our ontologies

Store in RDF triple store

Provide SPARQL querying interface

Provide reasoning tools (Pellet/FACT++)

Ontology-based SPARQL querying interface “What solvents will remove surface varnish

from the painting “Epiphany”?◦ QAG - It is painted by Ian Fairweather in 1962◦ NGA - Ian Fairweather used dulux acrylic coated with

shellac◦ CAMEO - The best solvent for removing shellac is

methyl ethyl ketone

Answer = “methyl ethyl ketone” Annotation/Social tagging – community/expert

knowledge – of images and text Provenance capture – semi-automated capture of

conservation events

De Mayern and MOLAR Programs in Netherlands

Molecular Studies in Conservation and Technical Studies in Art History

RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History)◦ Online Databases

Winsor & Newton Recipes Database◦ 19th Century archive of recipes for artists’ materials◦ Hamilton Kerr Institute, Fitzwilliam Museum◦ http://www-hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/archives/wn/

Lazurite – commercial database for painting research

21

22

De Mayerne/MOLART project for 20th Century Art in the Asia Pacific Region?

Shared but Secure, Cross-Disciplinary Knowledge Base for:◦ Art conservators◦ Curators◦ Materials Scientists/Chemists◦ Characterisation experts◦ Information scientists

Social Semantic Network linking people, technologies, instruments & knowledge

23

Google Earth type interfaces -> zoom into nanostructure Animations -> show changes over time Visualization of relationships, provenance trails Artists’ births, dates, exhibitions, movement

25

26

27

Developed a Web Portal http://www.20thcpaint.org/

Developed security gateway of website

Developed interface and repository for locally generated data (characterisation and experimental data)

Developed ontologies (using AAT, CAMEO, plus domain experts) to link cross-disciplinary data◦ Painting, Provenance, Materials, Techniques, Conservation

Next step – use the ontology + SPARQL queries to mediate between local and distributed DBs to answer complex queries

http://www.20thcpaint.org/

Suleiman Odat s.odat@uq.edu.au

Supervisors

Prof Jane Hunter j.hunter@uq.edu.au

Prof John Drennan j.drennan@uq.edu.au