Beyond numbers: visual and textual diversity in the online art database

This study investigates visual and textual diversity in the online art database with Nationalmuseum as a case study. It combines quantitative and qualitative methods to characterize different types of representations and analyse how such variations can be connected to different circumstances for digitization. As shown, database records have varied over time and they mirror institutional attitudes and priorities. Artworks which have been activated by being on display, recently acceded, or undergone conservation are typically rich in visual and textual information. As this study shows there is a need to look at digitization beyond numbers as the processes of representing art collections online are steered by different cultural factors. It is evident that the already esteemed, popular, activated artworks in the museum are also more extensively represented online. In effect, digitization does not seem to broaden the access to the visual heritage but rather amplify existing biases in the analogue systems.