‘What is Digital Art History?’ - Nicole Entin

When most people think of art history, the mental image of this discipline is often framed by associations with the operative word ‘history’: long hallways of picture galleries, gilded frames, mahogany furnishings, manuscripts worn by time, documents written in cramped black-ink cursive. Yet this picture of art history – the kind of aestheticized portrayal found in Hollywood films from ‘The Da Vinci Code’ to ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ – is one that neither accounts for the diversity of the discipline, nor the way in which it has been adapting to contemporary perspectives, settings, and even technologies. This coming academic year, the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews is looking to this latter aspect as it launches its first-ever online postgraduate course, Digital Art History. Combining teaching from the schools of Art History and Computer Science, the programme will consider new perspectives on art historical research, incorporating methodologies such as data visualisation or 3D modelling in tandem with the discipline’s traditional approaches. The programme will also discuss trending topics including NFTs and the increasing use of blockchain technologies in the art industry, the ethics of AI-generated art, and new methods of digital exhibitions. This postgraduate course is the first of its kind in the UK, placing an emphasis on both theoretical and practical skills that will give its graduates a head start in entering the rapidly developing art world.

Admittedly, when I was first offered to participate in the development of this new postgraduate programme through the St Andrews Research Internship Scheme, I was apprehensive at the idea of art history beginning to go digital. How could I (a person around whom computers seem to spontaneously combust) come to terms with the prospect of future jobs for art history graduates involving understanding or even writing programming languages, or comprehending the intricacies of data science research? At the same time, the notion of a digital art history falls within the purview of a field that is collectively referred to as the ‘digital humanities’, which has long been incorporating the use of digital tools into research methodologies – since the mid-twentieth century, in fact. Data mining has enabled research in the humanities to expand to unprecedented scales, textual analysis programmes can be used to identify keywords and vocabularies across written works, and digitisation projects allow greater accessibility to archival and museum collections across the world.

As a research intern, I was responsible for creating a bibliography of resources related to digital art and tools to accompany the modules delivered by the School of Art History as part of the programme. Through reading numerous journal articles, pieces in newspapers, and book chapters, I was able to understand the way in which digital art history was developing as a discipline, as well as its past and current focuses. While creating a list of digital projects as part of the bibliography, I realised how the concept of virtual exhibitions proliferated since 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Google Arts and Culture creating an extensive database of virtual museum tours, and most major museums and art galleries across the globe creating digital exhibitions while they were closed to the public during lockdown. For instance, in August of 2020, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrated its 150^th anniversary with an exhibition entitled Making the Met, supplementing its limited entry during the pandemic with an online primer of the show and a video tour narrated by the American actor and comedian Steve Martin. In another instance, when forced to shut down their landmark exhibition Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution due to lockdown, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent created a virtual 360º experience and video tour to compensate for the early closure.

Yet even though museums have since reopened, in-person exhibitions continue to be supplemented with virtual components in an effort to encourage accessibility for people who experience geographical or economic barriers to visit cultural heritage institutions across the world. Museums such as the Musei Vaticani, the Louvre, and many more continue to have digital resources available to view their exhibition spaces from the comfort of one’s own laptop or portable device. Furthermore, integrating 3D modelling software into methodologies of art historical research presents opportunities to visualise lost or destroyed works of art and architecture. For instance, users of the 3D modelling platform website Sketchfab have used the software to recreate the ancient city of Palmyra in modern-day Syria, largely destroyed in 2015 during the country’s civil war. Partnering with digital developers – or even learning to use these technologies themselves – presents new directions for art historians seeking to promote accessibility in this field of study.

Having had the unique opportunity to participate in the development of the Digital Art History programme at St Andrews has broadened my perspective on the discipline beyond its Hollywood stereotypes and associations. While I am not personally optimistic regarding my chances of mastering the intricacies of coding, I have begun to realise how much digital methodologies in art history have influenced my learning experience at university – from searching the digitised collections of museums and galleries for my coursework essays, to creating a virtual exhibition using the web-based VR software Artsteps for an assignment in one of my honours modules. Having researchers who are versed in digital technologies presents a myriad of possibilities for developing accessibility, inclusivity, and the sharing of knowledge within art history. It only remains for programmes such as the University of St Andrews Digital Art History degree to instil those skills into the next generation of art historians.