folksonomy and the art museum: an example
The Museum
A standard museum caption would read:
Alvin Langdon Coburn
(British, born America, 1882–1966)
The Octopus, 1912
Platinum print; 41.8 x 31.8 cm (16 7/16 x 12 1/2 in.)
Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987 (1987.1100.13)
The Curator
The art historian’s approach would be to characterize the work physically and stylistically:
Couched in the soft velvety nap of the platinum paper, composed in the languid lines of Art Nouveau, and softly focused, this photograph of New York's Madison Square employs many elements of Pictorialism at its best. However, the dizzying effect of Coburn's aerial view and his fascination with the skyscraper are distinctly and precociously modern. The blend of Pictorialist technique and fresh vision was characteristic of the transitional moment when Alfred Stieglitz, Coburn, Karl Struss, and Paul Strand began to celebrate contemporary urban experience. [metmuseum.org]
The General Public?
This is very different from what someone might say when prompted for “terms you would enter if you were trying to find this image:”
Table 1 shows the results from a pre-test at The Metropolitan Museum of Art .
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Table 1: Fifty-seven unique terms describing Figure 1 supplied by volunteers in a pre-test at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2004. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image Cataloguing Test, December 7, 2004. [2005 August 25]; http://www.steve.museum/reference/MMAImageCatalogingTest12-7-04.pdf |
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