JillRGordon

Collections Management Systems Analysis

Wikipedia Article Analysis

For the Wikipedia category analysis I chose to explore three articles listed on the Wikipedia article Public Art. I was specifically interested in the use of sculpture as a way to change an environment or transform a community. I read the following articles Environmental sculpture, Installation art, and Site-specific art. In each of these pages I found the See Also or internal links section valuable for finding additional information on the topic. It is important that similar topics are connected by internal links in Wikipedia. For example each article I critiqued connected to the topic of Community arts. In order to make the connection more apparent I added Environmental sculpture and Installation art to the See Also section of the Community arts page. I found that categories are different than these internal links because they show you the “big picture” view of a topic with sub-categories and lists of connecting pages. Categories seems like a logical place to start your query in Wikipedia, while links within individual articles can help to narrow down research.

The first category I explored was Environmental sculpture. This four page article introduces the reader to the term “environmental sculpture” and gives a broad overarching definition of this type of sculpture. The article then goes into more detail describing three definitions of environmental sculpture. These definitions are backed up with research from Britannica Online, contemporary sculptor Beth Galston, and information from the Wikipedia article on artist Louise Nevelson. The article is easy to read and well organized into specific definition categories. It provides a good introduction to Environmental sculpture and leaves the reader wanting more information. Perhaps anticipating that need, the authors provided twenty-four internal Wikipedia links, eleven external links, and three print references to explore the topic in more depth. Currently the article is text-based only and I would suggest including images of environmental sculpture by some of the artists mentioned in the article.

Next I read, Installation art, a lengthy five page article that begins with a definition of Installation art as a “site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.” The majority of the article is devoted to the history of this contemporary art genre. The authors provide several examples of Installation art including the 1849 operatic work of Richard Wagner, Gesmtkunstwerk that was inspired by the ancient Greek theater inclusion of all major art forms. The growing genre of interactive installations using video, film, sound, and sculpture is given a small two paragraph section of the article. I would have liked to read more about interactive installations, specifically the use of technology within the installations. The article addresses two overarching themes; installation art blurs the line between art and life and takes in account the entire sensory experience of the viewer. Although this article does a thorough job exploring the history of Installation Art using thirteen bibliography sources, I would have liked to have read more about current interactive artists and installations. There are sixteen Wikipedia links and twelve external links, several of these do explore current contemporary installation artists and art. I would suggest re-titling this article, "The History of Installation Art."

The last article I analyzed was a two page essay on Site-specific art. The article includes basic information about artwork created to exist in a certain place. A short history of the movement is provided in the first paragraph, which highlights the contribution of artist Robert Irwin who promoted the term "Site-specific art." As well as artists Lloyd Hamrol and Athena Tacha who started executing public commissions for urban sites in the 1970s. The article connects the movement to Environmental art and Site-specific theatre. The last section of the article introduces a second definition of Site-specific art as any work that is attached permanently to a particular location. The article concludes with a listing of thirty eight artists. This area is difficult to read and would flow better if images and artists’ statements had been used in addition to the names. Although references are cited in the body of the essay, it would be helpful for future research if they were listed together at the end of the article.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) Analysis

At first glance the Smithsonian Institution's database, SIRIS can look overwhelming to a novice user. When I typed in the search term “Public Art” the database returned 17,616 documents or 881 pages of information. It became apparent that I needed to narrow down the topic in order to get a manageable amount of information. Over fifteen browse options were available and rather than choosing randomly I decided to click on the help tab located at the top of the result's page. The tab brought me to the SIRIS Cross-Catalog Searching Tutorial, a six minute video that showed me how to use the search terms and browse features listed on the left side of the results screen. The tutorial was very handy for teaching you how to get the results you need. Soon I was narrowing down my search to Public Art sculptures as the type and abstract as the topic. I like how the database can be manipulated to give both broad and very specific search results.

Next I explored the Outdoor Sculpture collection of SIRIS. In order to explore the Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS) database, I had to narrow down my search topics by choosing the data source “Art Inventory" and the place to "Indiana." Brief summaries are available on each record and more information can be read if you click on the record title. I like that each record provides a plethora of information including artist, title, dates, medium, condition and a digital image. Although the online record does not reflect the same level of detail as the Smithsonian American Art Museum Inventory of American Sculpture form, it does provide enough information for a person to continue their research. The SIRIS results records would require additional information and categorization to be turned into a Wikipedia article. I would like to see more detailed information about the condition of the sculpture and it would be valuable to have more than one photograph of each sculpture. If possible, higher resolution photographs should be taken from multiple angles.

Indiana's Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS) Project Analysis

I began researching the SOS! Save Outdoor Sculpture! in Indiana project by exploring the Indiana Historical Bureau website. The Indiana SOS! Project Archive was only available at the Resource Center of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana in downtown Indianapolis. There is no online database for Indiana SOS! making it difficult for the general public to access the project database. Fortunately, Glory-June Greiff the director of the Indiana outdoor sculpture survey wrote a book titled Remembrance, Faith, and Fancy: Outdoor Sculpture in Indiana. The book gives insight on how Greif oversaw the locating and cataloging of twelve hundred sculptures. Unfortunately the book only references approximately two hundred and fifty-eight of those sculptures. There are good categories represented in the text, including commemorative, religious, aesthetic, whimsical, and abstract or contemporary sculpture. The second part of the book gives an overview of outdoor sculpture in each county.

Grief’s chief mission of the book was to create public awareness of Indiana’s sculptures. The images in the book are nice to look at, but the text tends to blur within the chapters. It makes it difficult to read about a specific sculpture. An online database could keep the information and photographs of each sculpture in a separate record, making it user friendly. The author makes it clear that the book is about sculpture, not memorials or monuments. This reminds me that a clear definition of Public Art is needed for us to complete an inventory of art for our class Wikipedia project. The book is a nice overview of outdoor sculpture in Indiana and leaves me wanting more information about sculpture in the Hoosier state. It would have been helpful to have more photographs and specific locations (addresses) for the sculptures rather than general locations (parks and cities).

Conclusion and Wikipedia Categories for Final Project

After analyzing the SIRIS and SOS databases it seems that an easy and responsive search engine is important. Users need to be able to get to the information they need in a timely manner without feeling overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information on the page. Accessibility is also a key ingredient. People will not use a database that is not easily accessible or advertised. Indiana's Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS) Project archive is a prime example of this. Wikipedia’s search capabilities are limited as well. You can only find information about the topics that have projects, categories, and pages. The search capabilities of Wikipedia can be muddled by different cases or spellings.

It will be important for Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia Saves Public Art! to link with several categories and pages within Wikipedia. This will keep our project relevant and connected to a larger group of users. The Public Art category is a great place to start and I went ahead and added it to our project categories. Another category to explore is “college outdoor sculpture collections” this does not currently exist, but is one of the first searches I made when working on this project. I also suggestion connecting broader categories such as outdoor sculpture, IUPUI, and Indianapolis in an attempt to reach a wider audience. Individual pages can be developed for each sculpture and those records can be linked with pages about the artist, medium, and more. It seems that the more interconnected the project becomes with other Wikipedia categories and pages, the greater our audience will be.

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Hi JillRGordon! Women around the world who edit and contribute to Wikipedia are coming together to celebrate each other's work, support one another, and engage new women to also join in on the empowering experience of shaping the sum of all the world's knowledge - through the WikiWomen's Collaborative. As a WikiWoman, we'd love to have you involved! You can do this by: Liking the WikiWomen's Collaborative on Facebook and share your tips, projects, and connect with other WikiWomen Join the conversation on our Twitter feed Reading and writing for our blog channel Feel free to drop by our meta page (under construction) to see how else you can participate! Can't wait to have you involved! SarahStierch (talk) 22:04, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

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