AAA - Augmented Artwork Analysis. Computer-aided interpretation device for art images - FHSE

An application designed to be used in front of a painting in a museum – for an enhanced experience of the work of art, for an active relation with the images.

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Mar 2021
Duration in months:

48
Funding:

FNR / Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Principal Investigator(s):

Gian Maria Tore

Pierluigi Basso (external)

About

Today, we are surrounded by images – but the school system does not teach us how to read them. Museums work on their conservation, although unhappily they do not seem very attractive to us. On the other hand, the digital is supposed to revolutionize our life, since it seems to give us all kind of power on images and texts, but how to make a groundbreaking approach to images out of it?

“Augmented Artwork Analysis” is an innovative prototype tool, adapted to the museum sector (namely the MNHA of Luxembourg, the Fine Arts Museums of Lyon and of Lille) and allowing to interpret artistic images with the help of software. The aim is to study the different levels (the figures, the colours, the shapes…) of the work of art considered in its original place and within a vast body of images. Attention will be paid to the links between the images and to their evolution. The interpretation thus acquires a scientific dimension, as well as a pedagogical one.

The scientific objective is to bring together the most advanced approaches in quantitative and in qualitative sciences: recent findings in Visual Studies, knowledge about “augmented reality”, i.e. the ways in which computer-generated perceptual information showcases objects of the real world, and methods based on “deep learning”, which means the use of machine learning methods. An international network of more than 20 scholars is gathered for the realization of the “Augmented Artwork Analysis”. Delivering an “augmented” work of art, this tool will be used for guided tours, educational meetings and research. The idea is to create an alternative museum to the traditional museums, and thus a new awareness of the meanings of the world of images.

The project is a cooperation between the French CNRS, the Université Lyon 2, the Université de Liège and the University of Luxembourg funded by the ANR/FNR funding program

Website