Art DATIS is a five-year research project launched in 2018 that aims to understand how traditional knowledge and practices of glassmaking were innovated during the twentieth century by analysing the work of one of the key actors in this process, the Dutch Glass artist Sybren Valkema (1916–1996).

Central to Art DATIS research is Valkema’s personal archive, an invaluable resource containing over 103.000 pages documenting the private and professional life of the artist, including teaching materials, letters, designs, sketches, descriptions of technical processes and many glass recipes, which have been tested and revised by the artist. Due to the importance of these documents for the study of glass art in the twentieth century, the archive was digitised, and ArtDATIS worked to make it accessible and searchable.

First, the project investigates the best approach to make the digital documents preserved in the archive accessible and usable as digital resources. Images are converted into machine-encoded text with the support of cutting-edge Text Recognition software, and then the content is extended, enriched, and linked with open data. Then, this material is used to investigate Valkema’s international network and shed light on the role of these relationships in his artistic production and the spread of Studio Glass in Europe.

FUNDING: (NWO) Big Data / Digital Humanities programArtLab member: dr. Carlotta Capurro READ MORE: https://artdatis.nl