HistKI: AI-based support of image source research and criticism
Overview
HistKI models the process of image research and criticism from the perspective of computer support and extends from a historical-scientific-methodological perspective the explanation models that have so far mostly been problem-related or infrastructural.
In all historical sciences, source criticism serves the purpose of classifying and analyzing a source from which interpretation and theory-building start. Beyond the specifics of the research question, some fundamental subproblems can be identified with regard to the subtype of visual source: Which objects are depicted in the images? How were image arrangements chosen? How do arrangements connote specific representational intentions? What are motif- or arrangement-like images (“visual quotations”)? To when do pictures date? What are the specific characteristics of an artist’s oeuvre as a producer of images?
