Fine artists of the world unite: Bridging heterogeneous distributed open data sources of fine art

The sources of information on the Web relating to Fine Art and in particular to Fine Artists are numerous, heterogeneous, and distributed. Data relating to the biographies of an artist, images of their artworks, location of the art-works, and exhibition reviews invariably reside in distinct and seemingly unrelated sources. This paper presents a solution to the problems of heterogeneity and distribution of Fine Art Data. The techniques of intelligent information retrieval and classification are examined as methods to retrieve and classify web-based information on the subject of Fine Art and Artists. A prototype computer application, implanted in Java coupled with XML, demonstrates a possible solution to the problem. This constructs relevant links between heterogeneous sources of Fine Art data by aggregating, classifying and re-presenting it, in an intelligent and automated manner. Open data from a variety of web resources are utilised, including The Guardian´s Open-Platform, The Brooklyn Museum´s API, and The Victoria and Albert Museum´s API. In re-presenting this information via a Web interface, the project increases the accessibility of Fine Art Data.