Seeing Tibetan Art through Social Tags

zahnen alles arme avalokiteshvara bergestellt

besch bodhisattva buddhas buddhismus chenresi-

avalokiteshvara dalai erde erkennbar erleuchtung

farben figur frau gleiche gottheit grosse

gut hands harmonische Seeing Tibetan Art through Social Tags himmel

himmlisch jeder klare lama mehrdimensional mit

mitgeful nirvana verkorperung rundum sehrsichten thousand beschuzergottheit verschiedene

viele Shelley Mannion University of Lugano Switzerland

Can social tags help us understand viewers’ perceptions?

How can tags be used to increase community engagement?

Tenpe Totse

The study

Who?

23 Swiss GermansAge 18-45

Protestant, Catholic, no affiliation

25 Swiss Tibetans Age 15-36

100% Buddhist

Norzin-Uramo

Martina

1. Homepage 2. Demographic info

3. Tagging screens 4. Flickr page

Mixed methods approach

Phase 4Phase 3Phase 2Phase 1

TaggingTagging & ethnographic fieldwork

Final data analysis

Quantitative methods

Mixed methodssteve.museum

installation & customization

New YorkSwitzerland

Where?

Museum Cultural events Online

Why?

[Tibetan] artists have joked with me about going for Buddhist pilgrimage to the West and doing

prostrations in museums and galleries!Leigh Miller Sangster

Photo by J. Unrau (http://flickr.com/hungry_j)cc

Preliminary findings

Perception

What can we learn about artworks and types of artworks and what

really interests our visitors? Peter Samis, MW 2008

Tagging and viewing patterns

32% fewer tags

0.001.002.003.004.005.006.007.00

Num

ber o

f val

id ta

gs

Tibetans Swiss Germans

Average valid tags per image

AvalokitesvaraChakrasamvaraPadmasambhavaWheel of LifeShri DeviBrief History

For us Tibetans it is considered sinful to

make a mistake.Looking at these images makes us feel bad, because we don’t know anything.

Kyimo

Kunsang Tsering

Cultural pervasivenessComparing cultural pervasiveness across images

26.9 27.5

37.1

19.7 19.5 19.8

25.722.021.1

20.821.0

22.6

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

Avalok

itesv

araCha

krasa

mvara

Padmas

ambh

ava

Wheel

of Lif

e

Shri D

evi

Brief H

istory

Perv

asiv

enes

s ra

ting

(sca

le 0

-100

)

Tibetans

Swiss Germans

For full details see conference paper online athttp://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/mannion

Wheel of Life

Three levels of recognition

20.8 21.1 22.0

26.9 27.5

37.1

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

Perv

asiv

enes

s ra

ting

Brie

f His

tory

Chak

rasa

mva

ra

Shri

Dev

i

Aval

okit

esva

ra

Padm

asam

bhav

a

Whe

el o

f Life

Cultural pervasiveness among Tibetans Symbolic

Familiar

Unfamiliar

Word Types

Tibetan tag Word Types across images

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Brief History

Chakrasamvara

Padmasambhava

Wheel of LifeProper nameBuddhist conceptBuddhist nounVerb or actionFeeling or conceptAdjectiveNoun

Culturally predefined

Constrained

Objective

Less pre-definedPersonalSubjectiveIdiosyncratic‘Freer’

UnfamiliarSymbolic

Tagger agreement

WomanGoddessFemaleMother

DemonMonsterTibetan Satan

Teachable moments (Trant 2006)

Tag vocabulary is a window into what people notice.It's interesting as much for the aggregate

(what many people notice), as for the outlier

(what's noticed only by one).

Jennifer Trant’s blog, March 7, 2008

Translation competenceExamples of translation competenceOutliers: Indiana Jones

Multitasking Spiritual realizationReminder

What does it all mean?

Improving community engagement

Recognize special interpretive needs

Go beyond culturally pre-defined responses

Take advantage of translation competence and outliers

mothermultitasking

Indiana Jones?

Indiana Jones?

Analytical approaches to social tags

Collect qualitative data along with tags

Ignasi Aballí, Lists (1997-2007)Venice Biennale 2007

Be open to changing research priorities

Derive categories directly from data

Marisa

Designing tagging systems for communities

Solve the motivation problem Game-like interface?Consider diaspora language and sub-culture issuesFlickr page: Community within community

Vintage pinball art, Las VegasPhoto by Zoomar

http://flickr.com/zoomarcc

Funk it upGrassroots video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj0QJ80n0ww

Still image from Pema Yoko’sBritish Tibetan

Free tags!

www.seeingtibetanart.org

shelley.mannion@gmail.com

Thanks to

The Rubin Foundation

Rubin Museum of Art

Helen Abbott

Susan Chun

Candlelight vigil for peace in TibetMontreal, March 24, 2008

Photo by Bah Humbughttp://flickr.com/gibbons

Music: Landes Ecument by Zam’s http://www.zams.fr

cc