Timelines, clusters, knowledge maps.

Collaborative structures for networked knowledge spaces

20 July 2001, MARS-Exploratory Media Lab, FhG Institute for Media Communication, Sankt Augustin, Schloss Birlinghoven

Goal:

netzspannung.org, the Internet platform of the CAT project, is an interdisciplinary platform that aims to provide links between media research and artistic strategies in the use of the new media. In order to achieve this transfer between the disciplines and to make it a constitutive element of the platform, netzspannung.org is researching strategies for contextualising different content from art, research and development.

This research aims to develop innovative models and applications for generating knowledge with digital media and making it accessible via special interfaces. [link 01] "Semantic Map and [link 02] Timeline are examples of such innovative forms of knowledge visualization.

The workshop was organized to discuss and evaluate with experts the status at that time of the development of these so-called knowledge discovery tools.

Results:

The strategy of visualising texts from the different fields of art, technology and research and from different archives using semantic text analysis in dynamic interfaces was judged to be highly promising. Timeline and Semantic Map allow new relationships to be discovered that go beyond subject-specific classification systems.

The main points of the discussion were concerned with the principles of semantic text analysis and the navigation and design of the interfaces, above all the Semantic Map.

The juxtaposition of user-defined and system-generated keywords was identified as an important orientation factor for the exploration of individual clusters. These keywords provide a profile of the content summarised in a cluster.

There was a positive reaction to the fact that the connections found using the knowledge map system do not represent any fixed classifications, but that projects within the Semantic Map can be assigned to other content fields.

The discussion and the written feedback of the experts formed the basis for further development of the knowledge map system and some differentiation with the Semantic Map interface.

Participants:

Invited Participants

Dr. Annette Hünnekens
Media Scientist, Munich
Golo Föllmer
Academic Musician, University of Halle
Dr. Christiane Paul
Curator, Whitney Museum, New York
Alfred Rotert
Head of the European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück
Dr. Christian-A. Bohn
Bohn, Head of Rendering Techniques/Applications, FHG
Charlotte Pöchhacker
Head of Art.Image, Graz
Dr. Danièle Perrier
Managing Director of Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral
Dr. Wilfried Matanovic
Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Bonn
Andrea Helbach
Media Scientist, FHG.IMK.MARS
Dr. Ingrid Leonie Severin
Arthistorian and Curator, Cologne

Participants netzspannung.org-Team

[link 03] Monika Fleischmann
Head of the MARS-Exploratory Media Lab
[link 04] Wolfgang Strauss
Media Artist and Architect
Jasminko Novak
Computer Scientist
Gabriele Blome
Art historian
Boris Müller
Interface Designer
Martin Schneider
Student of Computer Science

The details about the institutions and functions of the participants are valid as of July 2001.