The Special Collections in the Baillieu Library of the University of Melbourne contains some of the most outstanding works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that depict the natural history and topography of Australia. Indeed, the Collections’ early Australian plate books provide a significant visual record of Australian colonial history. In my role as the Digital Content Project Officer, I have been collaborating with the knowledgeable staff of the Special Collections while researching their holdings of historic treasures. The aim is to list these works on the DAAO in the biographical entries of their artistic creators.

Recently, I made an interesting and satisfying discovery while I was adding these works to the DAAO. Rather than necessarily requiring new work records, some of the illustrated books were already listed on the DAAO with their title and date of publication. I was then able to add further details to these records and provide the vital clue for researchers that they can be located in the Special Collections of the University of Melbourne.

As one example, it was particularly pleasing to provide a location for Joseph Lycett’s Views in Australia (1824-25), which is an important Australian plate book that provides insight into the nation’s colonial era. Published in England in the nineteenth century, the picturesque aquatints and the accompanying text portrayed Australia as a home of thriving towns, enterprising farms and grand houses, thereby promoting emigration. Through its visions of order and harmony, Lycett’s plate book presented an idyllic version of colonialism and one that deserves detailed analysis due to its past influential role in promoting the colonies.

Other notable examples of work records that have been enhanced through collaboration with the University of Melbourne’s Special Collections include Conrad Martens’ Sketches in the environs of Sydney (1850), S.T. Gill’s Sketches in Victoria (c.1855) and a collection of works by Louisa Anne Meredith, drawing upon the University’s comprehensive holdings of her work.

By updating work records from mere titles and dates to entries with links to the collections in which the works are held, the DAAO is continuing to build upon the comprehensive research directed by Professor Joan Kerr for the Dictionary of Australian Artists, first published in 1984 and followed by an enlarged edition in 1992. This year’s inaugural collaboration between the DAAO and Melbourne institutions is thus already making significant strides in further enriching the value of the DAAO as an eResearch Discovery tool.

Furthermore, by updating and creating entries for illustrated books, the DAAO is acknowledging and embracing the diversity of mediums and contexts from which artistic works are made. Also expanding recognition for artistic works is another project of collaboration with Special Collections that draws upon their large gathering of artists’ books. I would like to thank Special Collections for their continuing support and I encourage the readers of this blog to explore the new aforementioned entries on the DAAO and their links to the Special Collections website. Enjoy!

http://www.daao.org.au/bio/work/views-in-australia/
http://www.daao.org.au/bio/work/sketches-in-the-environs-of-sydney/
http://www.daao.org.au/bio/work/sketches-in-victoria/
http://www.daao.org.au/bio/work/waratah-rhymes-for-young-australia/
http://www.daao.org.au/bio/work/bush-friends-in-tasmania/
http://www.daao.org.au/bio/work/the-romance-of-nature-or-the-flower-seasons-illustrated/

We are now posting little updates and news on DAAO’s new twitter page. http://twitter.com/daao_aust

For those who like their info small, fast and often come and follow us and join the chat on twitter!

The development process has begun!

The major development component of this grant is concerned with sustainable data relations: developing standardised and automated processes for importing data from our partners into the daao and exporting to Trove, the HuNi linked data project, Primo and other research focussed discovery services.  Jo Croucher, our data manager is leading this element of the project and will be working with Alastair Weakley from Interaction Consortium.

A secondary component of this project cycle is a revision of our User Experience (UX) Design. Now that the new site is up and running we have a good sense of what elements of the site need improving. Olivia Bolton has been leading this component: conducting user testing and collating feedback from our members and working with House of Laudanum our UX designers on the site changes.

If all goes to plan the development work will be completed by end December. This gives us good time for importing the new data sets and testing our new integration systems. We already have test records on the DAAO from the VCA, Melbourne Uni’s Special collections, RMIT Design Archive and NVG. Work has also commenced on pulling in Paul Thomas’s Biennale of Electronic Arts  Perth data. http://www.daao.org.au/projects/biennale-of-electronic-art-perth-beap/

Emily Wubben, our Melbourne project officer is doing an amazing job working with Melbourne University’s cultural collections to co-ordinate our efforts. She is also working on a project to expose 300 significant Artists Books held by Baillieu Library’s Special Collection. You can see her efforts here http://www.daao.org.au/projects/artists-books/. Emily will be posting on this blog about her work with Melbourne Uni’s Cultural collections soon.

Hi all,

just thought I’d share some of the enthusiasm we have been experiencing here in the DAAO team about working with the DAAO’s new relational structure. Much of the thrust behind the redesigned architecture of the DAAO, changing the the database from, in lay terms, a flat table structure into multiple tables was so we could link the data better. Ie, if an exhibition is represented then the exhibition itself becomes a record and it is easier to link each artist and the work they exhibited to the exhibition. Then we can start discerning patterns. Who exhibits together frequently? What crossovers are there?

Excited by the Sydney Biennale (BOS18), and in the middle of User Experience revision of the site,  I thought it might be timely to create a record on the Biennale, so we can update existing’s artist’s exhibition records and use the exhibition itself as motivator to add some artist’s records. I created project on the daao http://www.daao.org.au/projects/sydney-biennale-18-for-18-sprint/*.

I began with Khaled Sabsabi http://www.daao.org.au/bio/khaled-sabsabi/#artist_summary who previously was only mentioned as an associate of http://www.daao.org.au/bio/mazin-ahmad/ ( please note I haven’t written a biography- so please feel free to contribute if you have expertise on Khaled’s work!).  I connected him to the BOS http://www.daao.org.au/bio/event/biennale-of-sydney-4/ and then to  The Edge of Elsewhere http://www.daao.org.au/bio/event/edge-of-elsewhere/ where I noted  Phaptawan-Suwannakudtthat  http://www.daao.org.au/bio/phaptawan-suwannakudt/ also exhibited. Phaptawan is also at the BOS18 as is  Jonathon Jones  http://www.daao.org.au/bio/jonathon-jones/ who is also showing at at the Indigenous Triennal  ‘unDisclosed’ http://www.daao.org.au/bio/event/undisclosed/ as is Nyapanyapa Yunupingu http://www.daao.org.au/bio/nyapanyapa-yunupingu/ as is Alick Tipoti  http://www.daao.org.au/bio/alick-tipoti/ who are both exhibiting at BoS18.

Link, link, link. It gets addictive. I start adding in works for each artist exhibiting at BoS18 and then associated prizes and then what collection the work is in. More links. I get happy as go back to a previously slight record and watch it build. I get excited when I see my activity stats rise and think I want to get on the front page as a ‘most active member’. Michael Bogle is currently no 2 and  Joanna Mendelsohn is no 5. How can I knock them off their position? My competiveness and compulsion unfurl even more. But more than that, I just like watching the records get richer, more meaningful, more complete. Its satisfying.

I am not even half way through the Biennale of Sydney project. There are still biographies to complete, works, exhibitions and collections to update. Exhibition records can get big, particularly once you get the linking bug and follow trails into other artists and exhibitions. But its FUN. really!  and the good news is that soon it will be easier!

Now that the site has been up and running for 9  months, we are getting a good idea of what is working and what isn’t. Olivia is currently working with House of Laudanum ( our UX designers) to revise the contributing procedures to the site, particularly in the edit form. This process should be mainly complete by Oct 15. But don’t wait till then. Jump in- its compulsive AND you’re helping to create richer records on Australian Art and Design and that is, dare i say it, also a really worthwhile contribution to Australia’s cultural heritage.

*The BoS 18 x 18 sprint is a featured project on the home page of DAAO as is Joanna Mendelsohn, Catherine de Lorenzo, Alison Inglis, and Cathy Speck ( with others) ARC funded Curator’s Project and Melbourne University Special Collections Artist book project being run by Emily Wubben.