Purpose

This study aimed at understanding the use of paintings outside of an art-related context, in the English version of Wikipedia.

Design/methodology/approach

For this investigation, the authors identified 8,104 paintings used in 10,008 articles of the English Wikipedia edition. The authors manually coded the topic of the article in question, documented the number of monthly average views and identified the originating museum. They analysed the use of images based on frequency of use, frequency of view, associated topics and location. Early in the analysis three distinct perspectives emerged: the readers of the online encyclopaedia, the editors of the articles and the museum organisations providing the painting images (directly or indirectly).

Findings

Wikipedia is a widely used online information resource where images of paintings serve as visual reference to illustrate articles, notably also beyond an art-related topic and where no alternative image is available – as in the case of historic portraits. Editors used paintings as illustration of the work itself or art-related movement, but also as illustration of past events, as alternative to photographs, as well as to represent a concept or technique. Images have been used to illustrate up to 76 articles, evidencing the polysemic nature of paintings. The authors conclude that images of paintings are highly valuable information sources, also beyond an art-related context. They also find that Wikipedia is an important dissemination channel for museum collections. While art-related articles contain greater number of paintings, these receive less views than non-art-related articles containing fewer paintings. Readers of all topics, predominantly history, science and geographic articles, viewed art pieces outside of an art context. Painting images in Wikipedia receive a much larger online audience than the physical painting does when compared to the number of museum onsite visitors. The authors’ results confirm the presence of a strong long-tail pattern in the frequency of image use (only 3% of painting images are used in a Wikipedia article), image view and museums represented, characteristic of network dynamics of the Internet.

Research limitations/implications

While this is the first analysis of the complete collection of paintings in the English Wikipedia, the authors’ results are conservative as many paintings are not identified as such in Wikidata, used for automatic harvesting. Tools to analyse image view specifically are not yet available and user privacy is highly protected, limiting the disaggregation of user data. This study serves to document a lack of diversity in image availability for global online consumption, favouring well-known Western objects. At the same time, the study evidences the need to diversify the use of images to reflect a more global perspective, particularly where paintings are used to represent concepts of techniques.

Practical implications

Museums wanting to increase visibility can target the reuse of their collections in non-art-related articles, which received 88% of all views in the authors’ sample. Given the few museums collaborating with the Wikimedia Foundation and the apparent inefficiency resulting from leaving the use of paintings as illustration to the crowd, as only 3% of painting images are used, suggests further collaborative efforts to reposition museum content may be beneficial.

Social implications

This paper highlights the reach of Wikipedia as information source, where museum content can be positioned to reach a greater user group beyond the usual museum visitor, in turn increasing visual and digital literacy.

Originality/value

This is the first study that documents the frequency of use and views, the topical use and the originating institution of “all the paintings” in the English Wikipedia edition.

中文翻译：

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基于图像的信息：Wikipedia中的绘画

目的

这项研究旨在了解英语版本的Wikipedia中与艺术相关的上下文之外的绘画使用。

设计/方法/方法

为了进行这项调查，作者确定了英文Wikipedia版的10,008篇文​​章中使用的8,104幅绘画。作者手动编码了相关文章的主题，记录了每月平均观看次数，并确定了原博物馆。他们根据使用频率，观看频率，相关主题和位置来分析图像的使用。在分析的早期，出现了三种不同的观点：在线百科全书的读者，文章的编辑以及提供绘画图像（直接或间接）的博物馆组织。

发现

Wikipedia是一种广泛使用的在线信息资源，其中，绘画图像可作为视觉参考来举例说明文章，尤其是在与艺术相关的主题之外，并且在没有替代图像可用的情况下（例如历史肖像）。编辑使用绘画作为作品本身或与艺术相关的动作的插图，也作为过去事件的插图，作为照片的替代品，以及代表概念或技术。图像已被用来说明多达76篇文章，证明了绘画的多义性。作者得出的结论是，绘画图像是非常有价值的信息来源，而且超出了与艺术相关的范围。他们还发现，维基百科是博物馆藏品的重要传播渠道。与艺术相关的文章包含的绘画数量更多，与包含较少绘画作品的非艺术相关文章相比，这些文章获得的观看次数更少。所有主题的读者，主要是历史，科学和地理文章的读者，都在艺术环境之外浏览了艺术品。与博物馆现场访问者的数量相比，维基百科中的绘画图像比物理绘画获得的在线观众要多得多。作者的结果证实了图像使用频率上存在强的长尾图案（维基百科的文章中仅使用了3％的绘画图像），图像视图和所展示的博物馆，这是Internet网络动力学的特征。与博物馆现场访问者的数量相比，维基百科中的绘画图像比物理绘画获得的在线观众要多得多。作者的结果证实了图像使用频率上存在强的长尾图案（维基百科的文章中仅使用了3％的绘画图像），图像视图和所展示的博物馆，这是Internet网络动力学的特征。与博物馆现场访问者的数量相比，维基百科中的绘画图像比物理绘画获得的在线观众要多得多。作者的结果证实了图像使用频率上存在强的长尾图案（维基百科的文章中仅使用了3％的绘画图像），图像视图和所展示的博物馆，这是Internet网络动力学的特征。

研究局限/意义

虽然这是对英语Wikipedia中完整的绘画作品集的首次分析，但作者的结果是保守的，因为Wikidata中并未标识出许多绘画作品，这些作品用于自动收割。尚没有专门用于分析图像视图的工具，并且高度保护了用户隐私，从而限制了用户数据的分类。这项研究证明了全球在线消费的图像可用性缺乏多样性，偏爱知名的西方物体。同时，该研究证明有必要使图像的使用多样化，以反映更广泛的视角，尤其是在使用绘画来代表技术概念的地方。

实际影响

希望提高知名度的博物馆可以将其藏品作为与非艺术相关的文章的再利用，这些文章在作者样本中获得了88％的观看次数。鉴于与Wikimedia基金会合作的博物馆很少，并且由于将绘画作为插图留给人群而造成的明显效率低下，因为仅使用了3％的绘画图像，这表明进一步合作以重新定位博物馆的内容可能是有益的。

社会影响

本文着重介绍了Wikipedia作为信息源的作用，可以在其中定位博物馆的内容，以吸引比普通博物馆参观者更多的用户群，进而提高视觉和数字素养。

创意/价值

这是第一份记录英语维基百科版本中使用和观看的频率，主题使用和“所有绘画”的起源机构的研究。