![\"interface\"](\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/02\/interface.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI really enjoyed Liam Andrew, Desi Gonzalez and Kurt Fendt\u2019s article on \u201cPlayful Engineering: Designing and Building Art Discovery Systems\u201d, which explores ways to \u201cengineer the discovery of art\u201d i.e. use technology to attract users to artwork, encourage a sustained relationship with art, and to help users gain a better understanding of the cultural community of Boston. I am by no means a developer or coder, but this article helped to explain some very technical concepts involved in the building of technological platforms and interfaces, which in turn helped me build on my own technical vocabulary. For a digital humanist, it is especially important to understand the technology being used in order to effectively apply and evaluate its usage in the art world.<\/p>\n
The authors make an interesting comparison between content-based and collaborative filtering systems using Artbot\u2019s discovery engine as an example. The latter takes on a \u201csocial approach\u201d, which offer recommendation based on users\u2019 behavior e.g. Amazon and Netflix. However, a drawback of this system is that it limits rather than expands a customer\u2019s purview. While this might not seem particularly harmful in an ecommerce setting, the term \u201cfilter bubble\u201d coined by Eli Pariser in 2011 speaks to the way in which modeling systems to fit a user\u2019s behavior \u201cisolates users from content that might differ from his or her viewpoints\u201d. This algorithmic filtering leads to biased data and information narrowly skewed to enhance confirmation bias.<\/p>\n
In contrast, content-based systems \u201clook to the properties of the items themselves, rather than the users, for recommendation signals\u201d. This seems more common in a museum setting, where \u201cobject and subject taxonomies built into the museum\u2019s collection management systems\u201d are relied upon to assist a user\u2019s exploration. For instance, one can browse a museum\u2019s collection by searching genre tags such as \u201cAsian art\u201d and \u201cRoman art\u201d. However, \u201cgenerating and maintaining a taxonomy\u201d is time intensive and dependent on the precision and dedication of the tagger. The worry is therefore that rigid classifications do not accurately represent a work of art, and do not allow for \u201chappy accidents in the discovery process\u201d, or serendipity.<\/p>\n
In order to combat the drawbacks of each of these methods, Ethan Zuckerman recommends building digital tools that \u201cinfuse serendipity and a diversity of voices\u201d. Specifically, the authors suggest building systems that allow for a hybrid of automation and curation. For instance, computers could perform preliminary web scraping and parsing, but developers need to constantly review their code and the information that results from data gathering in order to present it in a sensible and user-oriented way. This enables nuances to shine through recommendation apps such as Artsy, while saving time and energy on individual research and compilation.<\/p>\n
This discussion makes me wonder about the app \u201cFive Every Day\u201d, which recommends five things to do in Los Angeles every day. Here is a photo (taken off Google) of its astonishingly simple interface:<\/p>\n
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The scope of the app is fairly limited since it is only curated for events in LA, and even then it is limited to five things recommended by a trusted group of curators, as opposed to using a content or collaborative system. Rather than embarking on discovery individually, we wait every day to \u201cdiscover\u201d what is happening (the recommendations change every day), offering more of a wildcard\/ surprise element to the app that differs from the serendipity offered by most other apps. While there is probably some engineering that goes into their research, the possibility of having systems engineered to satisfy one\u2019s own preferences perhaps dilutes the cultural authority that curators traditionally have. While \u201cFive Every Day\u201d seems to restore such power to the curator, an increasing number of technological apps even outside the art world rely on these engineering systems to create a personalized experience for users. If \u201cFive Every Day\u201d were to expand and cover different geographic areas, I am interested to see how they manage the consistency of their recommendations, and whether they would develop their interface and jump on the \u201cpersonalization\u201d bandwagon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I really enjoyed Liam Andrew, Desi Gonzalez and Kurt Fendt\u2019s article on \u201cPlayful Engineering: Designing and Building Art Discovery Systems\u201d, which explores ways to \u201cengineer the discovery of art\u201d i.e. … Continue reading “Engineering Art Discovery Systems: Artsy vs “Five Every Day””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}