'ArtGarden' is a new search engine developed by British Telecom (BT) and tested by Tate Online. In "Smart search lets art fans browse," BBC News reports it allows you to browse the Tate's collection depending on what you like or not. Instead of typing an artist's name, you will be shown an initial selection of pictures of paintings or sculptures. When you click on one image, the artificial intelligence component of 'ArtGarden' will choose the next set of pictures to show you. This choice will be partially based on keywords associated with each work of art, but unknown to you, partially on your previous preferences, and finally on plain luck. This technology should soon become available online. With 'ArtGarden,' it will be like jumping randomly from one aisle of the museum to another. Neat.
Here is a general description of the technology.
The technology uses a system dubbed smart serendipity, which is a combination of artificial intelligence and random selection. It 'chooses' a selection of pictures, by scoring paintings based on a selection of keywords associated with them.
So, for instance a Whistler painting of a bridge may have the obvious keywords such as bridge and Whistler associated to it but will also widen the search net with terms such as aesthetic movement, 19th century and water. A variety of paintings will then be shown to the user, based partly on the keywords and partly on luck.
Like many other technologies, this one has a very personal origin.
For Richard Tateson, [a BT's computing expert] who worked on the ArtGarden project, the need for a new way to search grew out of personal frustration. "I went to an online clothes store to find something to buy my wife for Christmas but I didn't have a clue what I wanted," he said.
The text-based search was restricted to looking either by type of garment or designer, neither of which he found helpful. He ended up doing his present shopping on the high street instead.
[Note: Yes, Tateson is his real name.]
If I have renounced the search of truth, if I have come into the port of some pretending dogmatism, some new church, some Schelling or Cousin, I have died to all use of these new events that are born out of prolific time into multitude of life every hour. I am as bankrupt to whom brilliant opportunities offer in vain. He has just foreclosed his freedom, tied his hands, locked himself up and given the key to another to keep.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
BT gives additional details on the project in "Get what you want with 'ArtGarden'," starting with a description of the concept.
'ArtGarden' is designed for those of us who might not know the name of, say, every Dutch artist painting at the same time as Vermeer, but like his style and would like to see others in a similar vein. In other words, it’s designed for those times when you know what you like, would recognise it if you saw it, but can’t exactly describe it in words. ArtGarden takes advantage of broadband to show a range of art-works on screen, the choice of which may be quickly refined by the user.
You'll find some more tidbits about the technology.
Behind the scenes ArtGarden uses artificial intelligence to keep track of each viewer’s preferences across a range of criteria. These 'scores' are used to bias the random selector, which then picks the next item to display.
This way of browsing increases the pleasure of online art viewing because it strikes a balance between focusing browsing towards specific personal 'likes' and introducing some serendipity -- lucky finds that a more blinkered approach might miss. It’s also simple to use -- all you have to do is indicate your preferences using your mouse.
Finally, BT explains why the project is named 'ArtGarden.'
The ArtGarden demonstration system allows online visitors to view a 'garden' or selection of art works, which are linked to others through a series of roots defined by the online curators or managers of collections. New items of interest are positively biased to bloom on the visitors’ screens as they select art according to their preference. Old or disliked items wither away from those displayed. After a few minutes’ browsing, the garden will be very different from the initial random selection.
Before 'ArtGarden' becomes available, you can search the Tate Collection with more traditional search engines, for example by searching by subject.
You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don’t you use them in the search for love?
—Lech Walesa (b. 1943)
Sources: BBC News Online, January 28, 2005; and various websites
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
AI
Arts
Search
Software
Vision and Visualization.