Categories for the Description of Works of Art Cdwa

The Fine art & Compages Thesaurus (AAT) is a controlled vocabulary used for describing items of art, architecture, and cloth culture. The AAT contains generic terms, such as "cathedral," just no proper names, such as "Cathedral of Notre Dame." The AAT is used by, amid others, museums, art libraries, archives, catalogers, and researchers in art and art history. The AAT is a thesaurus in compliance with ISO and NISO standards including ISO 2788, ISO 25964 and ANSI/NISO Z39.19.

The AAT is a structured vocabulary of 55,661 concepts (as of Jan 2020),^[1] including 131,000 terms, descriptions, bibliographic citations, and other data relating to fine art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, and cloth culture.^[2]

History [edit]

The AAT project began in the belatedly 1970s in response to the gradual automation of records past art libraries, art journal indexing services, and catalogers of museum objects and visual resource. Automation required consistency in cataloging every bit well equally more efficient retrieval of information; a controlled vocabulary was a solution to both these issues. The project was conceived by library directors and architectural experts Toni Petersen, Dora Crouch, and Pat Molholt and was originally headquartered role-time at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, so at Bennington College in Bennington, VT and later moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, with the J. Paul Getty Trust providing technical advice and funding. In 1983 the Getty Trust took over editorial responsibility. The AAT offices relocated to the Getty's Los Angeles headquarters in order to better coordinate with 2 other similar Getty projects, the Union List of Creative person Names (ULAN) and Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) soon after its publication.

The AAT was published in 1990 and 1994 in both print and electronic form. By 1997, the size and frequency of updates made hard-re-create publication unfeasible and the conclusion was made to publish via a searchable online Web interface and in data files available for licensing. The online Web interface is freely-accessible from any computer connected to the Internet. Concluding editorial control of the AAT is maintained past the Getty Vocabulary Plan, part of the Getty Inquiry Institute.

Since 2008, Taiwan east-Learning and Digital Athenaeum Program (TELDAP)^[3] collaborated with Getty Inquiry Institute (GRI) in developing the Chinese-language Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT-Taiwan). The initial goal of this projection is to provide multilingual search and corresponding images in integrate digital athenaeum systems of Taiwan, and broaden the inclusion of terms related to Asian art, architecture and fabric civilisation in AAT.

The AAT tin be used in several ways:

• at the data entry stage, by catalogers or indexers who are describing works of fine art, architecture, textile culture, archival materials, visual surrogates, or bibliographic materials;
• as knowledge bases, providing information for researchers;
• as search assistants to raise cease-user access to online resource;
• as target for enriching free-text descriptions of cultural objects;^[4]
• as a pivot vocabulary for coreferencing (interlinking) other art vocabularies^[5]

AAT is available as Linked Open Information at vocab.getty.edu^[6] since February 2014^[7] and is updated bi-weekly.

Terms [edit]

The initial core gear up of terms was derived from authorisation lists and the literature of fine art and architectural history; this core ready was reviewed, canonical and added to by an advisory team made upward scholars from all relevant disciplines, including art and architectural historians, architects, librarians, visual resources curators, archivists, museum personnel, and specialists in thesaurus construction. Its hierarchy was inspired by the Medical Bailiwick Headings. All eras from artifact to the present are covered, and it is non limited geographically.

As of Jan 2007, the AAT contained approximately 131,000 terms. While the thesaurus contains many variations on a term, such as singular and plural forms, spelling variants, various forms of oral communication, and synonyms, one is always flagged as the preferred term. Terms are updated biweekly and regular users are encouraged to suggest new terms.

In 2015 AAT contains 354,000 terms.^[8] They are available in 4 major languages (English, Dutch, Spanish and Chinese), and some terms in various native languages.

Blueprint [edit]

The AAT is a faceted classification system as well as a hierarchical ane. At that place are seven facets:

• Associated Concepts – abstract concepts, such as beauty, remainder, connoisseurship, metaphor, liberty, socialism (Hierarchy: Associated concepts)
• Physical Attributes – perceptible or measurable characteristics such as size, shape, chemical properties, texture and hardness, such equally strapwork, borders, round, waterlogged, brittleness. (Hierarchies: Attributes and Properties, Conditions and Effects, Design Elements, Color)
• Styles and Periods – stylistic groupings and distinct chronological periods, such as French, Louis Xiv, T'ang Dynasty, Chippendale (Bureaucracy: Styles and Periods)
• Agents – people, groups of people, and organizations such as printmakers, landscape architects, corporations, religious orders. (Hierarchies: People, Organizations)
• Activities – areas of endeavor, physical and mental actions or methods, such as archaeology, engineering, analyzing, contests, exhibitions, running, drawing (image-making), corrosion. (Hierarchies: Disciplines, Functions, Events, Physical and Mental Activities, Processes and Techniques)
• Materials – concrete substances, such as fe, dirt, adhesive, emulsifier, artificial ivory, millwork, nylon. (Hierarchy: Materials)
• Objects – objects either fabricated or given form by man activity, such as paintings, amphorae, facades, cathedrals, Brewster Chairs, gardens (Hierarchies: Object Groupings and Systems, Object Genres, Components; Built Environment: Settlements and Landscapes, Built Complexes and Districts, Single Built Works, Open Spaces and Site Elements; Effects and Equipment: Furnishings, Costume, Tools and Equipment, Weapons and Armament, Measuring Devices, Containers, Audio Devices, Recreational Artifacts, Transportation Vehicles; Visual and Verbal Communication: Visual Works, Exchange Media, Information Forms)

Online records of concepts showing the bureaucracy in the database [edit]

The record for each concept includes its identify in the hierarchy (with a link to its parent), besides as links to related terms, related concepts, sources and contributors for the data, and notes.

Sample AAT Record

See as well [edit]

• Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA)
• Cultural Objects Proper noun Authority (CONA)
• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
• Getty Vocabulary Program
• Marriage List of Artist Names (ULAN)

References [edit]

1. ^ "SPARQL query to count AAT concepts". Getty Linked Open Data . Retrieved 31 January 2020.
2. ^ "Getty Vocabularies (Getty Research Institute)".
3. ^ "Preface, Taiwan eastward-Learning and Digital Athenaeum Program, TELDAP".
4. ^ "Europeana enriches its information with the AAT". Europeana Pro.
5. ^ Ceri Binding and Douglas Tudhope. "Vocabulary Linked Data Publication and Mapping". ISKO UK 2015 Workshop. ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
6. ^ "Getty Vocabularies".
7. ^ "Art & Architecture Thesaurus Now Available as Linked Open Data – The Getty Iris". 20 Feb 2014.
8. ^ "SPARQL query to count AAT terms". Getty Linked Open Data.

External links [edit]

• Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online Search the AAT online for free.
• About the Getty Vocabularies
• Near AAT
• Getty Vocabulary Editorial Guidelines The editorial guidelines for the AAT, ULAN, and TGN incorporate rules and guidelines intended for use by the editors of the Getty Vocabulary Program using the in-house editorial system, VCS (Vocabulary Coordination System). Contributors to the Getty Vocabularies and implementers of the licensed vocabulary information may consult these guidelines besides.
• Training materials and presentations created by the Getty Vocabulary Program The documents on this page include presentations and other training materials for the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), the Union List of Creative person Names (ULAN), the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO), Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA), and standards in general.
• AAT as Linked Open Data, documentation

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