The role of the ‘Art and Architecture Thesaurus’ in communicating about visual art

Abstract

The paper addresses the ways in which computerization and a thesaurus like the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) influence the organization, description, and understanding of the visual arts. It discusses these issues from the point of view of the AAT and considers how its structure and content serve as a bridging mechanism between the many different manifestations of the visual arts and the different types of organizations serving the viewers of art, whether as students, scholars, collections managers, or the enjoying public. This paper shows how a knowledge base like the AAT helps this variety of users develop approaches to the visual arts and suggests that the special nature of dealing with image rather than text influences how the thesaurus is structured and applied