Abstract
AbstractWith the growing interest in digital humanities, the methodology of digital art history is in some respects lagging behind the trend. Given the prospects of the new digital image analysis, computer vision, and visualization methods, a number of questions have arisen as to how exactly the new digital methods can and should be applied to art history. Furthermore, when trying to apply these digital methods to the analysis of Russian art, one encounters a whole new set of questions and challenges. In this chapter, I examine current and potential applications of digital methods to the analysis of Soviet political cartoons published in Pravda during the “Great Patriotic War,” 1941–1945, as well as the study of Russian art history more generally. I especially examine how the combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses of political cartoons enables a deeper understanding that illustrates cultural, historical, and political developments over time.
Highlights
Digital methodologies can be used to complement more traditional approaches to art history
As an example of a field of art historical research that may benefit from such digital methods, I use my own research on Soviet political cartoons published during the “Great Patriotic War,” as the years of war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, 1941–1945, of the Second World War are known in Russian
My starting point was to consider these issues in the light of a previous research project which was conducted mainly with more “traditional” methods, such as archival work on microfilms, digitization of material, and conducting a “manual” qualitative analysis of the primary material
Summary
Digital methodologies can be used to complement more traditional approaches to art history. Though Soviet and Russian visual materials have been studied quite extensively, they have not been analyzed much within the framework of digital art history. I chalk out some options and possibilities to expand and apply new digital research methods and visual analyses, in order to complement the more traditional approaches to Russian and Soviet art history. As an example of a field of art historical research that may benefit from such digital methods, I use my own research on Soviet political cartoons published during the “Great Patriotic War,” as the years of war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, 1941–1945, of the Second World War are known in Russian. I look at recent developments in digital methods for art history and their potential application to Russian and Soviet art, especially with regard to
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