Existing digital publications have failed to
serve art history well. This is understandable: no other discipline
attaches the same value to the image—its quality and
interactivity—or requires the tight interlocking of image and text.
Most e-publications, both books and journals, are in pdf format,
reflecting their origins in print. Under these conditions, image
quality deteriorates, the page is static, and special viewing tools
can not be deployed. The clickable in-page images in some recent
e-publications are an immense improvement. Clicking on the
thumbnail image enlarges it and allows for zooming and panning, but
the full-frame image on a white backdrop fills the entire screen
and the text disappears.
The substitutional relation of word and image
may suffice in some fields, but not in art history, where images
are integral to the investigation, not purely demonstrative. Text
directs your attention to the image, and the two interlock. On the
printed page, layout constraints often cause text and image to fall
out of sync; reading involves a multifinger procedure to bookmark
scattered illustrations. This constraint need not exist online,
where a simultaneous on-screen presence of text and image can be
maintained. The relationship of word and image might be rethought
for the computer screen to take advantage of its horizontal
orientation. Today, screen displays remain beholden to the printed
page, leaving empty space on the margins of an on-screen text page.
The width of the computer screen could be usefully harnessed to
allow for split screens with adjacent but separately maneuverable
pages of text and image.
The
ARTstor offline viewer offers exemplary
features that could be the basis for a parallel text-image display.
A screen could be divided in two parts, a text window next to an
image window equipped with ARTstor's array of viewer tools to zoom
and pan, view QuickTime videos, and perhaps in the future 3-D
models, animations and other simulations. This split-screen
arrangement would allow the reader to read the text while moving
the images backward and forward as warranted by the author's
argument and the reader's curiosity. An additional window might
have thumbnail slides as a navigational aide through a large
illustration program. Tk3 Author software also offers flexible
screen layouts and permits assemblage of multimedia. However, its
polytextuality—the mixing of multiple media—lacks the specific
emphasis on high-quality images and image viewing tools that
distinguish ARTstor and are demanded by art and architectural
history.
ARTstor is likely to be vital in developing
the full potential of electronic publishing in the arts. Although
not a publisher, ARTstor offers a sophisticated viewing tool and is
the dominant provider of digital images. Its successful strategy of
eliminating redundancy by building a central image repository also
pertains to electronic publishing where the high hurdles in art
history have had the demonstrable effect of barring scholarly
journals and publishers from entering the field, and where the
formidable challenges and costs specific to art history are too
great for underresourced journals and scholarly societies to meet
individually.
