Analysing user generated content related to art history

For the canon of important works of art, lots of information is available on the Internet. Different Web platforms exist that show artworks with additional information and an Art historical description. While this information is suitable for experts in Art history, users without this expert knowledge may find this information hard to access because of a vocabulary mismatch between experts and laypersons. In order to allow users with different expertise to communicate and comprehend Art in their own vocabulary we have created the explorARTorium (www.explorARTorium.info), which visualises artworks in context and allows users to browse along different narratives. The explorARTorium also offers the possibility to annotate artworks. We have therefore collected a Folksonomy about artworks. Applying Data Mining algorithms on this Folksonomy, we show that the reproduction of Art historical facts is possible. Moreover, we are able to analyse the extent of Art historical knowledge among people of the 21st century.