This paper provides a critical overview of the evolution of the field of digital art history since the 2013 special issue of Visual Resources dedicated to digital art history. I particularly review the narratives and results that have been generated during the development of this specific field of research, examining to what degree these can or should be re-evaluated in light of the post-digital society in which we find ourselves, and as part of post-humanistic thinking. Thus I combine a historical overview with a prospective focus on digital art history in the years to come.

Este texto introduce el número especial de la revista Artnodes. Revista de Arte, Ciencia y Tecnología, dedicado a las humanidades digitales bajo el subtema «Políticas, sociedades, saberes», en el que se reúnen algunas de las contribuciones más interesantes presentada al III Congreso de la Sociedad Internacional de Humanidades Digitales Hispánicas, así como otras aportaciones que han enriquecido y ampliado los temas objeto de discusión. A fin de procurar una mejor interpretación del marco teórico-metodológico en el que cobran sentido los artículos que conforman este monográfico especial, se establece una delineación general de las características que definen el campo de las humanidades digitales. Finalmente, se indican los cinco ejes que, a juicio de la autora, son clave en la configuración de las humanidades digitales como proyecto para la construcción de un nuevo humanismo digital.

The range of modes through which the new conditions of the postdigital society is leading to a redefinition of the processes of assigning value, and the values themselves, which have hitherto prevailed in the comprehension of cultural heritage, are diverse and broad. Within this framework of critical inquiry, this paper discusses the mechanisms of canon-formation in the context of the web as the new laboratory of cultural production. It is argued that the main dynamics observed can be elucidated under the form of a triad: hypercanonization, socialdecanonization, and transcanonization. These three processes operate simultaneously interlaced and unfold in dialectical tension between the rise of the new (practices, actors, values, ideas), and the maintenance of the old (those structures that already exist). This paper delves into the paths through which such interlace dynamics and tension might reshape the principles by which canonicity develops, as well as poses open questions about the challenges facing us, which should be discussed in further studies and approaches to the problem.

Cultural analysts are currently faced with an ecosystem of heterogeneous, globally distributed, and mass-scale sources that cannot be ignored in the research process. In addition to that, cultural analysts need to deal with the emergence of a knowledge economy which is no longer based on the value of the information entities contained in one or more documents, but on the potential for heterogeneous data to be recombined to generate previously unknown knowledge. Therefore, the challenge of accessing a set of heterogeneous, mass-scale, dynamic, and globally distributed sources has been joined to that of transforming the content of these sources into reusable data for the creation of knowledge and value. To the traditional question—What sources should be consulted or selected?—must now be added: What tools should be built and what work procedures should be designed to access those sources on a mass basis and analyze them as data? This article aims to provide some possible answers through the work carried out within the Exhibitium Project. This included the design and implementation of the Expofinder system, which is a technological device meant to examine the mechanisms for dissemination of digital information about art exhibitions and reuse this information as data to generate new knowledge and new interpretations about them. We believe that one of the best ways to strengthen the paths of digital research is to make the methodologies and mechanisms that govern decision-making transparent in order to be discussed or to be adopted by other projects. This is the ultimate goal of this article.

Presentation of the dossier Presentación del Dosier

This critical analysis of the relationship between institutional digital humanities and the artistic culture discusses the low level of representation of digital and computational artistic culture in the digital humanities context. Reviewed in the search for new interpretive paradigms is the referential framework that contextualizes convergence between the visual arts, artistic culture, art history and computerized and digital media developments.