Utilizing visual analytics for network exploration in the domain of art history research

In art historical research, the study of social networks can provide insights into complex interactions between artists. However, despite the successful use of network visualizations in the field of art history, there are still many open questions as well as challenges that need to be solved in order to support art historians in the best possible way for their research. For example, existing approaches offer only limited possibilities to visually explore art historical networks with regard to their geographical context as well as their temporal development. Furthermore, so-called node-link diagrams are usually used for the visual representation of networks, which in the past revealed weaknesses in comparison with other representations in various studies. Finally, it is difficult to evaluate applications with respect to their suitability in the art history domain, since established evaluation approaches are often not conducted with domain experts. We present Exhibitions Explorer, a solution which enables the interactive, visual exploration of art historical networks. The solution integrates different visualization approaches from research into a new visualization concept that focuses on the requirements of the domain. Using an insight-based evaluation approach, we also demonstrate that, provided a suitable visualization concept, network visualizations can lead to a high quantity and quality of domain-relevant insights.