From Art to Data: WRITE - WenDAng Digital Archive
The ERC Starting Grant project called WRITE – New Forms of Calligraphy in China: A Contemporary Culture Mirror – is a major research initiative that explores how evolving forms of calligraphy in contemporary China are reshaping cultural identity. With a growing presence in the contemporary arts, WRITE systematically analyzes these transformations as both artistic expressions and cultural phenomena.
Building on the extensive research conducted by WRITE, the WenDAng project aims to create the first open-access semantic digital archive dedicated to these emerging forms of Chinese calligraphy. WenDAng can be interpreted as the digital extension of WRITE, using its heterogeneous data collected through the research to offer a centralized platform for conservation, exploration, analysis, and public engagement.
The WenDAng project, grounded in Digital Humanities, leverages computational tools to preserve, analyse, represent, and visualise the findings gathered from the WRITE project. It does so while maintaining a critical awareness of the cultural significance of the objects studied. This methodology not only provides fresh perspectives on contemporary calligraphy but also redefines how knowledge about it is generated and disseminated. At the core of this effort is the WRITE ontology, a framework that is still being developed and refined, that allows for the representation of both tangible and intangible aspects of this important cultural, artistic, linguistic, and social phenomenon. The ontology, together with a dedicated thesaurus, will help bridging the gap in representation of traditional and contemporary expressions of calligraphy and art. By following Linked Open Data and FAIR principles, this work enables robust analysis and fosters the creation of new knowledge from three key perspectives:
Artistic analysis: A detailed examination of the artworks from formal, stylistic, and iconographic perspectives.
Linguistic / textual analysis: An in-depth analysis of the texts within the artworks, including transcription, language identification, authorship, genre, meaning, textual history, and translation.
Socio-political-economic analysis: A comprehensive evaluation of the artwork's context, including its patronage (public or private), public reception, exhibition history, and economic value.
The WRITE Digital Archive will ensure data interoperability, seamless accessibility, and the ability to perform integrated queries across artistic, linguistic, and socio-political dimensions, making it a groundbreaking resource for both researchers and the broader public.
The gist of it all
In the very core of WRITE, and thus consecutively of WenDAng, are the four types of art, referred to as collections within the WRITE knowledge base. These collections serve as the organisational foundation for the digital archive.
The archive distinguishes another precious element essential for representing and analysing Chinese contemporary calligraphy - the so-called "Calli-Writing" unit - which is a segment of the artwork that contains any kind of writing and / or calligraphy.
The 4 collections of art are the following:
The Infinitive Universe 大千世界, by Gu Gan
Visual Arts
New forms of calligraphy emerged in the domain of “fine arts” (painting-like calligraphy, abstract painting, printmaking, seal carving and sculpture) and “contemporary arts” (assemblage, collage, mixed-media, conceptual art, installation, photography, digital art, video-art and land-art).
Decorative and Applied Arts & Architecture
For the first time Chinese characters lost their connection with the linguistic meaning evolving into desired design elements.
Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art, by Wang Shu
Landscape Painting PIC 山水PIC, by Kwanyin Clan
Graffiti Art
The presence of calligraphy along the streets has evolved from the Maoist propaganda posters into graffiti works made for the first time not of Latin letters but of Chinese characters.
Performing Arts
The intrinsic calligraphic qualities of rhythm, dynamism and harmony flow into the fields of performance art, contemporary dance and music.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Explore this documentation to:
- 🔍 Dive into all things WenDAng: this introduction, ontology, thesaurus, and browsable RDF data.
- 📚 Discover case studies that show how it all works in practice.
- 👥 Meet the team, and browse through relevant literature and events.