Item talk:Q19104

The E.A.T. Project Wikibase Project Page

Background

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) was an organization founded by Robert Rauschenberg and Billy Klüver that operated from the mid-sixties to the late-seventies. The organization brought together artists and engineers to collaborate with each other on a variety of projects, with the express goal of transforming both industries. According to the E.A.T. mission statement, "To firmly establish the artists' free access to technology, engineering and the technical processes is not only a cultural, educational or aesthetic problem but amounts in fact to an organic social revolution."

Project Description

The Semantic Lab's E.A.T. project seeks to find new ways of using archival documents as a source for linked data. It is a part of our ongoing collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and explores a pivotal moment in both art and science history.

The E.A.T Project falls under the larger umbrella of Robert Rauschenberg Projects, and has a subproject with it's own name and scope, the "E.A.T Bibliography Project" (record | description).

Focuses for data entry include archival metadata and performance information. Input is ongoing.

Scope

The source for our information is a series of 141 documents and photographs provided by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, as well as an oral history transcript with Julie Martin, former E.A.T. Director.

PLACEHOLDER FOR METADATA DESCRIPTION

Another main focus has been connecting art works with their specific performances, and the events at which they were performed. Our practice is to duplicate information across these different pages for easy querying. An example can be seen with the work Pelican, with its specific performance Pelican (First New York Theater Rally performance), at the event First New York Theater Rally.

A number of properties used to model this performance data are reused from previous Semantic Lab projects, like “Linked Jazz” (record | description). Beyond existing Semantic Lab Wikibase properties, we also looked to Wikidata (specifically WikiProject Theatre and WikiProject Performing arts), the Music Ontology, the Carnegie Hall Project, and Schema.org. Here are the properties that were created specifically with the E.A.T. Project in mind.

Properties created for E.A.T. performance modeling

Property ID	Property label	Property description and source
P117	role	part assumed by an entity with relation to a group, event, production, or institution. Created alongside group discussions and ISR project. Should be used as a qualifier. Derived from Wikidata.
P125	location	location of the object, structure or event. Derived from Wikidata.
P126	performer	actor, musician, band or other performer associated with this role or musical work. To be used as a qualifier when there is no room to use role. Derived from Wikidata.
P127	work performed	used to connect an event or performance to an artwork. Similar to Music Ontology’s performance_of.
P128	performance instance	used to connect an artwork to a performance. Similar to Music Ontology’s performed_in.
P131	sub-event	used to connect an event to a performance. Derived from Schema.org and the Carnegie Hall Project.
P132	super-event	used to connect a performance to an event. Derived from Schema.org and the Carnegie Hall Project.

Project Data

Note: If you would like to read a general description about data on Semantic Lab's Wikibase and various ways to query data, please see the home page for Semantic Lab’s Wikibase.

Example Research Questions and Queries

Question: What are all of Robert Rauschenberg’s works? Query: https://tinyurl.com/y6l7qtfs

Question: Who were all of the performers of the piece Pelican? Query: https://tinyurl.com/yxnlvuvs

Question: What performances did Deborah Hay perform in? Query: https://tinyurl.com/y6ssarcl

Question: What pieces were performed at the First New York Theater Rally? Query: https://tinyurl.com/yxzlcoj6 OR Query: https://tinyurl.com/y6knu6b4

Question: In what performances did Robert Rauschenberg and Alex Hay perform together? Query: https://tinyurl.com/yygyzlrg