Meta-Image - research environment for image discourse in the history of arts

The project Meta-Image merges already existing components to a virtual work- and research environment for the image discourse in the history of arts. Therefore it connects the digital image inventories of the compound of art historically image databases "prometheus“ and a image processing application, which is specialized in linking and enrichment of image copora. Aim of the project is the setup of an integrative cyber-infrastructure for the direct art historically research work on the image. Meta-Image enriches the formal documental-archival informations and subject indexings of teh repository with the results of the informal research works of the subject-oriented community, whereas origin and context of the Metadata remain transparent at all times. On the one hand with Meta-Image an innovative environment is set up, in which image-oriented from the compilation of the corpus to the online publication individually or in a research group can be worked on several image details. On the other hand through the enabled metadata the digital collections are further enriched and activated by the art historically community. Furthermore both sides have to be completed with special functionalities and made interoperable user-friendly; the technical modularity is kept through standard complient interfaces. "prometheus" as a union of art historically databases is an established research platform; as image-annotation- and linking-system for complex discourses on image details the application "HyperImage" is used. The integration of the image-discourse-tool into the essential image-database-compound allows new forms of scientific work as well as the response to the central research-tool below the threshold and will have a significant additional value for the research in the history of arts.