Vwire: Digital Content Management through Spatial Arrangement - a Tool for Visual Argumentation in the Humanities

Abstract

The Vwire project initiates an open source and extensible environment for producing, sharing and discussing visually ordered data sets in the humanities. Even those existing database tools that allow researchers to see multiple images simultaneously do not allow for the active and intuitive configuration of the images - like arranging snapshots on a table - that Vwire provides. Already implemented as an add-on module for Plone 4 (a mature and recently much improved Content Management System [CMS]), Vwire leverages existing technology and extends the visualization tools available to humanities researchers. We propose a test case using a small group of Teotihuacan stone masks, which are of archaeological and art historical importance, and we will elicit collaboration between experts from both fields to help refine and troubleshoot the existing tool