Jan 11, 2019

Mapping ALIU looted art market networks with Google Fusion Tables

Graphs from Google Fusion Tables can help us to visualise the Nazi looted art market described in 1946 by the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit

There is little, at present, in the way of digital network analysis of Nazi looted art markets.

The field appears to be wide open. (Digital art historians, take note). 
There does not seem to be a sophisticated user base of researchers adapt at using digital tools to explore Nazi looted art markets or even much of an appreciation for how illuminating use of these tools can be.

Google Fusion Tables is a free experimental tool that is easy to use, very powerful and built for collaboration. It has been widely adopted by investigative journalists and data journalists whose analytical detective methods have much to offer to historians of the Holocaust as well as scholars of the art market.

Time is short, as Google has announced plans to pull the plug on Fusion Tables on December 3, 2019.

The clock is ticking. However, in the eleven months that Google Fusion Tables has to live, there is a lot of innovative research that can be done with methods that are within the reach of absolutely anyone who cares to learn. (This includes not just those interested in Nazi looted art, but also researchers of colonialism.)

see:

Networks of Bruno Lohse

The Ultimate Art Looting Network: Agents of High Placed Nazis

Switzerland in the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names

Networks of Gustav Rochlitz

RIP Fusion Tables: Google is killing off the beloved data visualization tool from Fastcompany










1 comment:

Andy Mabbett said...

Provided you can cite the claims made, to reliable sources, then this sounds just like something Wikidata:

https://www.wikidata.org/

is good for.