Slovak Aesthetics Forum with Aleksandra Łukaszewicz​ (Poland)
Cultural Analytics as the Digital Humanities applied to the Analysis of Images 

May 12, 2025 / 4 p.m. (CET)

Microsoft Teams Meeting: https://tinyurl.com/2jhct7t6

FB event: www.facebook.com/events/1057413059616310

Contemporary culture—dominated by images that are both digitized and born-digital—demands a reconsideration of the analytical tools used to study them. This is especially true when our theoretical focus shifts from canonical works of art history to the broader realm of culture, or visual culture. This perspective underlies Lev Manovich’s concept of Cultural Analytics, which he describes as “art history without great names”—analyzing images outside the traditional canon. By employing computational tools to study vast quantities of such images, we can uncover cultural patterns that often elude human perception.

Much like the field of Digital Humanities, which has evolved since the latter half of the 20th century, Cultural Analytics—considered a subfield—seeks to merge computational analysis of large datasets (including images, music, user behavior, and user-generated media) with qualitative approaches such as close reading. Although it relies on the quantitative processing of big data, Cultural Analytics goes beyond the purely numerical, unlike traditional data visualization in the sciences and humanities, dating back to the 19th century. Manovich argues that Cultural Analytics enables a new level of qualitative insight through the sampling of visual material from various perspectives. This approach enhances our understanding of culture in unprecedented ways—ways that crucially involve human reflection and interpretation. The question is – for how long?

Website of Slovak Aesthetics Forum: https://sites.google.com/ff.unipo.sk/sef/home