FACETED CLASSIFICATION IN THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE THESAURUSAuthor(s): Cathleen WhiteheadSource: Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 8,No. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 175-177Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27948127 .

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Art Documentation, Winter 1989 175

FACETED CLASSIFICATION IN THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE THESAURUS

by Cathleen Whitehead Art and Architecture Thesaurus

Most controlled vocabularies currently in existence arise as

part of the indexing or cataloging process within a particular institution. They exist in a variety of forms ranging from sim ple term lists to elaborate subject heading systems. Because most controlled vocabularies are created internally for a par ticular medium and subject concentration they reflect the content of the local collection and are designed for use with a particular resource, such as slides or books. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus is, in a sense, different from existing controlled vocabularies because it is developing a relatively exhaustive framework of terminology in an a priori fashion. It is not tied to any one type of indexing or cataloging situation. Using existing subject heading lists and over 2,000 other

sources, such as subject-specific dictionaries and mono graphs, the AAT has thus far identified, defined, and concep tually arranged over 35,000 terms, or descriptors, about one third of which are synonyms and variant spellings, or lead-in vocabulary. The terminology is initially gathered and verified by the AAT staff and then undergoes a review process in which scholars and other experts in particular fields critique the choice of terms and the relationships that have been established between them.

Terms in the AAT are arranged into broad conceptual units called facets as shown in Figure 1. The AAT defines a facet as a mutually exclusive, fundamental class of terms whose members share characteristics that distinguish them from the members of other classes. The faceted approach to index ing language and indexing systems was first introduced by Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan in Colon Classification, first published in 1933.1 In this scheme, knowledge as represented by language is divided into five fundamental classes: Person ality (P), Matter (M), Energy (E), Space (S), and Time (T). These categories may be applied continually throughout all levels of a particular topic. For example, in this scheme "Art"

would be in the Personality facet, but the field of Art could be broken down further into facets derived from PMEST. For example, "Paintings" would belong the to the Matter facet. Taking Ranganathan's scheme further, some discipline specific thesauri have extended the number of possible facets, relating them to the particular subject area of the thesaurus.

AAT facets are predicated on the types of knowledge con cerned with the recording of and access to information in art, architecture, and related disciplines. Thus far, seven facets, along with Time (i.e., Date) and Space (i.e., Geographical Place), have been identified:

Associated Concepts Styles and Periods Physical Attributes Agents Activities Materials Objects

The facets are conceptually organized in a scheme that pro ceeds from abstract concepts to concrete, physical artifacts.

The Associated Concepts facet contains terms for abstract concepts, qualities, and phenomena that relate directly to the study and execution of art and architecture (e.g., adaptive reuse, beauty, balance, connoisseurship), as well as those aligned with other disciplines not directly in the scope of the thesaurus, but that may be used in relation to art or architec

Figure 1. AAT Facets and Hierarchies

ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS FACET /

? Associated Concepts / STYLES AND PERIODS FACET

/ /? Styles and Periods

/ ' PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES FACET

o */ ? Design Attributes

Supporting -. Des? E|ements Hierarchies

\^ . Coio%

\\\ AGENTS FACET \ \

? People and Organizations

\\ ACTIVITIES FACET \ \ ?

Disiciplines * ? Functions

Built Environment

Furnishings and

Equipment

Visual and

Verbal Communication

Events

^ ? Processes and Techniques

\ MATERIALS FACET Materials

OBJECTS FACET Settlements, Systems and Landscapes Built Complexes and Districts Single Built Works and Open Spaces Building Divisions and Site Elements Built Works Components Tools and Equipment Measuring Devices Hardware and Joints Furniture Furnishings Personal Artifacts Containers Culinary Artifacts Musical Instruments Recreational Artifacts Armament Transportation Artifacts Communication Artifacts

Image and Object Genres Drawings Paintings Prints Photographs Sculpture Multi-Media Art Forms Communication Design Exchange Media Book Arts Document Types

= hierarchies to appear in first edition

ture (e.g., metaphor, electricity). Also included are terms for general theories, critical concepts, ideologies, attitudes, and social or cultural movements (e.g., privacy, freedom, social ism, romanticism). The Styles and Periods facet contains terms for concepts

denoting visually distinctive traits assigned by scholars in the

description and classification of man-made works of architec ture, fine arts, or decorative arts. In the Styles and Periods facet, these terms include those derived from the names of peoples or cultures (e.g., Inuit), geographical areas and sites (e.g., French, Angkor Vat), names of rulers (e.g., Louis IV), historical periods (e.g., Xia), as well as terms that are descrip tive or interpretive (e.g., Black-figure, Abstract Expressionism).

The Physical Attributes facet contains terms descriptive of the appearance or quality of artifacts, especially relating to their design or decoration, such as shape attributes (e.g.,

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176 Art Documentation, Winter 1989

square), color attributes (e.g., light green) and other aspects of design (e.g., exterior). Also included are terms for individ ual and repeating design elements such as patterns, motifs and symbols, and areas of decoration (e.g., borders).

The Agents facet contains terms for persons or groups of persons performing a role or engaging in some role or oc cupation (e.g., craftsmen) and generic names of groups and organizations (e.g., guilds).

The Activities facet contains terms for actions, endeavors, and tasks, as well as methods or techniques used to accom plish some end. Included are terms for branches of learning and professional endeavor (e.g., archaeology), conceptually executed processes (e.g., analysis), discrete occurrences and events (e.g., contests), and processes performed on or with materials and objects (e.g., conservation, weaving).

The Materials facet contains terms for naturally or synthet ically derived substances. These terms range from names of raw materials (e.g., iron), functional classes of materials (e.g., adhesives), to manufactured materials and products (e.g., ar tificial ivory) used in the construction of various objects.

The Objects facet contains terms for inanimate entities that are perceptible, especially by touch or sight, and that are usually the product of human activity. Included are terms for built works and elements of the natural environment impor tant to design (e.g., arches, rivers), man-made artifacts, in cluding those with a utilitarian purpose (e.g., tools), and those that are usually associated with aesthetic or symbolic principles (e.g., frescoes).

Each facet is subdivided further into term displays called "hierarchies." Hierarchies may be thought of as subfacets of the general facets. As shown in Figure 1, the Objects facet contains the hierarchies Built Works Components, Furniture, and Drawings, among others, while the Activities facet con tains the hierarchies Functions, Processes and Techniques, Events, and Disciplines. The Objects facet contains the largest number of hierarchies and is where the majority of the terminology resides; thus, the non-object hierarchies are referred to as the "supporting hierarchies." Within the hierarchies terms are arranged according to

genus/species or class/subclass relationships. Broader terms and narrower terms are not explicitly labelled with the stan dard conventions BT and NT. Instead, the relationship of broader term to narrower term is elicited graphically by suc cessive levels of indentation. A term is broader than those which are indented below it and narrower than the term be low which itself is indented. A broader term gives the immediate class or genus to

which the Descriptor belongs in a hierarchy and serves to clarify its meaning. If a term is always a type of, kind of, example of, or manifestation of another term then a true genus-species relationship exists and that genus is assigned as the broader term. For example, houses are always types of dwellings, but not all dwellings are houses. Dwellings also include cave dwellings and apartments. Therefore dwellings is chosen as the broader term, or "parent," of the sibling terms houses, cave dwellings, and apartments.

In the AAT terms have only one broader term. This means that terms are placed in the most generic location. For exam ple, plans are sometimes, but not always, types of architec tural drawings. The term plans therefore is found as a nar rower term to orthographic drawings, since plans are always orthographic. Other possible hierarchical term locations will be referenced through the use of related terms.

Because of the graphic arrangement, hierarchies allow the saurus users to browse closely related terminology and to select terms at appropriate levels of specificity. AAT hier archies are not intended to show the definitive way in which terminology in a particular area ought to be classified. The structure of each hierarchy is based on the most generally accepted organization of concepts in each field as deter mined by the AAT editorial process in consultation with scholars and information-handling practitioners such as col lections managers, catalogers, and indexers. Other arrange

ments, such as those that demonstrate whole/part relation ships (churches and their fixtures, for example) are expressed through Related Term references, which will be added as a further development.

AAT hierarchies are not intended to provide an exhaustive listing of all terminology within their scope. A balance has been sought between enumerating a sufficient number of terms to be useful to current users and developing a classi ficatory structure that will accommodate additional terminol ogy as required by AAT users who contribute to the future growth of the thesaurus by suggesting candidate terms.

Twenty-three of the 40 planned hierarchies are scheduled for publication within 1990. This publication will supersede the draft versions that have been distributed on a by-request basis since 1985. The remaining hierarchies are scheduled for completion in 1992.

In the printed version of the AAT an alphabetical index

provides access to terms in the hierarchies. The alphabetical index is equal in importance to the hierarchies because it provides other information about a term, such as Scope Notes.

The faceted system used in the Thesaurus affects the types of terms enumerated in the thesaurus and how thesaurus terms are applied. The faceted approach was designed to provide an efficient, flexible means of providing for nu merous and varied object and subject descriptions encoun tered by thesaurus users.

Because so much of the terminology in the AAT is object based, many common phrases such as "painted Victorian furniture" are not explicitly listed as thesaurus terms since they contain words that are listed as separate terms from different facets:

painted Victorian furniture (Activities) (Styles and Periods) (Objects)

Following standard thesaurus guidelines, AAT terms repre sent single concepts with precise meanings. Single concepts may be expressed by one word (e.g., broadsides) or by sev eral words (e.g., curtain walls). Because of the faceted scheme, many possible phrases such as "Byzantine churches" or "half-timber craftsman bungalows" are not enumerated as descriptors since they may be postcoordi nated, that is, constructed from the existing vocabulary either at the time of indexing or at the time of retrieval. Toni Pe tersen^ paper describes how this is done generically and specifically within the MARC format. Generally multiword phrases that must be constructed by thesaurus users include the following:

MATERIAL term + an OBJECT term (e.g., charcoal draw ings);

The term charcoal is in the Materials facet. The term draw ings is in the Drawings hierarchy of the Objects facet. STYLE term + OBJECT term (e.g., Ionic columns);

The term Ionic is in the Styles and Periods facet. The term columns is in the Built Works Components hierarchy of the Objects facet. ACTIVITY term + OBJECT term (e.g., painted chairs);

The term painted is in the Processes and Techniques hier archy of the Activities facet. The term chairs is in the Fur niture hierarchy of the Objects facet.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTE term + OBJECT term (e.g., round photographs);

The term round is in the Design Attributes hierarchy of the Physical Attributes facet. The term photographs is in the Sin gle Built Works and Open Spaces hierarchy of the Objects facet.

Multiword phrases consisting of a document type or image modified by other terms in the following instances must also be postcoordinated:

TOPICAL SUBJECT term + FORM/GENRE term (e.g., furni ture pattern books)

In this example, the term furniture is in the Furniture hier archy and the term pattern books is in the Document Types hierarchy. DEPICTION term + FORM/GENRE term (e.g., war photo graphs)

In this example, war is in the Events hierarchy, photographs is in the Photographs hierarchy.

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Art Documentation, Winter 1989 177

Compound terms, often referred to as "bound terms/' are included as Descriptors when they meet one or more of the following conditions:

(1) When the meaning of the term would be lost if its compo nents were broken apart and would lead to false drops in retrieval (e.g., cabinet pictures conveys a different concept than the combination of the separate terms cabinets and pictures). (2) If the compound phrase is encountered so frequently in the literature of the field that it is considered for practical purposes to be a single concept (e.g., painting techniques). (3) If it contains a term that is not a valid term in its own right (e.g., three-point perspective, where "three-point" is not a valid thesaurus term). (4) If the precombined term is the name of an object and is therefore a single concept (e.g., carpenter's squares).

Use of the thesaurus extends to visual resource collections, indexing services, libraries, archives, and museums. This di versity of institutions that have expressed an interest in the Thesaurus reflects the diversity of materials that are of inter est to scholars and other researchers in the fields covered by the AAT. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the application of facets and hierarchies may differ depending on the medium being cataloged or indexed. Archivists may need only a small subset of certain facets. For example, the Objects facet would provide terminology relating to form of material; the Ac tivities facet, especially in the Functions hierarchy, would be used for terms relating to the sphere of activity of the organi zation which created the items being cataloged. Curators of visual materials, on the other hand, may find useful terminol ogy throughout the thesaurus. A study conducted by the AAT in spring of 1989 found that several of those institutions using drafts of the thesaurus based locally developed database field names on AAT facets.2 In preparing recommendations for the use of the Thesaurus in the MARC format, the AAT has found that certain facets relate to particular MARC fields (e.g., 755 (Physical Characteristics) could contain terms from the Materials and Physical Attributes hierarchies. Further ap plication of the AAT in MARC may provide other interesting relationships between access points and AAT facets.

Regardless of the application or type of collection, it is the intent of the AAT to assist thesaurus users in customizing the

vocabulary for media-specific environments, to provide train ing in the use of the vocabulary, and to offer advice in the development of information management and retrieval sys tems that will accommodate faceted, hierarchically arranged vocabulary.

NOTES 1S. R. Ranganathan, Colon Classification (Madras: Madras Library Association, 1933.) There were five subsequent editions, the last of which was published in 1960 and reprinted in 1963 with amendments. A description of a proposed seventh edition written just before Ranganathan died in 1972 appeared in Li

brary Science with a Slant to Documentation 6 (3), September 1979. 2Getty Art History Information Program, Art and Architecture Thesaurus, "AAT Modalities of Use: AAT User Survey," August 8,1988. For example, a ceramics slide collection includes field names for Style, Object Name, Material, Physical Attribute.

Figure 2. Relationship Between AAT Terms and Database Field Types

ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

Local Field Name

Form of Material

Condition

Treatment

Role (of persons associated with the creation of the material) Function / Area of Responsibility

Subject

Relevant AAT Terms

Correspondence, Personal papers. Arti cles of incorporation, Broadside, Di aries, View album, Relief maps, Copies, Environmental impact statements Trade catalogs Mold, Faded, Folded, Torn, Water damage Humidification, Storage, Preservation

Administrators, Author, Editor, States man, Presidents

Conservation, Licensing, Punishing Inventorying, Regulating

Any AAT Term + other authorities, such as LCSH

Figure 3. Relationship Between AAT Terms And Database Field Types

IMAGE COLLECTIONS

Field Type

Image/Object Type

Medium class

Image/Object Aspects

Style/Period

Materials

Processes/Techniques

Tools/Equipment Role (of persons associated

with the object's/image's creation or provenance) Condition

Treatment

Relevant AAT Terms

Transparency, Aerial photograph, Pan notypes, Carbon prints, Cassone paint ings, Icons, Portrait, Landscapes, Forgery

Paintings, Drawings, Prints

Background, One-point perspective, Three-quarter views, Pentimenti

Surrealist, Mannerist, Bai miao, Uki-e, Deccani, Pre-Raphaelite, Orphist, Bauhaus

Ink, Black-and-white film, Watercolor paper, Acrylic, Collodion, Tempera, Charcoal

Hand-colored, Wet collodion process, Impasto, Air-brushed, Microphotogra phy, Diazo process, Computer-aided design Pen, Technical pen, Colored pencil Art dealer, Delineator, Artist, Donor, Ar chitectural firm, Photographer

Torn, Discolored, Faded, Water damage Humidification, Cleaning, Inpainting, Lining

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