HCJun 15, 2023
ScrollTimes: Tracing the Provenance of Paintings as a Window into HistoryWei Zhang, Wong Kam-Kwai, Yitian Chen et al.
The study of cultural artifact provenance, tracing ownership and preservation, holds significant importance in archaeology and art history. Modern technology has advanced this field, yet challenges persist, including recognizing evidence from diverse sources, integrating sociocultural context, and enhancing interactive automation for comprehensive provenance analysis. In collaboration with art historians, we examined the handscroll, a traditional Chinese painting form that provides a rich source of historical data and a unique opportunity to explore history through cultural artifacts. We present a three-tiered methodology encompassing artifact, contextual, and provenance levels, designed to create a "Biography" for handscroll. Our approach incorporates the application of image processing techniques and language models to extract, validate, and augment elements within handscroll using various cultural heritage databases. To facilitate efficient analysis of non-contiguous extracted elements, we have developed a distinctive layout. Additionally, we introduce ScrollTimes, a visual analysis system tailored to support the three-tiered analysis of handscroll, allowing art historians to interactively create biographies tailored to their interests. Validated through case studies and expert interviews, our approach offers a window into history, fostering a holistic understanding of handscroll provenance and historical significance.
CVJul 26, 2023
Computational Approaches for Traditional Chinese Painting: From the "Six Principles of Painting" PerspectiveWei Zhang, Jian-Wei Zhang, Kam Kwai Wong et al.
Traditional Chinese Painting (TCP) is an invaluable cultural heritage resource and a unique visual art style. In recent years, increasing interest has been placed on digitalizing TCPs to preserve and revive the culture. The resulting digital copies have enabled the advancement of computational methods for structured and systematic understanding of TCPs. To explore this topic, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 92 pieces of literature. We examined the current use of computer technologies on TCPs from three perspectives, based on numerous conversations with specialists. First, in light of the "Six Principles of Painting" theory, we categorized the articles according to their research focus on artistic elements. Second, we created a four-stage framework to illustrate the purposes of TCP applications. Third, we summarized the popular computational techniques applied to TCPs. The framework also provides insights into potential applications and future prospects, with professional opinion. The list of surveyed publications and related information is available online at https://ca4tcp.com.
MLMar 5
Bayesian Supervised Causal ClusteringLuwei Wang, Nazir Lone, Sohan Seth
Finding patient subgroups with similar characteristics is crucial for personalized decision-making in various disciplines such as healthcare and policy evaluation. While most existing approaches rely on unsupervised clustering methods, there is a growing trend toward using supervised clustering methods that identify operationalizable subgroups in the context of a specific outcome of interest. We propose Bayesian Supervised Causal Clustering (BSCC), with treatment effect as outcome to guide the clustering process. BSCC identifies homogenous subgroups of individuals who are similar in their covariate profiles as well as their treatment effects. We evaluate BSCC on simulated datasets as well as real-world dataset from the third International Stroke Trial to assess the practical usefulness of the framework.