On 8 June 2026, Dr. Angela Dreßen (Villa I Tatti, Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy) will give a guest lecture entitled “Crystal clear? – Addressing crystals through museum data endpoints”. The lecture will take place from 4.15 pm to 6.30 pm in the Philosophikum (Domplatz 23, 48143 Münster), Room 201.

Research based on museum data is a relatively new field of study, which so far has gone mostly unnoticed. Museum data belongs to the realm of Research Data and can be accessed through Data Mining, thus providing a bridge between Art History and Data Science. The lecture will give a brief introduction into the process of Data Mining with its different workflows, while addressing the complex structures this is based on. This includes the difficulties museums are having in providing such a service, and the struggles on the researchers’ side in mingling between different procedures and standards. In the end, the query result is a very heterogeneous dataset which needs substantial data modelling.

Compared to an analogous study three years ago, Artificial Intelligence is now a crucial help, although a lot of data querying and modelling still remains as a significant effort for the researcher. The concrete focus is laid on a query of rock crystals with a dataset of more than 900 objects coming from eight museums. These rock crystals are queried through the arch of time from 500 to 1700 and through different continents. The idea is to investigate its wide usage in terms of objects and places, trade routes and regional preferences. An analogue study done on ivory objects three years ago will eventually become a good comparison for results and overlapping historical circumstances.