https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/8 2026-04-03T22:09:22Z 2026-04-03T22:09:22Z Lemmers, Frederic Ott, Morgane Hermans, Sébastien Baetens, Jan Truyen, Fred Delville, Michel Bawin, Julie https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/14650 2026-04-01T07:44:37Z

ARTPRESSE - An intermedial study of Belgian art as a networked structure seen through the lens of the mass media magazines in the interbellum years - BRAIN RESEARCH PROJECT Contract - B2/191/P2 - FINAL REPORT Lemmers, Frederic; Ott, Morgane; Hermans, Sébastien; Baetens, Jan; Truyen, Fred; Delville, Michel; Bawin, Julie The Artpresse project (2020–2025) was a five-year interdisciplinary collaboration between KBR, KU Leuven, and ULiège, investigating the networked structure of the Belgian art world during the interwar period. By leveraging mass-market magazines as a primary lens, the project sought to map the cultural landscape of the interbellum through both Dutch-speaking and Francophone periodical collections. The central objective was to bridge the gap between traditional art history and digital heritage, exploring how large-scale digitized corpora can reveal patterns of cultural representation, artistic reception, and circulation across linguistic and ideological boundaries. At the heart of Artpresse is a significant archival component. The project facilitated the large-scale digitization and processing of over 750,000 pages from KBR’s historical periodical collections. This extensive corpus is now fully accessible in full-text search mode via the Belgica Periodicals platform and stored in KBR’s Media Stock for long-term preservation. Beyond digital accessibility, the research placed a strong emphasis on the material and editorial dimensions of the magazines, with specific attention paid to printing techniques. Archival research complemented this analysis, providing crucial insights into the interconnected networks of publishers and printers that shaped the Belgian media landscape. A key academic output of the project is a forthcoming doctoral dissertation at ULiège focusing on the representation of fine arts within a curated sub-corpus of 17 family magazines published between 1929 and 1936. This research is supported by a comprehensive illustrated and indexed catalogue, providing a critical selection and methodic description of the visual and textual contents. The findings of Artpresse underscore the vital importance, and the inherent methodological challenges, of studying and describing periodical collections. The project successfully demonstrated that while these “middlebrow” sources are essential for understanding modern heritage culture, their sheer volume and heterogeneous nature require robust digital infrastructures and precise metadata standards. Ultimately, Artpresse has not only enriched the digital accessibility of Belgian press periodical heritage but also established a rigorous framework for future quantitative and qualitative studies of the 20th-century press.

Chambers, Sally Lemmers, Frédéric Verbruggen, Christophe Verstockt, Steven Van Hulle, Dirk Pham, Thuy-An Vandendyck, Christina Birkholz, Julie M. Ali, Dilawar Bekius, Lamyk Ducatteeuw, Vincent Deseure, Brecht Lu, Tan https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/14473 2025-12-09T09:29:32Z

DATA-KBR-BE: Facilitating data-level access to KBR’s collections for Open Science: Final Report Chambers, Sally; Lemmers, Frédéric; Verbruggen, Christophe; Verstockt, Steven; Van Hulle, Dirk; Pham, Thuy-An; Vandendyck, Christina; Birkholz, Julie M.; Ali, Dilawar; Bekius, Lamyk; Ducatteeuw, Vincent; Deseure, Brecht; Lu, Tan The aim of DATA-KBR-BE: facilitating data-level access to KBR’s Collections for Open Science project was to optimise KBR’s existing ICT infrastructure to stimulate sustainable data-level access to KBR’s digitised and born-digital collections for digital humanities research. For the project, research teams at the universities of Ghent (GhentCDH and IDLab) and Antwerp (ACDC) worked closely together with the digitisation, collections and ICT experts at KBR to co-design two interdisciplinary research scenarios. An additional research scenario led by ULB/KBR (CAMille, Centre for Archives on the Media and Information, ULB-KBR) was added during the project. On the basis of these research scenarios, relevant thematic datasets from KBR’s digitised historical newspaper collection, BelgicaPress were extracted for reuse and analysis using digital humanities methods, and published on the KBR Data Platform, which was developed during the project. This final report provides a comprehensive overview of the project starting with a summary of the state of the art and objectives of the project, followed by the methodology and the activities carried out during the project and concluding with the presentation of the scientific results, recommendations, and opportunities for further research. Additionally, the dissemination and outreach activities are outlined, along with the publications that have resulted from the project.; Het doel van DATA-KBR-BE: Verbeterde toegang op dataniveau tot de gedigitaliseerde en born-digital collecties van KBR voor onderzoek in de digital humanities was om de bestaande ICT-infrastructuur van KBR te optimaliseren om duurzame toegang op dataniveau tot de gedigitaliseerde en born-digital-collecties van KBR voor digital humanities onderzoek te stimuleren. Voor het project werkten onderzoeksteams van de universiteiten van Gent (GhentCDH en IDLab) en Antwerpen (ACDC) nauw samen met de digitaliserings-, collectie- en ICT-experts van KBR om twee interdisciplinaire onderzoeksscenario's te ontwerpen. Een extra onderzoeksscenario onder leiding van ULB/KBR (CAMille, Centrum voor Archieven over Media en Informatie, ULB-KBR) werd tijdens het project toegevoegd. Op basis van deze onderzoeksscenario's werden relevante thematische datasets uit de gedigitaliseerde historische krantencollectie van KBR, BelgicaPress, geëxtraheerd voor hergebruik en analyse met behulp van methoden van digitale geesteswetenschappen, en gepubliceerd op het KBR Data Platform dat tijdens het project werd ontwikkeld. Dit eindrapport biedt een uitgebreid overzicht van het project, beginnend met een samenvatting van de stand van zaken en doelstellingen van het project, gevolgd door de methodologie en de activiteiten die tijdens het project zijn uitgevoerd en eindigend met de presentatie van de wetenschappelijke resultaten, aanbevelingen en mogelijkheden voor verder onderzoek. Daarnaast worden de verspreidings- en outreach-activiteiten geschetst, samen met de publicaties die uit het project zijn voortgekomen.; L'objectif du projet DATA-KBR-BE : Amélioration de l’accès en ligne des collections numérisées et nées numériques de KBR sous forme de données structurées pour la recherche en matière d’humanités numériques était d'optimiser l'infrastructure ICT existante de KBR afin de stimuler l'accès durable aux données des collections numérisées et nés numériques de KBR pour la recherche en humanités numériques. Pour ce projet, les équipes de recherche des universités de Gand (GhentCDH et IDLab) et d'Anvers (ACDC) ont travaillé en étroite collaboration avec les experts en numérisation, en collections et en ICT de KBR afin de concevoir conjointement deux scénarios de recherche interdisciplinaires. Un scénario de recherche supplémentaire dirigé par l'ULB/KBR (CAMille, Centre d'archives sur les médias et l'information, ULB-KBR) a été ajouté au cours du projet. Sur la base de ces scénarios de recherche, des ensembles de données thématiques pertinentes ont été extraits de la collection de journaux historiques numérisés de KBR, BelgicaPress, pour être réutilisés et analysés à l'aide de méthodes d'humanités numériques, et publiés sur la plateforme KBR Data, qui a été développée dans le cadre du projet. Ce rapport final fournit une vue d'ensemble du projet en commençant par un résumé de l'état de l'art et des objectifs du projet, suivi de la méthodologie et des activités menées au cours du projet et se terminant par la présentation des résultats scientifiques, des recommandations et des opportunités de recherche future. En outre, les activités de diffusion et de vulgarisation sont décrites, ainsi que les publications issues du projet.

Vercruysse, Bas Birkholz, Julie M. Crucifix, Benoît Dejasse, Erwin Hermans, Sébastien Thirukokaranam Chandrasekar, Krishna Kumar https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/14472 2025-12-09T08:55:56Z

Uncovering Interwar Comics: The Challenge of Labeling Graphics in Belgian Weekly Magazines Vercruysse, Bas; Birkholz, Julie M.; Crucifix, Benoît; Dejasse, Erwin; Hermans, Sébastien; Thirukokaranam Chandrasekar, Krishna Kumar Comics in Belgian weekly magazines remain understudied due to their fragmentary presence and the challenges of retrieval within large periodical collections. While comics are crucial artifacts of visual culture, their marginal status in general-interest magazines and their multimodal nature hinder both their discoverability and scholarly analysis. This article addresses the need for systematic identification of comics in mass-digitized archives by developing a semi-automatic detection workflow grounded in computer vision and object detection techniques. Drawing on a representative corpus of six general-interest illustrated magazines published in Belgium between 1934 and 1940, the study applies a distant viewing approach using YOLO models to detect and label comics alongside related visual categories such as cartoons, photographs, and advertisements. The methodology combines expert-driven annotation, collaborative labeling with weighted majority voting, and model evaluation to fine-tune visual classification. Our results highlight the conceptual and technical complexities of defining comics computationally, the importance of contextual metadata, and the benefits of hierarchical and iterative model training. The proposed workflow not only enhances access to hidden visual materials in historical magazines but also contributes to broader discussions on the remediation of cultural heritage collections and the role of computational methods in comics studies.

Moors, Marianne Lieber, Sven Folie, Clara Goethals, Ewoud Sirjacobs, Timothy Van Camp, Ann https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/14051 2025-06-16T06:17:05Z

BELTRANS status report fourth year Moors, Marianne; Lieber, Sven; Folie, Clara; Goethals, Ewoud; Sirjacobs, Timothy; Van Camp, Ann