Exploring the biography and artworks of Picasso with interactive calendars and timelines

Abstract

Searching for resources that are related to time periods or events can be frustrating and even problematic since it is often bound to keyword matching or prior knowledge of the exact dates of occurrence. Additionally, the ordered and itemized list that is often returned as a result is unable to provide the required affordances and constraints that users need and desire to conduct scholarly research properly. The following thesis proposes the implementation of timelines and calendar-based interfaces to browse and search through the life events and artworks documented in the Online Picasso Project. The affordances, constraints and inherent visual nature of the proposed interfaces aid scholars and general users in answering questions regarding the relationship between life events and artworks of the famous Spanish artist. The temporal interfaces are used specifically in the context of the Online Picasso Project and provide several advantages over standard HTML interfaces.