Application Programming Interface, or API is a part of a database or server that allows a user to request and send information. For instance, The Weather Channel allows developers to access forecasts as data. Thus, different programs and applications (such as the iPhone Weather app) can retrieve this data through requests.
The Harvard Art Museums has its own API, accessible and free to all. The museum’s API contains all of its information on artworks, artists, exhibitions, publications, galleries, and the categorizations used to describe them. The data comes from three primary sources:
The primary source of data, TMS consists of information manually inputted by museum staff.
Used to determine website traffic, Fathom Analytics data provides insight in to how frequently artworks are accessed online.
Utilizing multiple computer vision services and large language models, artificial intelligence data exposes how computers interpret artworks in the collection.
Nevertheless, by recognizing its incongruities, the user can work through messy data to access untold stories and unsolved questions.
