CUDAN Open Lab 2026 Easter Special

When: 2026-04-06 18:00-19:00 (Tallinn time)
Where: online

In this CUDAN Open Lab Easter Special,
in place of a live seminar session,
we present a video double feature,
Cultural Data Analytics, then & now,
how it started, how it is going…

QUICK LINKS:

Schich, Park, Ahn (2013): Cultural Network Science or How it Started.
https://youtu.be/_MDwv1NPT4o
Ohm (2025): Designing Processes and Tools to Research Similarity Spaces of Visual Collections. https://youtu.be/eZay1OccxxI

EASTER SPECIAL DETAILS 1/2:

Title
Cultural Network Science or How it Started (2013)
(recorded live 2013-11-25, published 2026-04-06).
https://youtu.be/_MDwv1NPT4o

Speakers:
Maximilian Schich, Professor for Cultural Data Analytics, Tallinn University, Estonia
Juyong Park, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Culture Technology, KAIST, Korea
Yong-Yeol Ahn, Quantitative Foundation Distinguished Professor, University of Virginia, USA

Abstract: This video was recorded in November 2013, when Max, JP, and YY met in person at the newly founded Cultural Science Lab at the University of Texas at Dallas to discuss opportunities and challenges regarding the quantification of cultural research. The conversation starts with the statement that ‘This is the first video in a series which we’d like to extend to multiple’. This intention motivated and eventually manifested in the Open Lab Seminar series, part of the CUDAN ERA Chair iniative at Tallinn University, which has accumulated over a hundred video recordings since Fall 2020. The series video features a diverse spectrum of speakers from across the globe, whose contributions help co-define the emerging landscape of an increasingly systematic science of art and culture. The visualisation in the background of the 2013 video captures birth-to-death migration of 153.000 artists and was published one year after the video recording as figure S7 in ‘A Network Framework of Cultural History’ in Science Magazine.

Websites:
https://www.schich.info
https://pure.kaist.ac.kr/en/persons/juyong-park/
https://yyahn.com/

Paper:
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1240064

EASTER SPECIAL DETAILS 2/2

Title
Designing Processes and Tools to Research Similarity Spaces of Visual Collections.
(recorded live 2025-06-11, published 2026-04-06). https://youtu.be/eZay1OccxxI

Speaker:
Tillmann Ohm, CUDAN Junior Research Fellow, Tallinn University, Estonia (2020-2024)
now Postdoctoral Researcher, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (since 2025)

Abstract: This video was recorded in June 2026, when Tillmann Ohm defended his PhD, prepared as CUDAN Junior Research Fellow under the supervision of CUDAN ERA Chair holder Maximilian Schich at Tallinn University, with Lauren Tilton & Iyad Rahwan serving as defence opponents. In the defence talk Tillmann summarizes several papers published in collaboration with a large fraction of the CUDAN ERA Chair research group. The talk itself is a striking showcase of fluid visual argument harnessing the jointly developed Collection Space Navigator. Further highlights include our Compression Ensembles method, which captures image similarity without AI training. The capstone is Tillmann’s award-winning “fruit-SALAD” paper, presenting a benchmark dataset to compare the aesthetic vs semantic perception of AI models and algorithms. In sum, the presentation exemplifies that Cultural Data Analytics can operate in the mode of a multidisciplinary science lab.

Website:
https://tillmannohm.com/
https://cudan.tlu.ee/

Papers:
Compression Ensembles: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00397-3
Collection Space Navigator: https://collection-space-navigator.github.io/
fruit-SALAD: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04529-4
Newsreel framework: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02886-w
Soviet View: https://doi.org/10.22148/001c.118495

Other CUDAN OLS videos:
https://cudan.tlu.ee/videos/
https://www.youtube.com/@CUDANLab