I took an interest in kinetic sculpture after watching several short films of the artist Arthur Ganson, specifically Machine with Oil. I began thinking about the multiple elements of what was going on in the films, and how there were several different components coming together to form one piece of art. In “Machine with Oil” specifically, there were several elements that stood out to me as being extremely important in looking at the film as a piece of art: the sound of the machine as it is running; the visual effect of the oil against the metallic components; and the physics and electronics knowledge required to have a piece like this function. This led me to think farther on the idea of the multiple layers of art as being similar to the multiple layers of a subject heading, and I became curious as to if an exploration of kinetic sculpture of a subject heading could be as layered and complex as a piece of kinetic sculpture itself.

My primary resources were The Getty Research Institute and Art Index. Both these information services provided more than adequate levels of information about kinetic sculpture (although Getty does not have a citation for kinetic sculpture - instead, I used their listing of mobiles. I compared these subject-specific databases to records found in a much more general database, the Library of Congress. I found that all three locations held impressive records for materials related to kinetic sculpture.

Additionally, I was surprised that while the LOC provided much broader search terms than the Art Index or two of the other art-specific databases I looked at, the LOC records were easier to understand. It seemed that with the subject-specific databases, it was easier to find yourself down a sort of database rabbit hole. One record, for example, provided the subject heading “robots – design and construction.” While this was an obvious element of the record itself, it was a subject heading that lead to other materials that had absolutely nothing to do with kinetic sculpture (or, arguably, art in general). This, as well as the complications listed below, bring up a number of issues with subject headings that are more than likely unavoidable as we progress through the digital age.

While I initially thought that kinetic sculpture as a subject heading would be quite specific, I found that there were many more sub-layers - the majority were specific artists or art installations, but there were occasional secondary art forms (such as mobiles) that I had not initially considered sub-headings to kinetic sculpture. This was an excellent part of my research, and wonderfully emphasized the point of subject headings as well as subject-specific databases.

I found that there were several subject headings that seemed to be used interchangeably, depending on the record being examined. Both kinetic art and kinetic sculpture seemed to have the same search value. Sculpture – modern and art – modern likewise prove similar results.

There were a number of subject headings that I found interesting under the umbrella search of “kinetic sculpture.” Robots was one of these, as well as physics, architecture, and art historians. Some subject headings made sense in connection to the original search, like mobiles and wire sculpture.

The primary complication of this project was finding subject headings themselves. Many articles and books, particularly those that are more recent in their publication, often had no subject headings attached to them in the database records. Occasionally, a look at the actual article would provide a keyword listing that the author or publisher had created, but those keywords did not always make it to the record.

Additionally, some artifacts included subject headings that were difficult. Multiple times, the only provided subject heading was an author's name. Occasional vague subject headings like “kinetic sculpture – Canada” were frequently seen. Finally, there was one subject heading that was found in many records, but which further analysis of only led to dead ends. Plastik appears quite often in the record, but searches for it only conclude that it is the German or French for plastic. No record of a form of sculpture specifically called “plastik” could be found, although the immediate suspicion is that plastik refers to sculptures that are mostly, or entirely, constructed from plastic.

This leads into a smaller, yet obvious issue of using multiple languages in one record. A record published in Canada may contain subject headings in both English as well as French - such as Kinetic sculpture – Canada alongisde sculpture cinétique (cinétique being “kinetic” in French). Non-French speakers may struggle with that, and find that by doing additional searches for terms in languages other than English only pull up articles or books in that other language. This all creates additional barriers in access, as well as enunciates the need for providing translations when possible, and using as many subject headings as possible on a digital record.