This study sets out to analyse the artistic materials used in the maritime Southeast Asian manuscript collection at the British Library. To gain a full understanding of how artistic practises may have developed over time and changed between regions, it is necessary to perform large scale scientific analysis. Visible/NIR spectral imaging is an efficient method of collecting spectral reflectance data which can be used to distinguish different materials. Recent advancements in automatic data collection have meant that the volume of data collected has greatly increased, making traditional approaches to data analysis impossible to perform in a timely manner. Machine learning provides a viable solution to this as it can be used to automatically cluster millions of spectra into smaller, more manageable numbers of distinct spectral groups. Self-organising Maps are used as the building blocks of an algorithm which can perform clustering of large collections of spectral imaging data. Spectral reflectance alone is often not enough to perform pigment identification, consequently other complementary techniques are required. Advances in spectral imaging mean that each of these complementary techniques has a corresponding imaging modality. The machine learning approach developed in this project can be adapted to allow for the clustering of multimodal spectral imaging data including VIS/NIR hyperspectral imaging, macro-X-Ray fluorescence mapping, macro-Raman mapping, and Fourier transform infrared mapping. For multimodal clustering, each modality can be clustered individually and then brought together to produce a single cluster map which is a more refined representation of the material distribution than that produced from any individual spectral imaging modality. A visualisation tool has also been developed for the easy interpretation and interrogation of spectral imaging data cubes and cluster maps for entire collections. Both the visualisation tool and clustering method will be made accessible to the cultural heritage community through an online DIGILAB platform.
The complementary use of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping, spectral imaging, and Raman mapping, allows for the analysis and identification of important artistic materials used in the production and illustration of illuminated manuscripts. This project uses combined non-invasive imaging techniques to analyse 17th – 19th century manuscripts from the British Library’s Southeast Asia Collections so that more can be understood about the adoption and evolution of artistic materials and techniques used in Maritime Southeast Asia. Using multiple different imaging techniques has shown to provide positive results, however, a consequence of this is the collection of large amounts of data, necessitating the automatic and unsupervised analytical techniques used in machine learning. Data collected in-situ at the British Library using macro-XRF mapping, macro-Raman mapping, and Spectral Imaging, will be analysed using a range of machine learning techniques to cluster pixel information representing materials used in southeast Asian manuscripts.
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