With this in mind, we concluded that the most meaningful (and satisfying) result to our users was to group the second and third categories together into a new gene titled “
Light as Subject.”
Into this “Light as Subject” gene we included both abstract Dan Flavin works alongside Robert Longo’s
Study for Underwater Lights, 2010. Although both works look different, they both take light as their subject matter in an specific and visually apparent way. To accompany this new subject matter gene, we created a new medium gene simply titled “
Light,” which captures all works that incorporate such things as LED light, Flame/Fire, Lightbulb, Neon, etc.
In conjunction with these two new genes, we decided against creating a gene that would incorporate works which concern the visual effect of light on the world. It seemed way too broad and in this way less informative as a gene than others might be. However, in the future we may consider again the possibility for having such a gene, especially due to its art-historical significance. We are still keeping track of these artists and artworks for further research.