Toward a Unified Art ID: Reviewing International Standards for Art Identification and Provenance Management in the New Digital Age

Author Information

Daniel Chun, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Xuanyi Lyu, University of Toronto, Canada
Karen Gao, Yale University, United States
Zara Warne, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Abstract

As our world becomes more digitised, so must our methods in categorizing the data. Digital media and content creation have always suffered from the threat of misinformation and a lack of transparency. Furthermore, AI has risen with meteoric speed, outstripping our abilities to carefully extricate it from human-made media, further exacerbating the issue of data privacy and misrepresentation. Several standards have been created to help organizations verify digital media and establish its provenance, but a comprehensive comparison of all the standards has yet to be conducted. This paper provides a comparative analysis of six major initiatives: Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), Art Identification Standard (AIS), International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), Linked Open Data (LOD), Linked.art and Digital Object Identification (DOI). We examine their approaches to content authentication, metadata interoperability, stakeholder communities, provenance tracking, and anti-piracy measures. Through analyzing the similarities and differences between these standards, we highlight their strengths and gaps. Our findings underscore the need for a more universal framework that integrates the best practices of current standards. We conclude by proposing considerations toward a unified art identification system that can be easily applied to art images worldwide, ensuring trust and transparency in the global digital art ecosystem.

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