Left-hand preference in visual artists: A pre-registered observational study on Instagram

The notion of an increased incidence of left handers among architects and visual artists has inspired both scientific theory building and popular discussion. However, a systematic exploration of the available publications provides, at best, modest evidence for this claim. The present preregistered observational study was designed to reinvestigate the postulated association by examining hand preference of visual artists who share their artistic activities as short video clips ("reels") on the social media platform Instagram. Determining individual hand preference based on five reels for each of N = 468 artists, we identified 42 (8.97%) left handers, suggesting an incidence which is below but statistical comparable to the 10.6% expected for the general population (χ2 = 1.30; p = .25; Cohen's w = 0.05). Also, we did not find any support for the notion that the art created by left-handed artists is of higher quality than art of right handers, as no difference in public endorsement or interest were observed (reflected by the number of likes per post or account followers). Taken together, we do not find any support for difference in artistic engagement or quality between left and right handers.

An Examination of Classical Art Impact and Popularity through Social Media Emotion Analysis of Art Memes and Museum Posts

On Instagram, we have all seen memes. Honestly, what would you do if you encountered a meme in a museum? The purpose of the study is to evaluate the nexus between posts uploaded by museum visitors and emotions, as well as the popularity of artworks and memes. We gathered N = 4.526 (N = 1.222 for memes and N = 3.304 for museum posts) entire posts using API. We selected the total number of likes, comments, frequency, nwords, and text emotions as indicators for several supervised machine learning tasks. Moreover, we used a ranking algorithm to measure meme and artwork popularity. Our experiments revealed the most prevalent emotions in both the memes dataset and museum posts dataset. The ranking task showed the most popular meme and museum post, respectively, that can influence the aesthetic experience and its popularity. This study provided further insight into the social media sphere that has had a significant effect on the aesthetic experience of museums and artwork’s popularity. As a final point, we anticipate that our outcomes will serve as a springboard for future studies in social media, art, and cultural analytics.

Social Media Analytics as a Tool for Cultural Spaces—The Case of Twitter Trending Topics

We are entering an era in which online personalities and personas will grow faster and faster. People are tending to use the Internet, and social media especially, more frequently and for a wider variety of purposes. In parallel, a number of cultural spaces have already decided to invest in marketing and message spreading through the web and the media. Growing their audience, or locating the appropriate group of people to share their information, remains a tedious task within the chaotic environment of the Internet. The investment is mainly financial—usually large—and directed to advertisements. Still, there is much space for research and investment in analytics that can provide evidence considering the spreading of the word and finding groups of people interested in specific information or trending topics and influencers. In this paper, we present a part of a national project that aims to perform an analysis of Twitter’s trending topics. The main scope of the analysis is to provide a basic ordering on the topics based on their “importance”. Based on this, we clarify how cultural institutions can benefit from such an analysis in order to empower their online presence.

The Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped: Measuring Public Installation Art Engagement and Popularity through Social Media Data Analysis

Social media is the most popular canvas to engage with art. In this study, we provide a different angle, on how an artistic installation on a world-renowned monument—such as Paris’ Arc de Triomphe—can emotionally affect viewers and potentially increase the popularity of the artwork. We collected N = 7078 Instagram and N = 3776 Twitter posts of the Arc de Triomphe as wrapped (installation) and unwrapped using APIs. As engagement indicators for several supervised machine learning experiments, we chose the total number of likes, comments, shares, text sentiment, and so on. Our findings revealed that people were captivated by the poetic installation. Based on the results, we discovered that the sentiments of triumph and surprise prevailed in datasets of the Arc de Triomphe as unwrapped. The same sentiments of triumph and surprise were most prevalent in datasets as wrapped, as well, but with higher scores. Furthermore, we have provided evidence of public art experience and engagement in the social media era. This research, we believe, will be useful in future studies of social media through the lens of public art and popularity. We hope that our findings will stimulate future research in the fields of art curatorship, cultural heritage management, marketing and communication, aesthetics, and culture analytics.

Revealing Social Media Phenomenon in Time of COVID-19 Pandemic for Boosting Start-Up Businesses through Digital Ecosystem

When the world was engulfed by a COVID-19 pandemic crisis, various activities could not be carried out normally. Activities may continue from home during a crisis by the use of a smartphone through the internet, because almost all people have their own smartphone, without requiring additional purchase of hardware. For formal learning, people can take the opportunity to use social media platforms to undertake conversations easily by using smart phones, even tablets. Teenagers or adults who are still studying in higher education institutions can undertake continuous learning for their work assignments. For example, they can use these tools to communicate through social media such as the WhatsApp, Telegram, Zoom, Microsoft Team, and Edmodo apps to connect with friends and lecturers. This research reveals trends of digital social media security and usability in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, such as working from home, establishing a start-up, improving business processes and conducting online business within the digital ecosystem. The result is interesting and there are many uses of social media which have been addressed in this study during the COVID-19 pandemic for business purposes. The various social media platforms have different features that are available for use by subscribers, and also make it easier for people to do business. This is mainly due to the fact that they open up the global market and also make it cheaper to advertise. The government as well as the private sector has been in the forefront when it comes to the use of social media. Maintaining a good online presence is one of the key aspects that determine the success of start-up companies. This is due to the fact that most customers usually rely on the customer reviews in determining the ability of a company to meet the needs of clients. The main reason why most companies set up a customer relations department that is mandated with the responsibility of responding to customer feedback on various online platforms. On the other hand, the increased use of social media has brought new challenges when it comes to the security of information. Users must, therefore, secure their servers and technology from external and internal threats. One of the strategies used is the use of passwords to log into a portal where each person authorized to access the portal is provided with a password that is unique and known only by the user. The study has covered all these areas in detail including the use of database management systems in an organization or individual.