Information Technology and Culture: The world's largest decorative arts structured digital archive created in Russia

An innovative Ornamika.ru project to be launched in Russia. An open archive contains more than 7 thousand patterns of authentic Russian graphics of the IX–XX centuries.

The Ornamika.ru creators handled and structured the available data on arts and crafts in the history of the Russian state. It took more than two years to develop the project. A team of 26 specialists (designers, illustrators, and development engineers) collected patterns of 20 kinds in more than 200 techniques and styles. The archive has been launched in Russian, the English and Chinese versions will start in the next six months.

Each archive object is supplied by a card with detailed information. A search can be made according to the following features: geography, elements, and composition of the pattern, types, and techniques of decorative art, as well as type of ornamental object.

The most difficult part of the archive creating is to transfer information to the database efficiently. The structure of each source is unique, so it demands a manual transfer of each item. The result is checked by two specialists.

In 2020, Ornamika.ru launches a series of the offline exhibitions and master classes. The first event will be an interactive robotic installation, in which two modern industrial robots will embroider a 300-meter-long fabric for two months.