The Art of SPARQLing

Asking questions of graphs using Wikidata and the SemLab Wikibase

​

Workshop Materials

Slides: bit.ly/3uwILik

Handout: bit.ly/49prPcs

​

Agenda

1. Introductions
2. How to ask a graph a question
3. Getting to Know a Wikidata Entry
4. Artist data in Wikidata and SemLab
5. Asking Wikidata questions - query service & query builder
6. Activity time: do queries, explore, and even edit!

Introductions

• Name (and pronouns if you’d like to share)
• What program are you in at Pratt?
• What motivated you to come to the workshop today? What are you hoping to learn?

What is Wikidata?

Asking questions of a graph

Central Park

Washington Square Park

Prospect Park

park

Brooklyn

Manhattan

New York City

Bethesda Fountain

Washington Square Park Fountain

Burnett Memorial Fountain

fountain

is a

is a

is a

is a

is a

is a

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

is in

Getting to know a Wikidata entry

Getting to know a Wikidata entry

Artist data in Wikidata and SemLab

Let’s ask Wikidata a question…

Wikidata Query Builder edition

https://query.wikidata.org/querybuilder/?uselang=en

• Who are artists who went to Black Mountain College?
• Are these results accurate? Could they be improved?

Let’s ask Wikidata a question…

Wikidata Query Builder edition

https://query.wikidata.org/querybuilder/?uselang=en

• What works by Joan Jonas involved mirrors?
• What works by other artists involved mirrors?
• Are these results accurate? Could they be improved?

Your turn: Let’s ask Wikidata a question…

Wikidata Query Builder edition

Try asking Wikidata one of these questions:

• What exhibitions happened at institution X or involved artist X?
• Which artists received a Guggenheim Fellowship?
• Where was artist X educated?
• What artists have archives at institution X?
• Where does artist X have archives?

Hint: see property search resources on the handout to find properties to use

Let’s ask a question…

Wikidata and Wikibase Query Service edition

Feel free to observe, or follow along using the Query Service Walkthrough/Sequence doc: bit.ly/3UPNHJz

Activity time!

Querying

​

• Explore and/or modify sample queries from the Joan Jonas Knowledge Base
• Explore and/or modify sample queries from the Semantic Lab
• Explore and/or modify sample queries from the Rhizome ArtBase
• Try asking Wikidata or the Semantic Lab Wikibase a question from earlier

Wikidata editing

• Add references to Wikidata entries that need them
• Work on some tasks from relevant Wikidata projects:
• Wikidata:WikiProject Sum of All Paintings
• 2024 Art + Feminism task list (Wikipedia-focused, but you could work on Wikidata items!)

thank you!

Please let us know what you thought of the workshop by filling out our feedback form: bit.ly/49EbzVr