Distant Viewing Toolkit: A Python Package for the Analysis of Visual Culture

Abstract

The Distant Viewing Toolkit is a Python package for the computational analysis of visual culture. It addresses the challenges of working with moving images through the automated extraction and visualization of metadata summarizing the content (e.g., people/actors, dialogue, scenes, objects) and style (e.g., shot angle, shot length, lighting, framing, sound) of time-based media. This toolkit is optimized for two purposes: (1) scholarly inquiry of visual culture from the humanities and social sciences, and (2) search and discovery of collections within libraries, archives, and museums.