Dublin Core has a subject element. But what constitutes a subject?
Two points on this:
- Subject-hood is a complex notion. As pointed out by Birger Hjørland included in this concept can be both is-ness and about-ness. LIS theory can say to divide these concepts, but if Dublin Core as a descriptive framework does not allow this, then the notion of subjecthood should be assumed to include both notions.
- Pictures (still images, including paintings) are complex when evaluating their subject hood. First, when a picture depicts something then it is reasonable to say that the picture is about that thing, as well as the picture is something...
I am suggesting that Dublin Core as a standard does not distinguish between about-ness and is-ness with regard to subject. And to further make matters complicated about-ness and is-ness merge more in visual media than in other types of print based media.
The following articles indirectly address the distinction of about-ness and is-ness or address about-ness in visual media.
Rushton, M. Public Funding of Controversial Art. Journal of Cultural Economics 24, 267–282 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007682121108
Wall, J. M. (2005). The Medium & the Message: Theology and Film. Theology Today, 62(1), 74–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/004057360506200109
Wanda Klenczon & Paweł Rygiel (2014) Librarian Cornered by Images, or How to Index Visual Resources, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 52:1, 42-61, DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2013.848123
in a book
Emerging Frameworks and Methods: CoLIS 4 : Proceedings of the Fourth
Andrea Witcomb (1997) On the Side of the Object: an Alternative Approach to Debates About Ideas, Objects and Museums, Museum Management and Curatorship, 16:4, 383-399, DOI: 10.1080/09647779700501604
Wang, X., Song, N., Liu, X. and Xu, L. (2021), "Data modeling and evaluation of deep semantic annotation for cultural heritage images", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 77 No. 4, pp. 906-925. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-06-2020-0102
