1. About Material and Immaterial Creation
Martin Doerr
Institute of Computer Science
Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas
Heraklion, Crete

2. Material and Immaterial Creation Problem statement
Creation, a key concept of culture and science - a clear concept?
Intuitively: “An intentional activity (process) which brings into existence new things”.
A thing not seen before.
Acquires a new identity through this process.
Bears essential traits from this process (and the creator?)
Questions:
New in which sense?
Senses: Different from what it is made of; different from peers; physically different; quantitatively different; functionally different.
Can the kind of intention be separated from the sense of “new”? Is absolute identity adequate to describe the relevant senses of “new” ?
how relates absolute identity to our creation concepts?

3. Material and Immaterial Creation Problem statement
General goal:
An ontology for representing factual knowledge expressed individually in cultural, historical or scientific documents, so that this knowledge can be integrated in a monotonic way, as long as information is not contradictory for the expert.
…not excluding the necessity of guidelines for good documentation practice…
Problem:
The same processes and constellations of matter may be described in ways so that formal reasoning may come to contradictory inferences, such as the same things existing and not existing, or existing multiply etc.
Approach: Ontology engineering from evidence of practice. Adequacy to the conceptualizations of domain experts.

4. Material and Immaterial Creation The CIDOC CRM (ISO21127)
The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (ISO/FDIS 21127)
Developed since 1996 by CIDOC / ISO TC46, ISO by 2006, result of long-term interdisciplinary work and agreement.
Is a core ontology describing the underlying semantics of data schemata and structures from all museum disciplines and archives, aiming to integrate cultural heritage information
In essence, it is a generic model of recording of “what has happened” in human (mesoscopic) scale.
It can generate huge, meaningful networks of knowledge by a simple abstraction: history as meetings of people, things and information.

5. Material and Immaterial Creation The CIDOC CRM Encoding
The CIDOC CRM is a formal ontology (defined in TELOS)
But CRM instances can be encoded in many forms: RDBMS, ooDBMS, RDF(S), OWL
Uses Multiple isa – to achieve uniqueness of properties in the schema.
Uses multiple instantiation - to be able to combine not always valid combinations (e.g. destruction – activity).
Uses Multiple isA for properties to capture different abstraction of relationships.
Methodological aspects wrt “core”:
Classes are introduced as anchors of properties ( and if structurally relevant). Other classes are seen as “terminology” (E55 Type).
Properties are introduced by evidence from frequently used data structures
Properties are declared with quantifiers 0,1,many at domain and range.
So far no FOL expressions.

6. Material and Immaterial Creation The CIDOC CRM Thing

7. Material and Immaterial Creation Immaterial things in the CIDOC CRM
E28 Conceptual Object *:
This class comprises non-material products of our minds and information produced by humans with or without using technical devices that have become objects of a discourse about their identity, circumstances of creation and historical implications.
Characteristically, instances of this class are created, invented or thought by someone, and then may be documented or communicated between persons.
Instances of E28 Conceptual Object have the ability to exist on more than one particular carrier at the same time, such as papers, electronic signals, marks, audio media, paintings, photos, human memories, etc.
They cannot be destroyed as long as they exist on at least one carrier or in memory.
Their existence ends when the last carrier is lost. A greater distinction can be made between products having a clear identity, such as a specific text, or photographs, and the ideas and concepts shared and traded by groups of people.
* Variant of the definition in ISO21127

8. Material and Immaterial Creation Immaterial things in the CIDOC CRM
Conceptual Objects do not depend in their form/substance on a particular carrier (“like fish and water”)
They are immaterial because they can reside identically at the same time on more than one carrier. They cannot “do” anything without a physical carrier.
They are particulars of a discourse. Some may be seen as equivalence classes of their carriers ( are they hidden universals ? ). Some are universals (!!).
a text versus a text plus its layout: part-of or IsA?
IPRs do not pertain to the carriers.
Idea: Conceptual Objects participate in meetings via their carriers. They are only transferred via meetings of things and/or people ( a physical constraint on the “intellectual world”).

9. Information exchange as meetings…
Victory!!!
coherence volume of second announcement
coherence volume of first announcement
2nd Athenian
Victory!!!
1st Athenian
other
Soldiers
runner
coherence volume of the battle of Marathon S
Marathon
Athens

10. E24 Physical Man-Made Thing
Material and Immaterial Creation The CIDOC CRM: only a partial formalization
0,n
P14 carried out by
(performed)
1,n
0,n
P16 used specific object
(was used for):
0,n
E39 Actor
E7 Activity
E70 Thing
P14.1 in the role of
E55 Type
E11 Modification
1,n
E18 Physical Thing
P31 has modified
(was modified by)
0,n
P108 has produced
(was produced by)
E12 Production
E24 Physical Man-Made Thing
1,n
1,1
P128 carries
(is carried by)
memorized in?
P94 has created
(was created by):
E65 Creation
E28 Conceptual Object
1,n
1,1
E73 Information Object

11. Material and Immaterial Creation The FRBR-CRM Harmonization Project
Formation in 2003 of the International Working Group on FRBR/CIDOC CRM Harmonisation:
A collaboration of CIDOC CRM-SIG and the IFLA FRBR Review Group.
To express the IFLA FRBR model as FRBROO with the concepts, ontological methodology and notation conventions provided by the CIDOC CRM.
To facilitate the integration, mediation and interchange of bibliographic and museum information.
A comprehensive text with all related CRM definitions and complete mappings FRBRER to FRBROO, OWL/RDF files, VISIO graphics.
Work continues with FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data)

12. Material and Immaterial Creation FRBR
The Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)
developed by IFLA, now being complemented by the Functional Requirements for Authority Files (FRAR)
A core ER model to integrate library objects by content relation
Intended to formulate a new library practice
Innovations:
Definition of 4 stages/ abstraction levels of intellectual products: Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item.
Clusters publications and items around the notion of derivation and common conceptual origin across stages / abstraction levels.
Lacks: any explicit notion of the processes behind. Partially ambiguous definitions (overgeneralization).

13. Material and Immaterial Creation FRBR : Abstraction Levels
has part
“a distinct intellectual or artistic creation…
there is no single material object
one can point to as the work...”
has a complement
has a successor
has a summary
has a supplement
has a transformation
has adaptation
has an imitation
Work
is realized through
(is a realization of)
has part
“the intellectual or artistic realization of a work in the
form of alpha-numeric, musical, or choreographic
notation, sound, image, object, movement, etc”
Expression
has a complement
has a successor
has a summary
has a supplement
has a transformation
has adaptation
has an imitation
is embodied in
(is the embodiment of )
“the physical embodiment of an expression of a
work…all the physical objects that bear the same
characteristics…
…may be only a single physical exemplar…”
has part
Manifestation
is exemplified by
(exemplifies )
has part
“a single exemplar of a manifestation...”
Item

14. Material and Immaterial Creation FRBROO – clarification of key concepts
E28 Conceptual Object
The substance of Work is concepts (the idea).
Only through the comprehension of the concepts derivation is possible.
Complex Work: Continuation, possibly by others.
F1Work
F46 Individual Work
F48 Container Work
F21 Complex Work
F43 Publication Work
E73 Information Object
The substance of Expression is signs (the text).
An Expression can be “complete”.
The kinds of signs/features that identify an Expression depend on the function.
F2 Expression
F20 Self-contained Expression
F23 Expression
Fragment
F41 Publication Expression

15. Material and Immaterial Creation FRBROO : The “first externalization” process
Production
E28
Conceptual
Object
F31 Expression
Creation
F3 Manifestation
Production Type
F40 Carrier
Production
Event
R9 comprises
carriers of
R41 produced
(was produced by)
R49 created a
realization of
R22
created
E24
Physical
Man-Made
Thing
F1 Work
E84
Information
Carrier
F2 Expression
R45 created
R10 belongs
to type
R56 is realized in
F21 Complex
Work
F46 Individual
Work
F20 Self Contained
Expression
F23 Expression
Fragment
F4 Manifestation
Singleton
F5 Item

16. Material and Immaterial Creation FRBROO: Conception and “Externalization”
F1 Work
R21 initiated
P4 has time-span
F30 Work Conception
E52 Time
P14 carried out by
P7…
E39 Actor
P4…
P14 carried out by
E65 Expression Creation
E53 Place
P7 took place at
R49 created a realisation of
R22 created
R45 created
F2 Expression
F4 Manifestation Singleton
Work elaboration
Work conception
Expression creation
time
produces a work
produces an idea
Produces (simultaneously) an
Expression and a Manifestation-Singleton

17. Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced
Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced? - Immaterials
Identity and historical reasoning:
This idea was created by/in…, this physical law was detected by/in
How did they learn about it? Who told them? (China 1421…)
Thesis: Conceptual Objects exist for our discourse from the “first externalization” on, from the point on they can be recognized.
Consequently: At least one physical carrier.
Becomes the physical carrier a new object by carrying a new conceptual object? Or is it only modified? There IS something physically new on it.
Oral Tradition: At least 2 carriers needed? Becomes a new human carrier modified?
Is witnessing something a collective conceptual creation?

18. Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced
Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced? - Immaterials
Modification and Derivation:
An immaterial object is not modified like a material one: The precursor may continue to exist on another carrier => two distinct objects at the same time. Better talk only about derivation?
Which changes make it “new”?
Any reproducible change (DNA tracing!)
Sufficient change for a specific function: words, type face, lay-out?
Relative notion of identity? Dependency: coarser level changes imply finer level changes.
New as a question of quantity? (trials on IPR?)
Research problem:
What are the kinds of relations between particulars which can be seen under different views of identity, as usual in our laws, library practice, scholarly tradition ?

19. Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced
Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced? - Immaterials
What about detecting the same concept?
Claim: There are conceptual objects that have an identity bound to a characteristic creation, so that necessarily all carriers must have a chain of tradition to them (see IP rights, secrets, know-how). This implies that they can be forgotten. If there would be no such objects, there would be no immaterial creation.
Do conceptual object that can be “redetected” have a distinct substance from the “invented” ones and thus can be separated?
Or should we bind a concept to a tradition chain, and declare a merging of two traditions as a distinct event? (e.g. Newton – Leibniz dispute).
Can observations about particulars be treated like invented concepts?
In FRBROO, we regard a merge of two works as a new work.
Biologists regard a species declaration as distinct from a naïve concept.
Many laws in physics have not been detected twice. (Europe, China, Maya?)
Was zero invented or detected?

20. Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced
Material and Immaterial Creation When is a new thing produced? – Material Objects
Identity and historical reasoning:
Who made it, and where?
Who has seen it? Where does it come from? Who were the owners?
Material Objects exist either from the point in time they become an independent material unit (“birth”), or they are “completely transformed”.
Relative notion of independence: no more kept together or no more sticking together?
Transformation, modification and creation can be a point of view.
In the CRM we say, the documentalist decides what it is.

21. Material and Immaterial Creation Example Palimpsest
Example palimpsest, three independent descriptions may describe three different books, created at different times, destroyed at different times, and yet the “same object”:
Parchment book created
First manuscript written
First manuscript erased
Second manuscript written
First manuscript made visible via IR…
book burned together with the library
Model A: 1 Physical Object + 2 Physical Features + 2 Information Objects:
Can the ink be seen as separate from the book? Is the Feature, rather than the book the carrier?
Non-monotonic under the (usual) view that ignores the creation of the empty book.
Model A as normalized documentation form impractical!

22. Material and Immaterial Creation Example Palimpsest
Model B: a transformation sequence of 4 new Physical Objects
Empty book ends to exist when first manuscript is made out of it etc.
Incompatible with the conservators view. Non-monotonic.
Model C: nested identity of “phases”:
Each manuscript is a phase of the parchment book. As such it is new as a manuscript, and old as a parchment book.
Monotonic wrt curator views
Makes the notion of Production relative to a class.

23. Conclusions
We have presented a materialistic view on material and immaterial creation under the perspective to support the discourse about historical provenance and tradition of things and ideas. Material constraints apply to the creation and tradition of immaterial items. It should be possible to formalize them.
It seems that the notion of carrying immaterial objects and transferring them in meetings can reasonable describe a part of the historical discourse. To be formalized.
It seems that the notion of absolute identity cannot be held when integrating correct historical information about the same physical reality.
Lots of open questions with respect to the limitations of such a theory and its generalization, such as:
Do we have to separate purely mental objects from symbolic representations, invented concepts from detected concepts and observations about particulars? Can/should conceptual objects be relative to a tradition?
Under which conditions can views of relative identity occur, and how are the respective instances related, and which bearing does that have on the notions of modification, derivation and creation?

24. new things:
Not seen before. Acquires identity through this process.
literal identity (Leibniz), identity by change (writing in a notebook) , identity by tradition (computer renewed)
Problems: Modification,
i.e. preexistence of a carrier, scribbling on a stone, a notebook, a palimpsest.
Derivation from a precursor
i.e. whatever similarity with another: ambiguous only for immaterial items. Ambiguous notion of new
New: a discrete material thing, a distinct immaterial thing, a thing with sufficiently different properties – To which degree are properties relative to the intention? (same text on paper or stone, statue in plaster/bronze).
Evidence of immaterial creation: working backwards from physical carriers.
What kinds of things? How does the process differ depending on the kind of product?
To which degree we mess up valuing the degree of intellectual contribution with observing properties of a factual process and product?
New in which sense? Can the kind of intention be separated from the sense of “new”? Is absolute identity adequate to describe the relevant senses of “new” ?