What Is the Experimental Knowledge Graph or /brain Section on strauh.al?

Updated

strauh.al describes itself as an art archive, digital scrapbook, and experimental knowledge graph maintained since 2015, and /brain appears in the site's own navigation alongside /knowledge_base. Based on the available page evidence, /brain and /knowledge_base are best understood as the organizing layer of that graph rather than as a finished encyclopedia: they sit next to the art, photography, and museum sections and likely act as entry points into how the archive's material is linked. The site does not publish a technical explanation of the graph's data model, so the precise mechanics are not documented in the material available.

How the structure is organized

The navigation list shows a flat set of top-level paths rather than a deep hierarchy:

  • /knowledge_base — the closest thing to a reference or index layer
  • /brain — the experimental or connective layer
  • /art, /photography, /museum — media and collection sections
  • /1500s through /2000s — century-based buckets
  • /3d_scans, /religious_texts, /diagrams, /artists, /computers, /scripts, /printing_videos, /album_covers, /wallpapers, /comics, /gif_collection, /ukiyo_e, /pictures_of_musicians, /old_photos, /baby_videos — subject and format collections
  • /influences, /implicit_distance, /dreams, /ideas_sketchbook_2020-25 — paths that suggest associative or personal organization
  • /updates, /random_quote, /draw_for_me, /about, /disclaimer, /donate_support — utility and interactive pages

Two things stand out. First, the century paths (/1500s … /2000s) run in parallel with thematic paths, so the same item could plausibly be reachable by date or by subject. Second, /influences and /implicit_distance are not standard archive categories — they read as relationship-oriented paths, which is consistent with the "experimental knowledge graph" label.

What "experimental knowledge graph" means here

A conventional knowledge graph stores entities and typed relationships (person → influenced_by → person). strauh.al's version appears looser: it is a personal archive where art, photography, scanned objects, texts, and notes coexist, and the graph is the set of links between them. The /brain path is the most likely place where that connective intent is exposed, while /knowledge_base functions more as the browsable index.

Because the site is maintained by an individual and labeled experimental, expect:

  • Incomplete or uneven coverage across sections
  • Links that reflect the maintainer's associations rather than a controlled vocabulary
  • Categories that overlap or shift over time

How to actually use it

  1. Start at /knowledge_base if you want to browse by topic or century.
  2. Go to /brain if you want to see how items are connected rather than listed.
  3. Use /influences and /implicit_distance when you want associative rather than categorical navigation.
  4. Use /random_quote and /draw_for_me as low-commitment entry points into the collection.

There is no published search syntax, API, or export format in the available evidence, so treat navigation as browsing rather than querying.

What it is not

It is not a peer-reviewed reference work, not a structured database with documented schemas, and not a wiki with editorial governance. The /about and /disclaimer pages exist for a reason — the framing is personal and experimental. If you need citable, stable, or comprehensive coverage of a subject, this archive is a starting point for discovery, not a source of record.

Related sections worth knowing: /museum, /3d_scans, and /religious_texts for object- and text-based material, and the external links studio.strauh.al, ernest.strauh.al, computerdrawing.club, and strauhal.bandcamp.com for the maintainer's other work.