About this event

Technologies continuously evolve transforming the representation of space and geography, shaping new forms of consciousness and knowledge. Digital technologies are mediating access to and research into cartographic material. 2D and 3D digital recording and display technologies are being employed to document rare maps, globes, and other cartographic material, enhancing research and playing a crucial role in the decision-making processes focused on both access and preservation. The same GIS being used to map our planet are also mapping the surface of vellum manuscripts, or mapping projected digital images. This material evidence, when combined with machine learning and immersive display technologies, has the potential to cultivate a new intimacy with the physical world.

As the physical world is digitised, the digital world becomes increasingly physical. Maps help us navigate this unfamiliar terrain. Two sessions will bring together experts in cartographic history and cartographers of the digital world in a celebration and exploration of the role that maps play to provide access to real and imaginary worlds.

Programme

9.15–9.45am: Registration and coffee

10–10.15am: Welcome by Richard Ovenden OBE, Bodley's Librarian, Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums at the University of Oxford.

10.15am–12pm: Panel and Q&A: The art of cartography and new evidence
Chaired by Judith Siefring, Head of Digital Collections Discovery, Bodleian Libraries

• Material evidence of the surface of objects (20 minutes)
  John Barrett, Lead Photographer at ARCHiOx and the first person to use the Selene Photometric Stereo System within a major library.
• Spectacular! A digital exploration of medieval Gough Map of Britain (20 minutes)
  Nick Millea, Map Curator at the Bodleian Libraries
• The Greatest Medieval Map-Maker: Al-Sharif al-Idrisi and Roger’s Silver Disc (20 minutes)
  Yossef Rapoport, Professor of Islamic History at Queen Mary University, London
• A Ship’s Globe in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht
  Sanne Frequin, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Art History, University of Utrecht

12–12.30pm: Coffee break in Blackwell Hall

12.30–1pm: Special presentation – Nesting Globes: visualising the current global situation
Bruce Mau, designer, philosopher, architect, and educator.

1–2pm: Lunch in Blackwell Hall
During lunch there will be an exhibition and a demonstration of the Selene Photometric Stereo System with its designer, Jorge Cano

2–3.45pm: Panel and Q&A: Mapping in a digital world
Chaired by Giovanni Pala, economic historian of technology and information

• Map Search: Using AI to explore map content (20 minutes)
  Katherine McDonough, Lecturer in Digital Humanities at Lancaster University; Senior Research Fellow and head of the Machines Reading Maps Project at The Alan Turing Institute.
• Deep Mapping: from archives to the universe (20 minutes)
  Sarah Kenderdine, Professor of Digital Humanities at École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland; Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Museology.
• Is that a Map in Your Pocket? (20 minutes)
  Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, tech evangelist, and co-founder of Google Earth.

3.50pm–4pm: Conclusions: Adam Lowe, Founder of Factum Foundation and Factum Arte

Find out more on the Oculi-Mundi website

  Tickets and booking

You can attend in person at the Weston Library or online.

When you have booked your place, the ticketing system will send you an automated confirmation.

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 Location

This event is being held in the Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre at the Weston Library, and online.

Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG

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 Wheelchair access

The Weston Library is wheelchair accessible.

Acknowledgements