e-culture at UC Berkeley: Networked cultural and environmental
data
Caverlee CaryStaff Research AssociateGeographic Information Science CenterUniversity of California, Berkeley
Asia-Pacific Advanced Networking ConferenceDigital Resources for e-Culture and Historical Mapping Bangkok, ThailandJanuary 26, 2005
Issues for consideration
Art, artifacts, and the digital image From image to e-culture E-culture networking initiatives at UCB
Berkeley GIS and networked e-culture: mediating art
and the world in the “Mapping Ayutthaya” project
Art, artifacts, and the digital image
Authenticity and “aura” Digital technology: a change in the
relationship between society and art objects
Greater accuracy… greater truth?
From image to e-culture
E-culture as the sum of digital product visualizing or expressing aspects of culture
Relationship between culture and simulation of culture
Interoperable e-culture
Networking initiatives at UC Berkeley
The University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
The Museum Informatics Project (MIP) The Berkeley Natural History Museums
consortium The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI)
The University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive:Pioneer in interoperable collections
One of the first museums to explore networked visual arts collections
Collections: modern art and Asian art
Early efforts to integrate collections with libraries and archives through MOAC
bampfa.berkeley.edu
Berkeley Art Museum collection query interface
The Museum Informatics Project:Multi-collection network portal
Coordinates the application of information technology in museums and other organized, non-book collections of UC Berkeley
– data models– system architectures– demonstration systems
mip.berkeley.edu
Museum Informatics Project portal to collections websites
The Berkeley Natural History Museums:network for queries across collections
Common interface for collection search
Unites biological diversity, from molecular evolution to human prehistory
Cultural data: the Hearst Museum of Anthropology
Uses the Darwin Core version 1 standard
DiGIR (Distributed Generic Information Retrieval)
Database management at the GIS Center
http://bnhm.berkeley.museum/
Interface for queries across collections
Moving toward geographic search
Current: capacity to browse all collections by country, province, or state
Future: Grant funding development of an online automated georeferencing tool, “BioGeoMancer,” to assign coordinates to data with location information but without coordinates
The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative:e-culture networking at the data level
Portal to cultural data Data contributors largely
beyond the University of California
GIS for the humanities Requires contributor
registration of datasets (individual as well as institutional participation level)
URL: ecai.org
The dataset search interface: ECAI Metadata Clearinghouse
Dataset discovery, retrieval, and visualization using Timemap tools
ECAI Southeast Asia:A case study for regional e-culture
Based at the UC Berkeley GIS Center
Invites participation by all with cultural data pertaining to Southeast Asia region
Sponsors workshops in ECAI technology
http://www.gisc.berkeley.edu/seadca/coverpage.html
Art and the world: the “Mapping Ayutthaya” project
Informational supplement to “Kingdom of Siam” exhibition (Asian Art Museum, San Francisco)
Data from exhibition, integrated with other information
AAM: a mechanism for education about Ayutthaya
GISC: a mechanism for introducing GIS
Using GIS to visualize Ayutthaya as a trading entrepot
Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to visualize, not analyze
GIS well suited to spatially distributed information
GIS well suited to integrating discrete kinds of information
Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to visualize, not analyze
Three fixed map-space scales for users:– Global– Siam– Ayutthaya
Using Timemap software, a customized, time-enabled GIS viewer, not analysis tool
GIS well suited to spatially distributed information
Selected points of contact Image links specific to the exhibition “Global” and “Siam” layers combine
exhibition images and datasets from the Southeast Asia Digital Cultural Atlas project
GIS well suited to integrating discrete kinds of geo-referenced cultural data
Additional datasets integrated with the exhibition images
Datasets culled from the Southeast Asia digital cultural atlas trade routes project
Trade ceramics mapping dataset(data courtesy Dr. Roxanna Brown, Director, Southeast Asia Ceramics Museum, Bangkok University)
Exhibition objects suggestive of Ayutthaya’s international contact(images courtesy Dr. Forrest McGill, Head Curator, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco)
GIS well suited to integrating discrete kinds of spatial imaging
Ayutthaya layer includes a range of display options for mapping Ayutthaya
User options for interface selection:– historical maps– political maps– topographic maps– satellite images– aerial images
(data courtesy Dr. Surat Lertlum, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, GIS Center, and Professor, Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy)
1687 Map of Ayutthaya: original (left), geo-referenced (right)
Contemporary topographic map (left) and ADEOS satellite image (right)
Fine Arts Department map of archaeological sites in Ayutthaya (left); map with GIS layers (right)
Geo-referenced historical map with GIS data layers
Conclusion
“Mapping Ayutthaya” is an exemplar of a project that both draws from and contributes to the sum of networked e-culture
“Mapping Ayutthaya” is intended to teach not only about Ayutthaya in the narrow context of the “Kingdom of Siam” exhibition, but about Thai history, the dynamics of global cultural connections, and the potential of GIS for the humanities
“Mapping Ayutthaya” can continue to grow with fresh contribution and manipulation of its data, or may “morph” into other projects with new internet lives
