A Sunderland Collection Symposium in association with ARCHiOx and Bodleian Libraries.

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
09:15-09:45 Registration and coffee
10:00-10:15 Introduction and welcome
10:15-12:00 Morning session: The Art of Cartography and new evidence
Chairperson Judith Siefring

• 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
• Mapping the Gough Map (20 minutes) Nick Millea, Map Curator at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
• Al Idrisi world map (20 minutes) Yossef Rapoport, Lecturer in Islamic History at Queen Mary University, London, and a specialist on Al Idrisi’s world map

Case study (15-minute talk): A Ship’s Globe in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht Sanne Frequin, art historian specialised in digital art history. She is the academic coordinator of the master course in Art History at Utrecht University.
Q&A time (30 minutes)

12:00-12:30 Coffee
12:30-13:00 Special presentation – ‘Nesting Globes’: Visualising the current global situation Bruce Mau, designer, philosopher, architect, and educator
13:00-14:00 Lunch in Blackwell Hall
During lunch there will be an exhibition and a demonstration of the Selene Photometric Stereo System. Jorge Cano, the designer of the system, will be there to answer questions.
14:00-16:00 Afternoon session: Mapping a digital world: what happens in the software

• Map Search: Using AI to explore map content (20 minutes) Katherine McDonough, Lecturer in Digital Humanities at Lancaster University, Senior Research Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, leader of the Institute’s Machines Reading Maps project
• Deep Mapping: from archives to the universe (20 minutes) Sarah Kenderdine, Digital Humanities professor at EPFL in Lausanne, Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Museology: leads a team of software engineers, artists, and curators at the forefront of digital display technologies
• Geospatial transformation (20 minutes) Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, tech evangelist, and co-founder of Google Earth
  15:50-16:00 Summary and closing

Tickets
To attend in person please book here: tickets.ox.ac.uk/webstore/shop/viewItems.aspx?cg=bodnf&c=conferences
To attend online please book here: tickets.ox.ac.uk/webstore/shop/viewItems.aspx?cg=bodonev&c=bodoe#66119