e-culture at UC Berkeley: Networked cultural and environmental data

1. e-culture at UC Berkeley: Networked cultural and environmental data Caverlee Cary Staff Research Associate Geographic Information Science Center University of California, Berkeley Asia-Pacific Advanced Networking Conference Digital Resources for e-Culture and Historical Mapping Bangkok, Thailand January 26, 2005

2. 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

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. Berkeley Art Museum collection query interface

8. 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

9. Museum Informatics Project portal to collections websites

10. 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/

11. Interface for queries across collections

12. 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

13. 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

14. The dataset search interface: ECAI Metadata Clearinghouse

15. Dataset discovery, retrieval, and visualization using Timemap tools

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Trade ceramics mapping dataset(data courtesy Dr. Roxanna Brown, Director, Southeast Asia Ceramics Museum, Bangkok University)

23. Exhibition objects suggestive of Ayutthaya’s international contact(images courtesy Dr. Forrest McGill, Head Curator, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco)

24. 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)

25. 1687 Map of Ayutthaya: original (left), geo-referenced (right)

26. Contemporary topographic map (left) and ADEOS satellite image (right)

27. Fine Arts Department map of archaeological sites in Ayutthaya (left); map with GIS layers (right)

28. Geo-referenced historical map with GIS data layers

29. 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