Browsing by Subject "Mapping"

The purpose of this thesis is to visualize the economic system (supply, production, and transportation) and the logistics of the movement of marble in the Roman Empire in an effort to better understand the larger system of material movement in Imperial Rome. This will be accomplished through a digital case study on the largest surviving bath complex in Rome, the Baths of Caracalla, for which we have evidence of the types of materials used in its construction and speculative observations on the quarries from which this material was procured. In order to effectively demonstrate this system and to accurately locate the Baths of Caracalla within the imperial trade network, a detailed visualization of the marble quarries and the web of transportation routes using ArcGIS Pro mapping software was created. Using ArcGIS Pro as a heuristic tool, this map will show the quarry sites and reconstruct the transportation routes by which marble was moved over long distances for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. While the digital humanities have used the city of Rome as a site for experimental mapping projects on various subjects, this map on the stone quarries in the Roman Empire in relation to the Baths of Caracalla will be the first digital humanities mapping project of its type.

Given the growing digitization of cultural heritage, there is an opportunity to leverage digital technologies in order to better serve visitors, against the limitations of people’s traditional approaches to heritage in museums and sites. Digitalizing heritage has become part of the national agenda of many countries, including China. This thesis aims to improve the experience of Chinese heritage for online visitors, by investigating how online three-dimensional representations can support and enhance the experience of viewing heritage for a wider audience. The thesis is comprised of a paper and a digital project. It focuses on Qilou, a kind of Chinese architectural heritage distributed in southeast Asia and southeast China, as a case study practice and develops a prototype for its online 3D presentation, in an effort to develop a real-life application as well as to seek ideas for a future exhibition possibilities. With an emphasis of expressing the historical context of Qilou’s distribution, the digital project used the methodology of online 3D models with virtual reality space as well as story map to assemble and visualize Qilou’s spread from different regions. Through the design of interactivity, ambience, and navigation, the online 3D models can generate an immersive and compelling experience for visitors.

Life in Cuba is largely defined by el Partido Comunista de Cuba’s (PCC) tradition of governance. Since the ratification of Decree 349 in 2018 – a law that punitively curtails freedom of expression – Cuba has witnessed an upsurge in publicly staged resistance. The emergence of several artist-led, non-partisan civic groups, united by their fight for human rights, exemplifies this. Two prominent examples are el Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) and 27N. This thesis investigates how the artistic interventions of MSI, 27N, and their members can be understood as decolonial praxis. To navigate and convey this argument and its associated logics, this thesis employs a two-part methodological approach: exploratory mapping in digital and analog forms, as well as critical feminist and queer phenomenological analysis that is woven with Doreen Massey’s relational spatial theory.