CNS to collaborate with Duke University on digital exhibit

Places & Spaces: Mapping Science is very excited to be working with the prestigious Duke University Libraries and Visual Studies Initiative to bring the upcoming 9th iteration of the exhibit to the Duke LINK MediaWall. Through this partnership, the Mapping Science team hopes to reimagine the traditional exhibit-going experience, making available to viewers a greater amount of information and a higher level of interactivity than ever before.

Described as an “exhibit space for works of high artistic, experimental, or educational merit” by the library’s Data Visualization Coordinator Angela Zoss, the LINK MediaWall is an 18-panel tiled wall display equipped with both directional speakers and network cameras that will allow audiences to engage with the exhibit’s maps of science in dynamic ways.

The plan for the 9th iteration display is to begin with a basic rotating digital presentation of the ten maps. From there, however, users would be able to freeze on a particular map or navigate to another in the rotation. Once a particular map was selected, users could then pan across the map or zoom in on particular details for closer inspection. Going further, visitors to the MediaWall would also be able to access web versions of the maps, additional production and background information, and even interviews with the mapmakers about their work.

Working closely with Zoss and Todd Berreth (research scientist and programmer for Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke), the Places & Spaces exhibit hopes to create a more dynamic relationship between the maps and their audience—a relationship that involves not only information, but also curiosity, play, and discovery.