GIS Day 2018: Invited Speakers Nil Tuzcu and Arzu Çöltekin

Nil Tuzcu, Harvard Kennedy School

Arzu Çöltekin, University of Zurich

Thursday, November 15, 2018

3:00 pm–5:30pm, 102 West Village G

As part of GIS Day 2018, the Digital Scholarship Group, the Northeastern University Visualization Consortium (NUVis), the NULab, & the College of Arts, Media and Design are bringing two speakers to campus.

3 PM: Nil Tuzcu, "Spatial Storytelling in Urban Studies and History"

https://web.northeastern.edu/nulab/event/nil-tuzcu/

Abstract: Spatial storytelling enables multifaceted inquires in digital humanities and urban research, where complex and multilayered information is processed and presented with the help of spatial and visual technologies. Consequently, new topics such as embodied perception, user experience and interaction, and digital reconstruction are adopted and repurposed in this emerging field. In this talk, I will introduce three projects each taking a different approach to spatial storytelling and offer a comparative evaluation of their methodologies. The first project, Istanbul Urban Database, is an interactive mapping platform composed of digitized historical urban archives of Istanbul allowing users to explore spatio-temporal layers of Istanbul. The second project, I am Istanbul, is web-based storytelling platform in which users observe the flow of daily life in Istanbul throughout the 20th century via the lives of fictional characters. The final project, September 1955, is a virtual-reality documentary re-enacting the Istanbul Pogrom of 1955.

About the speaker: Nil Tuzcu is an information designer and creative technologist. Her work is at the intersection of data visualization, storytelling, user experience research, urbanism and the humanities. She currently works at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for International Development where she leads the design of the Atlas of Economic Complexity. Prior to that, she was a research associate at the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, DUSP. Her recent works explore data visualization in historical context through variety of media from interactive multimedia platforms to immersive experiences. She is the creator of Istanbul Urban Database, the most comprehensive multimedia archive of Istanbul.

4:30 PM: Arzu Çöltekin, "Visualizing Geo/Spatial Phenomena: A Spatial Cognition Perspective"

https://nuvis.northeastern.edu/events/event/arzu-coltekin/

Abstract: In this talk, I will first outline some of the fundamental principles that cartographers have been using –for hundreds of years– for designing maps and map-like representations of geo/spatial phenomena. Then I will draw links between the cartographic principles and modern visualization practices, taking into account our understanding of perceptual and cognitive processes. Following this, I will detail some of our original observations based on controlled lab studies, often also with the help of eye movement analysis. Featured studies will contain insights on color perception, effects of shading and shadows, route learning with realistic and abstract displays; and individual/group differences based on factors such as expertise, spatial abilities and age.

About the speaker: Dr. Arzu Çöltekin is a Research Group Leader and a Senior Lecturer at the Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis group the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and a research affiliate at the Seamless Astronomy group at Harvard University (USA). She is also the appointed chair of the ISPRS working group Geovisualization and Virtual Reality. Her interdisciplinary work covers topics related to Geographic information science (GIScience), visualization, vision (perception and cognition), eye tracking, virtual environments, and human-computer interaction.

Please see the event pages and attached flyer for full details.