News & Events
AKDC Collaborates on Timeline Travel Project
In fall of 2018, the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT had the opportunity to contribute to an exciting new digital humanities project titled Timeline Travel. The aim of the project is to create an alternative teaching and learning tool for architectural history that taps into the visual learning capacities of today’s students. The Timeline Travel tool features online interactive timelines and maps for various historic cities, where visitors can explore monuments and learn more about their histories through descriptions and images. The project currently features timelines for Istanbul, Ravenna, Edirne, and Gaziantep, and will be available in Turkish, English,...
World Interfaith Harmony Week on Archnet
Since 20 October 2010 when the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/65/5, the first week in February has been designated World Interfaith Harmony Week. The week is intended to promote harmony between all people regardless of their faith. In its statement setting “Sustainable Development through Interfaith Harmony” as the 2019 theme, the UN page points out the importance of peaceful relations between faith traditions providing for the well-being of people around the world. At the core of all the faith systems and traditions is the recognition that we are all in this together and that we need to love and support...
Archive of John and Caroline Williams
In 2017 AKDC@MIT received over 18,000 slides taken by John A. and Caroline Williams, author of Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide. The images in the collection document sites in Egypt and across the Islamic world over multiple decades. Currently a sampling of about 700 are available online, with more are coming soon. Of course the entire collection is available the Aga Khan Documentation Center for consultation, research, or use in publications. Learn more about the collections of the Aga Khan Documentation Center on our website.
Throwback Thursday at AKDC
Do you remember the LaserDisc? This video disc could be considered Archnet 0.1, in that it was an early vehicle for dissemination of visual resources on Islamic architecture. “Images of Islamic Architecture. The Aga Khan Collection was a project of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard, released in 1985. It contained more than 30,000 images of Islamic architecture arranged by region. Invented in 1958, the LaserDisc became available to consumers in 1978. Movies and concerts on LaserDisc were found in most record and electronic stores, but the format never really caught on, so it din’t...
AKDC and Project Cornelia receive grant to develop LayerCake
The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT and Project Cornelia at the University of Leuven are pleased to announce that they have been rewarded a MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Global Seed Fund grant for workshops in both Leuven and Cambridge to study networks of cultural influence among artists, followed by a symposium and the deployment of student-created artist network maps. The studies will use linked open data sets and a version of LayerCake – a web app that maps narratives and collections of objects across geographic space and time – modified to show network relationships between points...