Category Archives: All AKDC News

Audio from the AKDC/TALIM Seminar on Digital Documentation of Moroccan Cultural Heritage being made available online

In April Michael A. Toler, Archnet Content Manager, and Sharon C. Smith, Program Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) traveled to Morocco for a workshop and seminar organized by AKDC@MIT and the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). Following these events Smith and Toler traveled to other cities in Morocco to discuss possibilities for collaboration. The workshop and seminar, held at TALIM April 11-12, focused on digital preservation of cultural heritage in Northern Morocco, were attended by researchers, scholars, preservationists, and representatives of cultural heritage institutions including universities, libraries, government and non-governmental institutions with a focus on preservation. The facilities […]

A Typical Morning for Archnet

According to Google Analytics, at 10:34 am EDT this morning there were 19 people using Archnet, and they came from 11 different countries. At the precise moment when we checked the statistics, 7 of those users came from India where it was well into the evening; 3 came from the US where it was morning; and 1 visitor came from each of the remaining 9 countries. 19 visitors from 9 countries on 5 continents is a fairly typical number for that time of a weekday in July.

New on Archnet: José Luis Argüello, AKPIA Posters (2001-2016)

A virtual version of the exhibit José Luis Argüello, AKPIA Posters (2001-2016) is now available on Archnet. Curated by Sharon C. Smith, AKDC@MIT Program Head, and introduced by Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor and the Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT (AKPIA@MIT), the exhibit contains examples of posters for AKPIA events and courses over a span of 15 years. In addition to posters like those in this exhibition, José Luis Argüello also designs the graphics for the AKPIA@MIT website

CfP: Mamluk Aesthetics and Renaissance Italians, Out from the Ottoman Shadow

“Mamluk Aesthetics and Renaissance Italians, Out from the Ottoman Shadow” Session Sponsored by the Italian Art Society (IAS) Renaissance Society of America (RSA) 2019 Conference (Toronto, 17–19 March) Dealing with Islamic-Italian relations in the Mediterranean, early modern scholars have focused almost exclusively on the attitudes of the Venetians towards the Ottoman Turks. And yet, in contrast to the “barbaric” Turks, the Mamluks did not become the object of Christian Crusader rhetoric. If anything, the religion of the Mamluks seems to have mattered less than their economic stability and potential as allies against the Turks in the political-existential imaginations of Christians. […]

Gazing Through A Lens: Ali Khan Documents Nineteenth Century Iran a film by Azadeh Tajpour

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT presents Gazing Through A Lens: Ali Khan Documents Nineteenth Century Iran a film by Azadeh Tajpour Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Friday, 18 May 2018 |12:00 — 1:30 pm |MIT, room 3-133 The event is free and open to the public. Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT Libraries | 77 Massachusetts Avenue | Bldg. 7-238 Cambridge, MA 02139 | akdc@mit.edu

New Archnet Collections Page

This morning Archnet rolled out a redesigned collections page that will allow users to see more collections on a single page, and to more easily browse collections by category or in their entirety. The initial page shows thumbnails for all collections in a randomized order. Each collection thumbnail contains an image representing it contents, a title bar whose color corresponds to the category of the collection, a brief description, and the category name. Users can switch between categories either by clicking a category name at the bottom on a thumbnail, or by using the menu at the top of the […]

Roads, Routes and Networks: Projects for the Visualization of Art Historical Information

Digital Humanities Colloquium Harvard University, RCC Conference Room, 26 Trowbridge St., Cambridge MA Space and movement have always been fundamental for art history, through concepts such as -among others- center and periphery, roads for global exchange, or the experience of travel. Geographical Information Systems are transforming the traditional ways to visualize these disciplinary discourses about dissemination, innovation and evolution. Network analysis is bringing to light people and places, usually overlooked by public attention focused on a few big names, that otherwise had been very relevant in their own time as nodes for exchange or partnership. Vast and quickly increasing amounts […]

AKDC Organizes Workshop and Seminar on Cultural Heritage in Morocco

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT), in collaboration with the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) to organize a workshop and seminar on the topic of “Documenting Cultural Heritage in Morocco.” The workshop, to be held on April 11, considers standards and best practices for documenting and presenting cultural heritage, and includes participants from museums, heritage sites, and cultural institutions throughout Morocco. The seminar will be held the following day, and focus on documenting, preserving, and raising awareness of architectural heritage in northern Morocco. The seminar is generously sponsored by OCP Group. Sharon C. Smith, AKDC […]

Women’s History Month on Archnet

Today, the 8th of March, is International Women’s Day. Since 1975 the day has been designated by the UN as a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. (http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/) To mark the day, Archnet highlights the role of women in Islamic architecture and in the built environment of Muslim societies more generally. Click around the sliding tiles on our homepages to see monuments of Islamic architecture that were built through the generosity […]

Archnet’s Growing International Appeal

In last week’s article on the growth of Archnet in 2017, we noted the increasing globalization of Archnet’s user base, as evidenced by the fact that approximately 87% of Archnet users initiated their visit from outside of the United States. In this article we will look a bit more deeply into those figures. According to Google Analytics, Archnet received visitors from 208 countries and territories (as defined by Google) in 2017, literally an A to Z of countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. This this article compares statistics on sessions initiated in those 208 areas during the period of August 1 […]