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Cultural Geo-Analytics: Charting the geographies of heritage with data science

26 January 2023, 5:30 pm–6:30 pm

Map showing the ratio of museums to people in the UK, showing a centre in each area where most museums are distributed

Join us for a virtual guest lecture with Andrea Ballatore, Lecturer in Social and Cultural Informatics at Kings College London.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage

About this lecture

Cultural geo-analytics is an emergent area that studies the geographical dimension of the production of and engagement with cultural objects. This talk will explore two perspectives: (1) Detailed data collected in the AHRC Mapping Museums project show the uneven and complex geography of the museums in the UK. Charting the sector with GIS, it is possible to detect regional and national trends, identifying its centres and peripheries. (2) User-generated content (UGC) provides valuable data to study a variety of cultural phenomena from a geographical angle, such as the construction and preservation of heritage. Selecting Greater London as a case study, Andrea will discuss how Wikipedia content evolves over time and space, analysing articles about geographical areas, points of interest, and geo-located events. Zooming out from London, Andrea will then outline the many opportunities and challenges of using this kind of data source to study the cultural sector.

Virtual event details

This virtual lecture will consist of a 45 minute presentation from Andrea Ballatore, followed by a 15 minute Q&A chaired by Josep Grau-Bove, ISH Associate Professor.

About the Speaker

Dr Andrea Ballatore

Lecturer in Social and Cultural Informatics at Kings College London

Andrea Ballatore (he/him) is a Lecturer in Social and Cultural Informatics at King’s College London. From 2016 to 2021, he was employed as a Lecturer in Geographic Data Science at Birkbeck, University of London. Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Spatial Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2013, he completed a PhD in Computer Science at University College Dublin. His current work combines cultural geo-analytics and digital geographies, and is centred on collaborative projects with academic and corporate partners, including the Ordnance Survey and Facebook. Visit his website Data Science in Place for more information.

More about Dr Andrea Ballatore