Heritage and Mapping
Leicester Digital Mapping
The aim of this cluster of collaborative research projects is to create rich overlayed mappings of the city's environment and culture. These mappings will reveal new aspects of Leicester, and provide a platform for creative and practical explorations of the past, present and future of the city.
The project is led by the Institute Of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University, in collaboration with the Institute Of Energy and Sustainable Development, the University of Leicester, Infoterra, Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, and Leicestershire Statistics and Research Online.
The Projects
Leicester Digital Mapping comprises a collection of individually funded projects. Each is a colaboration between various partners and each maps the city in a different way, such as: physical, environmental, social, cultural or historical. Some of the projects are creative or artistic, some focus on aspects of technology or development. Funding for the projects has variously come from NESTA, EPSRC, AHRC, the East Midlands New Technology Initiative, DMU and Leicester City Council. The overall Director of the Leicester Digital Mapping project is Professor Andrew Hugill.
In collaboration with Infoterra we have created a navigable three-dimensional map of Leicester city centre that exceeds the capabilities and interactivity of existing digital maps. This project now aims to find novel uses for this map and to develop systems to allow the integration of data from other areas of the Leicester Digital Mapping project. This includes time-based interactions, immersive displays, new interfaces and creative uses of the technology.
Other visualisations include:
- Regent Road Machinima produced by the Radford Group for Architectural Research
- Leicester Town Hall in Second Life produced by Mr Mike Hiley, Departnment of Media and Cultural Production, Faculty of Humanities
- Evington Parade, Florists, Fosters produced by Mr Chris Hinton, Digital Media Centre, Faculty of Art and Design
Related projects include:
- Amplified Leicester
- Highfields Remembered
- Leicester Emotion Map
- Palimpsests of Time
- Songlines
- Virtual Romans
A key aspect of the overall project addresses the problem of interoperability between large and complex data sets. Two projects have investigated this question:
For further information please contact:Prof Andrew Hugill
Email: ahu [at] dmu.ac.uk
ioct.dmu.ac.uk