Vienna 2003 | Schedule

ECAI Session 2 - The intellectual agenda:
The Cultural Meaning of Time and Space

David Bodenhamer Chair

Ian Gregory, "Introduction to the Importance of Time and Space in the Social Sciences"

In order to understand the potential benefits that GIS offers to humanities scholars it is helpful to first explore how it has been used in other disciplines where it has a longer track record. Social scientists, particularly those concerned with quantitative human geography have had to adapt technologies and methodologies that originated in the earth sciences and make them applicable to their discipline. Along the way many mistakes have been made and lessons learned. This paper presents a brief overview of the use of GIS in the social sciences to provide a context for a discussion of its use in the arts and humanities.

William Kilbride, "Time and Space in the Humanities: A View from Archaeology"

Critical theory in arts and humanities research places increasing emphasis on the impact of time and space as elements in the process of social and cultural reproduction. From Foucault's panopticon, Tilley's phenomenology and Schama's landscapes, a significant unifying thread has emerged across disparate disciplines, calling for researchers to explore more explicitly the role of "place" within the construction of social and cultural identities. Conventional views of space as a neutral container for action have been supplanted by more sophisticated, and more complicated, views which vest place with a peculiar form of agency. Along side this conceptual shift, computing infrastructures have emerged that purport to model spatial interactions through time - in the form of geographic information systems. This session will explore a perceived gap that exists between the concept of place within cultural studies, and the way that place is represented by information technologies. Three particular inter-related directions for GIS in the arts and humanities will be highlighted, and which will provide scope for a wider discussion: GIS in socio-economic studies; GIS in heritage management; and GIS in cultural landscapes.

Sheila Anderson, "Time and Space in the Arts"

Perhaps the greatest challenge proponents of the importance of location and time in research faces us when employing these concepts in the arts. Traditionally arts have paid little heed to visualisation techniques or the importance of location. Research arguments tend to be based on qualitative sources rather than quantitative and, therefore, it is assumed lay themselves less open to spatial or temporal analysis. In fact many arts research projects do make assumptions that can be tested and framed in a context that recognised the importance of space and time. This paper examines the possibilities and challenges for such work.