Cultural mapping reflects the spatial turn taken in many related areas of research, including cultural and artistic studies, architecture and urban design, geography, sociology, cultural policy and planning. Traditional approaches to cultural mapping emphasize the centrality of community engagement, and the process of mapping often reveals many unexpected resources and builds new cross-community connections.

Internationally, cultural mapping has come to be closely associated with professional cultural planning practices, but its recent adoption within a variety of disciplinary areas means that ‘traditional’ approaches are being re-thought and expanded, with cultural mapping practices adopting new methodologies, perspectives and objectives as they evolve.
 
This event is intended to explore both conventional and alternative approaches to mapping cultures and communities in an international context. Presenters will discuss and illustrate innovative ways to encourage artistic intervention and public participation in cultural mapping. They will also address the challenges posed by such artistic practices and community involvement in various phases of the research process, from gathering and interpreting data to modes of presenting ‘findings’ to interest groups from different sectors – the local public as well as specialists in the arts, research, public administration and planning.

Two key dimensions of current research with implications for artistic, architectural and planning
practices are:
(a) the participatory and community engagement aspect, especially in the context of accessible
mobile digital technologies
(b) mapping the intangibilities of a place (e.g., stories, histories, etc.) that provide a “sense of
place” and identity to specific locales, and the ways in which those meanings and values may be
grounded in embodied experiences.
These two aspects will be highlighted in the conference presentations and symposium workshops,
bridging interests of both researchers and practitioners. 
 
Event Components 
-Keynote lectures
-Plenary panel sessions with discussions among researchers, artists/creators, and local
-planners/municipal representatives 
-Interactive workshop sessions (Symposium)
-Associated artistic presentations to complement event themes

For further information, see the call for proposals at the external link below, or contact Dr Nancy Duxbury at [email protected].