Francis Harvey: Finding Balance in the Post-Truth World of the Antropocene. A Geovisual Approach

The modernist dream of development is over. Its maps and charts have limited relevance, if at all, for the post-truth world of the anthropocene. These times also call for new types of geovisualization. In spite of the characteristic indifference to facts that dominate media today, this talk suggests that geovisualization can contribute to the process of finding balance for the new situation, which transcends the perception of fragmentation in the contemporary world. Geovisualization is no panacea, but in its mutability offers modes and means of communication to facilitate understanding and change, discuss transgressions and find common ground for mitigation and empowerment. It also remains a focus of critical engagement and tension. After the predominance of maps in modernity, people around the world are developing new forms of geo-graphical communication that account for new experiences of reality. This talk will present some examples and concepts for the development of engagement and creation of geovisualizations to find balances. Even imperfect, instead of material consumption and hegemonic rhetorical constructions, these new approaches and geovisualizations support processes of finding balance in the world through the engagement with uncommon interests and the development of a dynamic sense of balance commensurate with developments in this epoch.

Francis Harvey ist Leiter der Abteilung Kartographie und visuelle Kommunikation am Leibnitz-Institut für Länderkunde sowie Professor für visuelle Kommunikation in der Geographie an der Universität Leipzig. Nach seinem Diplom-Ingenieur Studium der Raumplanung an der Universität Dortmund promovierte er 1996 an der University of Washington, Seattle. Das Thema seiner Dissertation lautete „Geographic Information Integration and GIS Overlay“. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in der Geovisualisierung, thematischen Kartographie sowie semantischen und semiotischen Fragen hinsichtlich geographischer Repräsentationen.

Donnerstag, 28. Juni 2018, 13 Uhr – Sodalitas Bildungshaus, Propsteiweg 1, 9121 Tainach

WIWI Fakultät | Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung

http://www.geo.aau.at