Weaving communities of practice. Textiles, culture and identity in the Andes: a semiotic and ontological approach.

Project start date: 2009-07 Project end date: 2012-06
Research in Bolivia, Peru and Chile, combined with museum research there and in the UK, focuses on Bolivia, Peru, and Chile on the basis of previous ethnographic, archaeological and museological knowledge and contacts, and three time horizons: Tiwanaku, the Inka-early colony, and the contemporary. The primary aims of this project are: to link visual, computer and museum studies in areas of cognition, and curatorial methods; to advance textile studies in areas of structure mapping and correlations with socio-cultural data; to advance understanding of meta-learning in visual contexts; to ensure that, through exchanges of ideas, methods, and technologies, the study of the visual aspects of man-machine interface methodologies are better integrated with the social sciences. Secondary aims include providing new methods for textile producers to document and defend their textile patrimony and understanding regional textual practices from the perspective of Andean weavers contributes to decolonisation studies, and new intercultural ontological approaches.
Era(s): 
Country/region(s): 
Methods usedCategory
Resource sharingCommunication and collaboration
Cataloguing and indexingData structuring and enhancement
Geo-referencing and projectionData structuring and enhancement
Record linkagesData analysis
General website developmentData publishing and dissemination
Funding sources: 
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created: 
3D object, Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used: 
Google Earth, Protégé-OWL, Sawu-3D
Source material used:  
Textile collections from various museums in South America (and throughout the world). CIDOC-CRM ontology for cultural heritage and museum curation.
Digital resource created:  
Resources available from the website include a map of textile-producing regions and distribution, a forum for discussion, and other supporting materials currently under development(this includes a knowledge base for Andean textiles based on an ontology, it is planned to make this information via a web site).
Access to digital resource:  
Open Access
Data Formats created: 
OWL/RDF (multi-media formats are still under investigation)
Metadata standards employed: 
Dublin Core, simple (DC)
Publications:  
Arnold, Denise Y., Sven Helmer, and Rodolfo Velasquez Arando. 2009. Towards Building a Knowledge Base for Research on Andean Weaving. Paper presented at the 26th British National Conference on Databases, July, in Birmingham, UK.

Institutions affiliated with this project: 

UK HE institutions involved:
Birkbeck College
UK HE institutions involved:
Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara
La Paz
Bolivia

Project staff and expertise: 

Principal staff member:Dr Luciana Martins; Dr Sven Helmer
Other staff:
External expertise:


Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record
Author(s) of recordSven Helmer
TitleWeaving communities of practice. Textiles, culture and identity in the Andes: a semiotic and ontological approach.
Record created2010-07-22
Record updated2011-06-02 11:31
URL of recordhttp://www.arts-humanities.net/node/3685
Citation of recordSven Helmer: Weaving communities of practice. Textiles, culture and identity in the Andes: a semiotic and ontological approach..
<http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/3685>
created: 2010-07-22, last updated 2011-06-02 11:31