Places & Spaces Puts Science on the Map

In collaboration with Indiana University, NCSU Libraries invites you to see some of the most inspired scientific visualizations in history. From October 14th through the 27th, the Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibit will be featured in the iPearl Immersion Theater at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library. The October event marks a fascinating symbiosis of content and medium, with the visionary maps that make up Places & Spaces providing a perfect complement to the stunning visual experience of the iPearl Immersion Theater.

Now in its ninth year, the Places & Spaces exhibit has traced the evolution of science maps, featuring the most powerful examples of knowledge domain mapping, novel location-based cartographies, data visualizations, and science-inspired art works. Created by leading figures in the natural, physical, and social sciences, scientometrics, visual arts, social and science policymaking, and the humanities, the maps in Places & Spaces allow us to better grasp the abstract contexts, relationships, and dynamism of human systems and collective intelligence. Individually and as a whole, the maps of Places & Spaces allow data to tell stories which both the scientist and the layperson can understand and appreciate.

Over the course of its nine-year existence, these maps have adorned the walls of some of the most prestigious libraries, museums, and universities around the world (see http://www.scimaps.org/exhibitions/ for a complete listing of venues). By presenting the mapping of science in the context of a more traditional exhibit-going experience, Places & Spaces has brought together two cultural locations ”the lab and the gallery ”that have often been viewed as ideologically and aesthetically remote.

In keeping, however, with the exhibit's commitment to both tracing science mapping's past and offering glimpses of its future, Places & Spaces has partnered with North Carolina State University's innovative Hunt Library and its state-of-the-art iPearl Immersion Theater to offer a new way to experience this important collection. With its 7x16-foot Christie® MicroTiles® digital display, the iPearl Immersion Theater surrounds viewers with larger-than-life maps of science that are visually arresting from afar and amazingly sharp up close. With media outlets like Time magazine, Ploughshares, Architect magazine, and others placing it at the forefront of a renaissance in library design and capabilities, the Hunt Library is the perfect cutting-edge venue to feature the groundbreaking work of Places & Spaces: Mapping Science.