17.04.2008
From the Nippur School to EMEP: 4,000 Years of Data Representation
Lecture by Ramon Guardans held on November 13th, 2007 within the context of Visualizar 07, a broad program of research, reflection and production activities about data visualization and its social, artistic and cultural applications. The first edition took place at Medialab-Prado from November 12th through 28th, 2007.
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The clay tablets unearthed in Nippur and recently published by C. Proust constitute an extraordinary example of mathematical texts from over 4,000 years ago, represented on clay. From studying these representations, information can be gleaned about their authors’ mathematical knowledge and learning, reading, and calculation procedures.
The models of long-range transmission of air pollutants (www.emep.int) are examples of data representation of massive calculations based on emissions data and large-scale meteorological measurements.
These examples help us to consider the problem of representing knowledge, and the objects and processes involved in the task.