Mauricio Arango

Bio: Mauricio Arango is an academic researcher from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The author has contributed to research in topics: World map. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 54 citations.

Vanishing point

Abstract: Vanishing Point is a presentation of the world as it responds to international newspaper coverage - not a measure of what the world is, but of what is most newsworthy. Consequently, countries that receive less media coverage gradually disappear from view. It consists of an interactive world map connected to a database fed by international news sources, and exists both in the form of a website (http://low-fi.org.uk/vanishingpoint) and as a physical gallery installation.The goal of this piece is to decipher the world that news media reconfigures and to observe if media coverage, or lack thereof, is creating a new cartography.

Developing a research agenda for tourism crisis management, market recovery and communications.

Abstract: SUMMARY This article focuses on the need to develop a comprehensive research agenda for crisis management and market recovery in tourism A review of the literature on research into risk, crisis and disaster management indicates that research has emerged on an ad hoc basis Analysis of a database of over 2400 relevant references supports the need for a research agenda that will focus on crisis management and market recovery and communications, rather than prevention The BEST Education Network research agenda on risk and crisis management for sustainable tourism is then presented as a basis for further development of a crisis management and market recovery research agenda In particular, it elaborates on research issues related to the communication during tourism crises, assessing strategies for market recovery and understanding these issues from the DMO's perspective

History and GIS: Epistemologies, Considerations and Reflections

Abstract: -Keep on trackin' [working title].- -The Space Between the (Post) and the (Modern): Considering GIS, History, and Geography.- -Using GIS to Explore the Nonlinear Dynamics of Historic Systems.- -A class from the past [working title].- -Beyond GIS: geo-spatial technologies and the future of history.- -Luddites in social science: the history of choropleth mapping in the Netherlands.- -Beyond the Narrative: Using H-GIS to Reveal Hidden Patterns and Processes of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century Cities.- -The Role of Knowledge Spaces in the design of Historical GIS.- -Mapping early modern commerce and technology in urban mental landscapes.- -GIS for Native American history.- -GIS for environmental history.- -GIS in Medieval history to map religious apparitions.

Late-Victorian celebrity culture : the interaction of celebrity, media and consumers

Abstract: This thesis argues for an amendment to the traditional scholarly visualisation of how celebrity culture functions In making this argument it looks at the context of late-Victorian Britain, a space and time that I argue harboured the first mass celebrity culture Instead of the cleanly divided triptych of celebrity, media, and consumers (as proposed most recently by Sharon Marcus), a more integrative model is proposed that seeks to reflect how the three central agents interact and merge seamlessly into one another This merging of roles, I argue, is a result of the more indiscriminatory, ambiguous, and ‘liquid’ nature of celebrity fame that - unlike the more rigid fame of heroism - does not need to conform as much to pre-set cultural types In making this argument the thesis looks at four late-Victorian celebrity activities (autobiography, biography, interviews, autograph collecting) that serve as both the central primary sources as well as chapter focuses In each activity-based chapter the thesis investigates the complex interplay of the three fundamental agents of celebrity, particularly the ways in which they both conflicted and coalesced seamlessly into one another By doing this, the thesis aims to help inter-disciplinary scholars of celebrity sharpen their theoretical conceptualisation of the phenomenon as well as demonstrate the necessity of accounting for celebrity culture in any thorough discussion of late-Victorian popular culture

The semiotic spectrum

Abstract: Because humans cannot know one another’s minds directly, every form of communication is a solution to the same basic problem: how can privately held information be made publicly accessible through manipulations of the physical environment? Language is by far the best studied response to this challenge. But there are a diversity of non-linguistic strategies for representation with external signs as well, from facial expressions and fog horns to chronological graphs and architectural renderings. The general thesis of this dissertation is that there is an impressively wide spectrum of conventional systems of representation, corresponding to the many ways that the problem of communication can be solved, and that these systems can be described and explained using the tools of contemporary mathematical semantics. As a partial corrective to the countervailing norm, this work concentrates on the class of systems arguably most different from language— those governing the interpretation of pictorial images. Such representations dominate practical communication: witness the proliferation of maps, road signs, newspaper photographs, scientific illustrations, television shows, engineering drawings, and even the fleeting imagery of manual gesture. I argue that systems of depiction and languages embody a parallel technologies of communication. Both are based on semantics: systematic and conventional mappings from signs to representational content. But I also provide evidence that these semantics are profoundly divergent. Whereas the semantics of languages are based on arbitrary associations of signs and denotations, the semantics of systems of depiction are based on rules of geometrical transformation. Drawing on recent research in computer graphics and computational vision, I go on to develop a precise theory of pictorial semantics. This in turn facilitates a detailed comparison of iconic, image-based representation, and symbolic, language-based representation. A consequence of these conclusions is that the traditional, language-centric conception of semantics must be overhauled to allow for a more general semantic theory, one which countenances the wide variety of interpretive mechanisms actually at work in human communication.

Our Famous Blue Raincoat: The Phenomenon of Leonard Cohen and the Changing Discourses of Celebrity in Canada

Abstract: The history of Leonard Cohen’s career over the last sixty years is also a reflection of the development of contemporary celebrity culture in Canada. One of the main conditions that allowed this culture to emerge is the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (1949-51). As a result, the Canadian government strengthened cultural policy and developed the Canada Council for the Arts to support cultural production. In 1958, Cohen was a recipient of the new Canada Council Junior Arts Fellowships. Using the celebrity phenomenon of Cohen as my object of research, this dissertation asks: How is the discourse of celebrity constructed in Canada from the mid-twentieth century to the early decades of the twenty-first century? Developing a discursive analysis, I illuminate how we talk about celebrity in Canada at certain socio-historical moments and portray Canada as a nation ambivalent about celebrity. Within the early industrial production of Cohen’s poetic celebrity, discourses of literary celebrity, Canadian celebrity, and cultural nationalism discursively manage his biographical production as a popular and accessible poet. In turn, discourses of intimacy connect Cohen with his fans, as fans seek to discover the “real” Cohen through his poetry and music. However, these feelings of intimacy are disparaged through a discourse of the obsessive and emotional fan perpetuated in the media coverage of Montreal 2000: The Leonard Cohen Event. After Cohen’s death, I discover a shift away from this discourse. The media coverage of Cohen’s death circulates an affective atmosphere of grief and mourning, presents the emotionality of fans as appropriate, and offers socially normative ways of coping with this loss. I explore my own complex emotional reaction to Cohen’s death as a fan and academic through an autoethnographic approach, seeking to depathologize the emotional experiences of academia and fandom. One of the most significant changes in discourses of Canadian celebrity that I identify is a potentially seismic shift from willful avoidance to zero tolerance regarding problematic celebrity behaviour. In conclusion, I build on this discourse by exploring the things we do not talk about when we talk about Leonard Cohen.