What’s Up on the Ground Floor this September?
You may have noticed something unusual just inside the G/F gates of the Library. What is it? A display of a digital humanities project for you to interact (play) with.
What’s the story?
In spring semester 2025, 5 UG students worked with library staff as one of the DS CoLab projects to bring a 520+ year-old map from the Library’s collection to life. They used augmented reality (AR) technology to create an engaging and interactive visual way to explore the cultures and histories that went into the creation of “Secunda etas mundi“, The Second Stage of the World, from Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).
This map is a fascinating piece from the library’s Special Collections. It shows “The Second Age of the World” (out of 6), the stage between Noah’s Flood and the birth of Abraham. These ages were a periodization of world history (common in Christian Europe for about 1,000 years), first formulated by the North African Christian theologian, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE). A remarkable example of late medieval cartography, it combines knowledge from the Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy with visual references from religion and mythology from Europe and the lands surrounding the Mediterranean. Explore and enjoy with the interactive features developed by the students!
It has 2 AR features.
- Face Tracking: You can apply features from the creatures to your own face
- Image Tracking: Illustrations will be triggered to pop up when you point your mobile device’s camera at the map. From there you can also learn the tales of the different figures on the maps.
Want to play with it online (not in the Library)? Go to the project page. Want to learn more about the technical aspects about how the project was done, go to the page for DS CoLab Project P004.
Have fun!
Head (Research and Learning Support)
Victoria Caplan
lbcaplan@ust.hk
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