This summer Javier Arce-Nazario presented geo/visual/island at the Casa Blanca exhibition hall of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture. More than a thousand visitors visited the exhibit from Puerto Rico and around the world, many of which were students from local public schools.
Arce-Nazario presented geo/visual/island at the Casa Blanca exhibition hall of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture
Dr. Javier A. Arce-Nazario and the Environmental Cartography Collective of the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey created geo/visual/island to explain how the natural and constructed spaces in Puerto Rico have changed over the past century. Their innovative exhibition uses a mixture of maps, aerial images and environmental information from Puerto Rico to present landscape change in an engaging and artistic format. The exhibition opened on June 10 at Casa Blanca, a former residence of Juan Ponce de Leon located in the heart of old San Juan. “Geo/visual/island presents new ways to visualize and understand the environmental changes that have occurred in Puerto Rico. Through the appreciation of the patterns in the landscape, visitors will develop their ability to interpret geovisualizations and thus have a better understanding of the environmental changes that have occurred,” explains Dr. Arce-Nazario, an associate professor of geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and adjunct researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research of UPR-Cayey. The exhibit, created in collaboration with undergraduate students from many disciplines, captures the dynamics of the Puerto Rican landscape through sequences of aerial photographs and maps. The theme connects with Arce-Nazario’s research into how past events affect biophysical and social dynamics in tropical landscapes, and his interest in new ways of translating scientific information into artistic and educational experiences.
More than 600 public school students visited the exhibit. Below are two pictures of public school students visiting the exhibit during a field trip to old San Juan.
Public school students visiting the exhibit during a field trip to old San Juan
Public school students visiting my exhibit during a field trip to old San Juan
The front of the postcard of the exhibit
The back of the postcard of the exhibit