Description
DeepNic aims to investigate the evolution and transformation of Nicosia’s urban centre from a historical and sociological perspective using several types of data such as written, oral, and visual. It takes the whole of the urban centre of Nicosia as a case study, to examine how its transformation within a certain period is affected by key political and social developments that have occurred from 1960 until today, namely, the proclamation of the independence, the 1963-64 intercommunal strife, the 1974 war and the division of the island; the beginning of the Master Plan in 1979; the unilateral proclamation of TRNC in the north of Cyprus in 1983; first mass granting of employment permissions to immigrants in the 1990s; the opening of the crossings in 2003; the financial crisis in 2013; and the pandemic measures in 2020.
In this project, historical research is combined with geography and technology in a data visualization effort that allows a multi-temporal and multi-dimensional historical narrative. The method of deep mapping will be therefore applied, as it seems to offer the means to accomplish the objectives of this project, which are:
- Collecting historical information related to specific aspects of the urban centre: demographics, business activity (types of business), cultural activity (cultural events, museums, cultural organisations, cultural and creative industries), peacebuilding activity, racial character, monument building, as they were formed following specific political events.
- Bringing to the surface multi-temporal perspectives of Nicosia that would encourage the emergence and discussion of marginalised or, in some cases, conflicting historical narratives.
- Facilitating history education across the divide.
Partners
Centre of Excellence CYENS
Appios® Creative Studio
Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR)
Publications
Authors: Antigone Heraclidou, CYENS Centre of Excellence & Esra Plümer-Bardak, Association for Historical
Dialogue and Research
Events
Date: 14/4/2022
Place: Nicosia
Description: CYENS Centre of Excellence invites a diverse group of local technologists, industry, governmental and civil society representatives, as well as researchers, academics and invited artists, to unpack the power of data based on their practises and in relevance to the Cypriot context and realities. Special focus is drawn on issues of socio-environmental sustainability and equity, the role of different stakeholders and the dynamics of artistic practises as pillars in innovation and communication.
Date: 9/10/2022
Place: Nicosia
Description: A special crowdsourcing activity!
DeepNic is a history project investigating and ‘deep mapping’ the evolution and transformation of Nicosia’s urban centre through key political and social events between 1960 and 2020.
Contribute to a deeper understanding of our city by bringing your own photographs, documents, posters, newspaper clippings etc., at DeepNic’s scanning station at Home for Cooperation! With Antigone Heraclidou and Esra Plümer-Bardak.
Credit Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2022/Ozan Tezvaran for the last 4 photos of the collection.
Researchers
Antigone Heraclidou
is a Research Associate at the Museum Lab of CYENS Centre of Excellence. She holds a PhD in Modern History from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. She is the author of Imperial Control in Cyprus: Education and Political Manipulation in the British Empire(2017). She co-edited several books and has published her work in international journals. She worked closely with several museums in Nicosia from her post as an Officer at Nicosia Tourism Board, while recently she co-curated the exhibition Ledra Palace: Dancing on the Line, at the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia.
Esra Plumer Bardak
is an art historian, writer-researcher. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Nottingham. She is specialised in 20th and 21st-century western and near eastern art. Her research interests include artistic strategies related to the history of psychoanalysis and psychiatric treatment methods, rethinking art history narratives in Cyprus with a particular focus on the Turkish Cypriot Community, and canon formation in conflicting histories and archives. She has been a proud member of the Association of Historical Dialogue and Research since 2020, contributing to various projects as a consultant, researcher, facilitator as well as authoring-developing educational materials.
Thomas Nikidiotis
holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and Informatics from the Cyprus University of Technology. He also awarded by the University for higher grade during 4 years of studies. He is currently an MSc student in Data Science and Engineering to the Cyprus University of Technology. He’s work focuses on the use of new programming technologies to provide the end-users with applications which promoting museum artefacts.