MMXII Mapping Manchester
Abigail Gilmore and Kostas Arvanitis are currently leading the MMXII Mapping Manchester 2012, working with MA Arts Management, Policy and Practice graduates Alex Hambleton and Jim Ralley. The project is funded by CRESC Urban Experiments to research, develop and test processes which support public research and engagement using freely available social media tools and platforms. It does so by mapping and ‘geo-annotating’ objects, people and places which are the subjects of University research, using social and digital media tools, for example through Foursquare ‘tips’ and Twitter updates.
Various free digital media tools employed in guided activities which provide the basis for people to find, map and debate socio-cultural histories in an interactive and engaging way. They signpost where archive and research materials are accessible online and also provide spaces for people to post their own content and to comment, respond and recommend pathways through histories and places to others. The online content can contain text, video, audio, images and so on, and has proved an effective way of introducing research outputs such as papers, monographs, reports and articles, as well as other archival resources and databases, including E-Scholar and the John Rylands Special Collections.