Category Archives: Archnet News

Full House for AKDC presentation at HIAA biannual symposium

AKDC@MIT is delighted to have had the opportunity to present on its collections and new research tools to a packed room at the 2018 biennial symposium of the Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA). The session took place at 1:00 pm on Saturday, October 27, the final day of the symposium at Yale University. Matt Saba, Visual Resources Librarian, gave a brief overview of the history of the center and its image collection, the Aga Khan Visual Archive. He then surveyed several of the center’s new collections since 2012, divided into three categories. For Scholars’ Collections he highlighted the Tabbaa […]

Interim Program Head and Visual Resources Librarian to present at HIAA Symposium

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) is excited to offer an information session on its collections at the 2018 Biennial Symposium of the Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA), taking place at Yale University on October 25 – 27, 2018. Matt Saba, Visual Resources Librarian at AKDC@MIT, will offer an overview of the center’s collections, highlighting new acquisitions since 2012. Noteworthy examples are the archives of Iraqi architects Mohamed Makiya, Hisham Munir, and Rifat Chadirji, whose works represent a pivotal moment in the history of modern architecture, and the archive of French architect Michel Écochard, who worked on […]

Urban October on Archnet

Each October UN-Habitat and organizations around the world focus on the theme of urban sustainability. Urban October begins with World Habitat Day on 1 October and ends with World Cities Day on 31 October. This year Archnet joins in the effort by bringing attention to materials relating to urban development and efforts to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” throughout the history of Muslim societies. Follow us on social media and look for the hashtag #UrbanOctober.

New Exhibition: Details, Delight, and Documentation

A new Archnet exhibition highlights items from the Stuart Cary Welch Islamic and South Asian Photograph Collection of Harvard’s Fine Arts Library. Welch (1928-2008) was a celebrated curator, lecturer, and collector of Islamic and Indian art. His professional positions included Special Consultant in charge of the Department of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a post he held from 1979-1987, and Honorary Keeper, then Curator of Islamic Art at Harvard University’s Fogg Museum from 1956-2008. He is credited with vitalizing the study of Western and South Asian art, culture, and aesthetics in the United States during the latter half […]

Founding Program Head Leaving AKDC

This week Sharon C. Smith, PhD, founding Program Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT), and co-director of Archnet.org, will turn over the reins to Michael A. Toler, PhD, Archnet Content Manager, who will assume the role of Interim Program Head. Smith established AKDC@MIT in 2011 when she came to MIT from the Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library. Since then the Center has not only provided outstanding support to the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard, but it has grown into a research and archival center with a significant and growing global reputation. […]

Now online: Sharon C. Smith: “Documenting the Built Environment: Why and How?” & Michael A. Toler: “The Documentation of Cultural Heritage a Society in Transition”

The presentations “Documenting the Built Environment: Why and How?” by Sharon C. Smith, “Documenting the Cultural Heritage of a Society in Transition” by Michael A. Toler are now available online at the web site of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). The presentations were recorded on April 12, 2018 at the Legation in Tangier, Morocco, as part of TALIM’s annual April Seminar, organized annually in partnership with the Office Chérifien des Phosphates. This year’s seminar program was organized in collaboration with the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT). The audio and slides from the session will also […]

Audio from the AKDC/TALIM Seminar on Digital Documentation of Moroccan Cultural Heritage being made available online

In April Michael A. Toler, Archnet Content Manager, and Sharon C. Smith, Program Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) traveled to Morocco for a workshop and seminar organized by AKDC@MIT and the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). Following these events Smith and Toler traveled to other cities in Morocco to discuss possibilities for collaboration. The workshop and seminar, held at TALIM April 11-12, focused on digital preservation of cultural heritage in Northern Morocco, were attended by researchers, scholars, preservationists, and representatives of cultural heritage institutions including universities, libraries, government and non-governmental institutions with a focus on preservation. The facilities […]

A Typical Morning for Archnet

According to Google Analytics, at 10:34 am EDT this morning there were 19 people using Archnet, and they came from 11 different countries. At the precise moment when we checked the statistics, 7 of those users came from India where it was well into the evening; 3 came from the US where it was morning; and 1 visitor came from each of the remaining 9 countries. 19 visitors from 9 countries on 5 continents is a fairly typical number for that time of a weekday in July.