Maritime Connections in Early Southeast Asia: Two Spatial Approaches

Exhibition Details: My exhibition explores aquatic connections across the waters of the South China Sea in the first millennium CE, showing the underlying mechanics and earliest development of the Southeast Asian “crossroads of the world.” The exhibition is based on two distinct yet interconnected digital projects of mine. The first project is a scalable viewshed map of the western South China Sea and Java Sea, which illustrates in detail the nature of various routes for maritime navigation in the age of sail. The map was generated using ArcGIS, and includes some mapping of bathymetry to illustrate where ships would need to move more slowly due to possible undersea hazards. The second project is a website, "Maritime Asia in the Third Century CE," which translates and analyzes two Chinese texts that describe the state of knowledge of early maritime trade in Southeast Asia, reaching to South Asia and even as far as the Roman Empire. The website uses Esri’s StoryMap format to illuminate these materials with interactive maps and illustrations. The exhibit will require a large computer monitor, an internet connection (I will bring my own computer), and enough space for the expected audience.