This is an interactive mapping workshop led by Ahmad Barclay and Majd Al-shihabi. The event introduces Palestine Open Maps, an interactive platform for exploring historic maps of Palestine, and actively engages participants in the collective process of digitising the information contained within a series of highly detailed 1:20,000 scale British mandate maps from the 1940s.

These maps, now in the public domain, offer an important record of a human and natural geography that has largely been erased today. Participants will be introduced to an easy-to-use online mapping tool, and have the opportunity to digitise content from all across Palestine, including landmarks such as towns, roads, railways, places of worship, and also natural landscape features. The eventual result of this effort will be a fully digital and freely available interactive map of 1940s Palestine.

This workshop is now fully booked. To get on the waitlist please email rsvp@artjameel.org. 

No previous mapping experience is necessary. Participants must bring a laptop (and a mouse) if possible.

This workshop is part of an exhibition and series of events, a collaboration between Jameel Arts Centre and Visualizing Palestine.

Ahmad Barclay 

A partner with Visualizing Palestine since its founding in 2012, Ahmad is an architect, visual communicator and product designer. He is actively engaged in a variety of projects involving data visualization, visual storytelling and learning through play, and has facilitated courses and workshops based on his practices in cities including Beirut, Amman, London and Bangalore. Ahmad is also co-founder of MyToyTown, a slot-together wooden play system for kids.

Majd Al-shihabi 

Majd Al-shihabi is a systems design engineer, currently applying the craft of systems thinking to the urban context as a graduate student in the urban planning and policy program at the American University of Beirut. He is interested in using open methodologies and free and open source software in order to create systemic change. He was the inaugural  Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellow with Creative Commons, Mozilla, and Wikimedia Foundations, where he was working on Palestine Open Maps, and the MASRAD:platform.