Adam Lowe
Series 1 Episode 5
Lost Treasures: Reconstructing Al-Idrisi
Series 1 Episode 5
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Welcome! In this episode, Jerry is joined by Adame Lowe, founder of Factum Arte and the Factum Foundation. Factum is a pioneering digital media studio, working to record, preserve, and restore cultural heritage - particularly where it is in a fragile state.
Adam’s map is Factum’s re-creation of the world map produced by Muhammad Al-Idrisi for King Roger II of Sicily in the 12th century. The map is two metres wide, and made from pure silver. While this astonishing object was lost to history, Al-Idrisi also produced the famous Book of Roger: an atlas containing a circular world map.
Using this precious document and other historical resources, Adam and his team crafted the full-size silver disc based on meticulous research, bringing us as close as possible to the legendary lost map.
Muhammed Al-Idrisi (1100–1165 CE) was a revered map-maker and intellectual. He studied in Cordoba, Spain, and was a great traveller. He created his famous silver disc map, along with the atlas 'The Book of Roger' - also known as the 'Book of Pleasant Journeys Into Faraway Lands' for Kinger Roger II of Sicily. A wonderfully well-preserved later copy of this atlas (above) is kept in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford University. It was one of Al-Idrisi's most famous works, and a highly important source of information for the team at Factum, as they worked on re-creating his silver disc map based on rigorous scholarship and authentic information.
Professor Yossef Rapoport discussed Al-Idrisi, his silver disc map, and the Book of Roger at the recent Sunderland Collection Symposium 'Maps Are Too Exciting! Digital innovations in mapping' held in association with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and the ARCHIOx project.
About Adam Lowe
Adam is the founder of Factum Arte andthe Factum Foundation. Originally a painter, he was trained in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford and the Royal College of the Arts in London. In the mid-1990s, he established a print workshop in London dedicated to the production of pigment transfer prints that blurred the boundary between image and form.
In 2001, Adam moved to Madrid and created Factum Arte, a multidisciplinary workshop dedicated to digital mediation for the production of works for contemporary artists. He founded Factum Foundation in 2009 with the aim of using Factum Arte´s innovative processes and technologies for preservation, high-resolution recording, education, and the development of thought-provoking exhibitions.
Adam has been an adjunct professor at the MS Historic Preservation at Columbia University, New York since 2016. In 2019, he became a Royal Designer for Industry, awarded by the Royal Society of Arts. His innovations in the field of preservation and technology include the facsimile of Veronese’s Wedding at Cana, the reconstruction of the vandalised sacred cave of Kamukuwaká (Brazil), and the creation of the 3D Scanning, Training and Archiving Centre in Egypt, to record the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and carry out training activities to local communities.
He has completed recording and preservation projects in Egypt, Nigeria, Somaliland, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil, Chad, Iraq, Italy, UK, USA, among other countries, and his work has been exhibited at institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, the Royal Academy, The Prado Museum, Waddesdon Manor and Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice. Lowe has written extensively on the subject of originality, authenticity and preservation.
A new episode of WHAT'S YOUR MAP? will be available every two weeks.
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