About Us
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson "Earth gazing" in the Cupola module of the International Space Station. Wikipedia↗
Our mission is to celebrate the diversity of our ever-changing world.
Culture Atlas is committed to an ongoing effort to educate students and life-long learners by expanding the map of our shared cultural heritage. Our mission is to offer a diverse set of stories and authentic voices from around the world to enrich our understanding of the vast tapestry of human life, expression, and movement. We recognize the contributions of all peoples and give users the freedom to explore history from multiple perspectives.
Our App begins with a view of earth from space. By seeing the world as one entity, a “pale blue dot” on which we all live and work and create, we seek to establish a context of human connectedness. Whatever you choose to explore and learn on Culture Atlas, it will always be part of an ever-expanding story.
A note from our founder
Culture Atlas is the confluence of three personal passions: (1) a life-long interest in the arts and humanities, (2) the influence of Walter Reinhold’s teaching methodologies, and (3) the overview effect.
I previously cofounded Honeybee Robotics: a successful NASA prototype shop that eventually delivered flight instruments such as the Rock Abrasion Tool for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers mission. It was through my work with NASA engineers, managers, and astronauts that I first learned about the overview effect.
Since retiring from robotics in 2017 I’ve had the good fortune of working with several dozen talented academics, programmers, videographers, and others who have helped bring Culture Atlas to its current state: a virtual earth with over 250,000 geotagged digital assets. Our goal has been to create a space where viewers can see cultural narratives immersively unfold on the planet’s surface. Over the next year we’ll be adding additional content, features, and upgrading our interface, all while keeping the overview effect as our guiding star.
Welcome to Culture Atlas!
Chris Chapman, Project Manager and CEO
Culture Atlas Origins
The idea for the Culture project came from the teaching methods of the late NYU professor of music history, Walter Reinhold (1940-2006). Reinhold designed sixteen courses covering medieval to 20th-century music, art and history, which he taught to over 2,000 students during his years at New York University and Kean College of New Jersey.
Reinhold’s curricula were designed to cover over 3500 years of developments in Western music, art & architecture, history, literature, and religion & philosophy. He believed this broader contextual approach (vs. conventionally siloed studies within a singular discipline such as art history) was necessary to truly understand terms like “renaissance” or “baroque”. The company was incorporated in 1988 with the release of Culture 1.0: The Contextual Guide to Western Civilization (for the Apple Mac) and culminated with the release of Culture 4.0 (CD for Mac & Windows) in 2000. Since Reinhold’s untimely passing in 2006, the company has extended his contextual vision to an overview of all world cultures, past and present.
Walter Reinhold (1940-2006).
Our Team
Several dozen talented individuals have contributed to the creation of Culture Atlas over the past eight years—thanks to all of you!
Management
Nenad Visnjevac
Chief Technical Officer
Angela Sotalbo
Engineering Manager
Bartow Weiss
Project Coordinator
Anna Chapman
Data & Social Media Manager
Content Creation
Ken Bilby
Jonthon Coulson
Noé Dinnerstein
Kate Douglas
Banning Eyre
Matt Foulds
Madison Ingram
AJ Kluth
Kevin Kokomoor
James Lewis
Martina Li
Sean McArdle
Paolo Orso
Alondra Pacheco
Xanthe Paige
Maddux Pearson
Aaron Ralby
Julie Ramirez
Matt Rarey
Ori Soltes
Josh Sperling
Paula Tarankow
Samuel Thomas
Jackie Warren
Zephan Whittle
Wolf Williams
Melanie Zeck
Video Production
Rian Brown-Orso - Lead Producer
Fiona Brennan
Michelle Chu
Emily Cohn
Julia Davis
Dave McLean (Garage Creative)
Jason McRuer
Brenna Power
Woody Tucker
Engineering
Angela Baylon
Father Chrysostomos
Gaurang Devmurari
Seung-hyun Hwang
Hwarim Hyun
Sunmi Kang
Mino Kim
Osung Kwon
Stevan Milic
Matthew Smith
Prashant Tyagi
Nenad Visnjevac
Father Vlasie
Curricula Creators
Over the past several years the Culture Atlas team has worked with a talented trio of academics to build the following courses into our app: AP US History, AP World History, AP Human Geography, and US History Survey.
Sam Thomas, PhD
AP World History, AP Human Geography
Sam Thomas has taught history, human geography, and economics for twenty-five years. In a previous life, he published four historical mysteries (The Midwife Mysteries), and now spends his spare time chasing his cat off his computer and training for weird endurance races. He earned his BA from Pomona College, and PhD from Washington University in St. Louis.
Matt Foulds, PhD
AP US History
Dr. Matt Foulds is the James and Donna Reid Chair in History at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio. He has taught United States History at both the collegiate and high school levels for twenty years. He earned his BA from the College of Wooster and his MA and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.
Kevin Kokomoor, PhD
AP US History, US History Survey (USH+)
Kevin Kokomoor earned his Ph.D. in American History in 2013 and is currently a faculty member at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. He teaches and writes primarily on early America, Native America, and the Early Republic, and is the author of three books, including the forthcoming The Cherokee War of 1776: Native American Destruction at the Dawn of American Independence.
Amistad Caribbean Arts Camp
Over the past eight years, the Culture Atlas team has provided digital resources for the Amistad Caribbean Arts Camp, a Cleveland-based musical and arts program focused on Afro-Caribbean, North American, and Latin American cultures and the premier education program ofOpen Tone Music (a NE Ohio non-profit).
We have helped the Amistad and OTM teams by building three digital archives utilized in the Amistad program
Amistad Curriculum
An online exploration of AfroAtlantic culture
Amistad Video Library
An extensive collection of short (1 to 5 minutes) videos on AfroAtlantic and world cultures
Amistad Percussion Library
A collection of videos exploring rhythms of the African diaspora
We want to hear from you!
We are very interested in your ideas, reviews, and your experience using the Culture Atlas app.