A research student in the School of Geography, University of Nottingham, exploring the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) and visualisation technologies for representing 'multiple realities' of urban environments.

An understanding of the world around us is constructed from the perceived images that are created out of our own sensory interactions with the environment. Any representation of the 'reality' is consequently emerging out of these 'cognate models' or 'experiential worlds' that exist only in the minds. Human beings are also socially and culturally situated that influences the differences in what they perceive and value in their perception. The ' cultural associations' determine the 'reality', its representation and also the interpretation of the representation itself.

My current research is aimed at exploring such issues in modelling human actions, social relations and cultural meanings in GIS especially in context of a historic cultural landscape. In such a scenario, there seems to be no single 'reality'. Hence, instead of reductionist approaches where vision is confused with perception, technology need to emerge from the needs of representation rather than simplifying such notions for technological conveniences. The overall aim of my research is to define a representative technique coupled with GIS that goes beyond purely physical visualisation of the urban pattern and is able to support visualisation of 'multiple realities', their transformation and the evolution both in time and in space.