UT Dallas: Humanity's Cultural History Captured in 5 minutes

What if you can view the entire human cultural history in 5 minutes? Maximilian Schich, an art historian at the University of Texas Dallas, created a 5-minute animation using influential figures to show human migration and culture over the last 2,600 years.

The team used data from Google's Freebase, consisting of 120,000 notable individuals and 150,000 artists whose birth and death dates and locations were recorded. The result is a video from 600 BC to 2012 AD, visualizing the history of cultural hubs, along with innovation, across time. Each person’s birth place appears on the map as a blue dot and their death as a red dot. The work was featured on Nature Science. This fascinating movie shows how immigration can profoundly affect a place's society, economy, and progress, as well as where the most influential people chose to migrate. Next time when you are looking for opportunities, you can count on this trend. 

We also recommend watching: "Hans Rosling: 200 Countries, 200 Years, in 4 Minutes" and "Silicon Valley: 'The Traitorous 8' Mark the Beginning".

UT Dallas: Humanity's Cultural History Captured in 5-minutes

Dr. Maximilian Schich is an art historian, joining The University of Texas at Dallas as an Associate Professor for Art and Technology in January 2013. He works to converge hermeneutics, information visualization, computer science, and physics to understand art, history, and culture.