"We want to create a narrative out of all the heterogeneous data"

Sarah Kenderdine in Sanchi, India © Leo Meier Summer series: A calling for research. Sarah Kenderdine, head of the Laboratory for Experimental Museology in the College of Humanities, has spent the last four years tracing, photographing, and digitally reconstructing the seldom-told story of Buddhism's maritime spread across Asia. Video: Statue of a bodhisattva, or enlightened being, from the National Museum of Sri Lanka Since 2016, Kenderdine, along with a small research team, has visited hundreds of cultural and archaeological sites across southeast Asia. Challenges have ranged from bureaucratic (gaining access to sacred or government-protected sites) to logistical (lugging bulky photographic equipment, including a mini-fridge full of film); and even physical (braving dangerous weather, six-hour traffic jams, and political unrest). But the visualization and cultural data expert, who joined EPFL to lead the Laboratory of Experimental Museology ( eM+ ) in 2017, is unfazed by these experiences. For her, travel - and the risk and unpredictability that go with it - are just part of the job. "I was brought up travelling, and it has always been required for my work. Prior to EPFL, I worked as a maritime archaeologist, and after becoming a digital scholar, I became interested early on in virtual heritage.