From Text to Map: Modeling Historical Humanties Data in Mapping Environments

Summary:

This workshop will introduce participants to a variety of ways of thinking about humanities data in digital mapping environments. We will create our own spatial data and reuse that of others. Beyond making maps, we will also reflect more generally on how location-based research can be incorporated into research projects.

Description:

The course is divided into two parts of 16 contact hours each.

In the first week, participants will co-curate a spatial dataset based on a common text. It will be a translation of an tenth-century geographical work in Arabic (al-Muqaddasī’s Aḥsan al-taqāsim fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm).

No knowledge of languages beyond English will be necessary for this course, but the choice of a non-English, non-Western language is purposeful, since it will allow to appreciate better the uneven quality of data across languages.

In the second week, we will move beyond thematic maps to explore other genres of location-based visualization. Participants will draw upon what they learned the first week to create their own datasets.  We will explore multi-modality on maps as well as the advantages (and limitations) of co-curation of spatial data with locative media. Finally, we will explore open sharing of spatial data.

No knowledge of geographic information systems (GIS) is required for this course.  A laptop (not a tablet) will be necessary for this course.  Participants who have their own data (geotagged data or simply lists of places) are encouraged to bring it along.

Course breakdown:

Week 1: What is a digital map nowadays?  How can we make basic, thematic maps?

Themes to be covered:

• Cartography versus spatial data visualization
• Basic principles of location-based research
• Existing humanities geodata
• Examples of extracting information from a text
• Containers of spatial data about historical places (gazetteers)
• Extracting data from georeferencing maps
• Spatial element of information in open knowledge-sharing environments
• Modeling spatial data (structure, formats, uncertainty)
• Making basic thematic maps

Week 2: Towards deeper maps

Themes to be covered:

• Text analysis to add depth to the thematic map
• Spatial narrative and digital storytelling (story maps)
• Incorporating temporal elements into maps
• The crucial role of interface
• Embedding maps into other web environments
• Co-creating spatial data with locative media in the local environment
• Curated landscapes (sound, music, video, image)
• Communities for sharing and co-creation of open, spatial information