Blog Post #6 (Maps & Virtual Spaces)

    Chapter 8, "Maps & Virtual Spaces", touches upon the ideas of maps and how they can be useful when they have proper research connected to them. It also touches upon the tools behind creating useful maps and different data types surrounding them. In this chapter the idea of GIS or Geographic Information Systems is also touched upon. According to Chapter 8, Geographic Information Systems are used to match maps up with different kinds of data for its overall analysis. In this chapter "Critical issues in spatial humanities" (Drucker, 141) is also touched upon. This issue relates to maps and how there can be a lot of assumptions put in maps without knowing it. In this chapter it is stated that, "Asking even the simplest question about space raises cultural issues and ethical ones immediately" (Drucker, 141). This statement above gives you more clues on the ethical issues surrounding many parts of digital humanities. Chapter 9, "Three-Dimensional and Virtual Models", touches upon the importance of virtual and three-dimensional models for many certain scholars, and how they can be challenging at times. Chapter 9, also touches upon how 3-D models are created and the many different aspects to them. The second part of this chapter touches upon photogrammetry and how it is used to make photos or images of physical objects, like artifacts. It also touches upon the process of making these images. 
    One Orlando (digital memorial), Maine MILL Website, Mapping Color in History Map and VR Tours are all digital humanities projects that used a lot of the tools talked about in Chapter 8, and 9 of "The Digital Humanities Coursebook." 
    Personally, I feel virtual tourism and heritage is a useful tool. This will give people more opportunities to access information without having to go in person to gain that information. This will give the world a lot more information on a lot more history that may be hard to access in person. 
    A lot of this information in the chapters applies to my curation project which is based on the Maine MILL Website. During this curation project we may need to use mapping to map certain information on the Lewiston Maine Shooting, like where the victims may have been. When creating these maps we may need to use GIS or Geographic Information Systems to make sure our maps are free of assumptions. 

Comments

  1. Alex F.October 27, 2024 at 6:58 PM

    I like how you pointed out that oftentimes, people make assumptions about maps without realizing it. I also liked how you tied in your current project on Maine Mill and highlighted how their history map and VR tours are digital humanities projects. Digital maps and virtual spaces are key to better understanding a topic and give you information that you can’t gather simply through text.

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