Mapping the Imagination: Digital Humanities, Mapping and Fiction.
I was invited by Mills Professor Kirsten Saxon to come to her English class to teach a lecture on applications for digital humanities, specifically methods for how to map imaginary places.
There’s a lot of different ways to start talking about the intersection between fiction, mapping and technology, but I began by talking about the fact that all maps are fiction to begin with. Any introspective cartographer will tell you that every map that we make is trying to tell a story, and using a map to tell a piece of fiction can be a fun exercise.
Mapping is essentially data visualization, but all maps are really an abstraction of a place. Understanding how to show your data in order to make a specific point about that data is the key to creating an effective map. Today, data visualization means using technology to process your data, whether or not you are particularly comfortable with technology in general.
So how can we apply these ideas to digital humanities?
First we consider whether what we want to map is a real place that exists today, a real place that used to exist, or an entirely imaginary place (Hogwarts, anyone?). Mapping each of these has its own challenges. I created a lab for the students in order to give them an introduction to making these maps using CartoDB and OSM. We can use OSM to populate current data, but we can also use CartoDB to map imaginary places by finding the right background images, or old places by finding old maps online (the Library of Congress has a large collection).
For students who are reticent to embrace technology, digital humanities can be a challenge. However, with a growing number of easy-to-use tools, students have better access than ever.
Find a summary of my lecture, including resources, here.
Find my CartoDB/OSM lab for Digital Humanities Students here.
