I explored visualization and mapping as sample projects of digital humanities. Visualization is an important aspect of digital humanities because “digital visualizations will accelerate the reading process by allowing readers to access that portion of the mind that processes information spatially rather than sequentially (“Visualizing,” 445). SelfieCity is a modern digital humanities project conducted by Dr. Lev Manovich. It is a project used to explore the demographics, expressions, and positions of selfie takers. Visualization is used in the SelfieCity project in order to efficiently display information to an audience through graphs, charts, and collages. The collage of pictures used to show the different poses, separated by city, makes it very easy to draw conclusions about the popularity of poses per each city. SelfieCity also uses graphs to display the gender and expressions of the selfie takers. This makes it easy to read what is more popular among certain demographics.
In the project The Map of Early Modern London mapping is used to display a reliable map that was put together from four sources. Digital mapping puts together a visual image “whose meaning can be quickly apprehended by the brain’s natural propensity for spatial recognition” (“The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age”, 194). This visual map allows students and researchers a gate to continue inquiries relating to early modern London that wouldn’t have been accessible before. This will allow us to learn more about London’s history. This mapping is a form of visualization that doesn’t require words, therefore our brains can process this information quickly.
Carly Pavoni is from Fairfield, CT. She is a freshman at Bucknell University that is undeclared in the arts and sciences school. She is on the track and field team at Bucknell University.
