The first topic I chose utilizes visualization to analyze/organize a subject that has already been textually analyzed. The DH Project seeks to organize and structure words/phrases that are of importance in the released documents that pertain to Henry Kissinger’s time in the US State Department. The author creates this structure through a color code that organizes the subjects from these documents into SECRET and TOP SECRET and utilizes a timeline to provide historical relevance to these subjects. So, because of this structure, the project also utilizes the technique of mapping in time. For example, the TOP SECRET topic of Triangular Diplomacy can be related to the talks between China, Russia, and the US during the Vietnam War because of the background on time that the timeline provides. This DH Project offers us a way to analyze documents on one medium in a convenient way. Otherwise, it would be a monotonous task, involving sorting through thousands of pages of documents, to analyze Kissinger’s time as Secretary of State. The subject matter didn’t necessarily need to be presented visually; words and phrases could have. been mapped to the areas that they pertained to in the world. I think the author just came to the conclusion that visualization was the most convenient way to organize the information and the easiest for readers to understand.
The second topic I visited utilizes mapping. This “map” displays the relation of words based on our understanding of them through metaphors that have developed in the English language in the past millennium. Because the map also provides a visual display, you could say it is also a method of visualization. This project perfectly displays the advantages that come with Digital Humanities. You would have to research an endless number of texts and compare them in order to completely understand the impact that metaphors for over a millennium have had on words and the way we understand them today. I feel that mapping/visualization is the proper technique for this topic because it not only provides a good structure, but it also makes reading it more fun.
Ethan Conklin is from a suburb outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is currently pursuing a B.A. in Spanish and Anthropology at Bucknell University. Ethan hopes to attend law school after finishing his undergraduate studies and is excited to see what the future holds.
