Tag: mapping

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Trial Post

The first sample DH project I chose was “selfiecity.” The DH project takes a look at people taking selfies and its goal is to find common themes and trends throughout the images. The primary focus of it is visualization because it used imageplots to display the thousands of pictures to reveal the results of the findings. The study categorizes the pictures into what types of people take selfies, what their poses are, and what their expressions are. It compared people taking selfies in numerous cities worldwide and then further compared gender and age. Crowdsourcing was a secondary approach used on “selfiecity” because 3200 photos were used to determine and reveal the patterns. The visualization method fits perfectly with this scholarly subject matter because photos, something visual, were being analyzed, so it makes sense that the results were displayed visually. Since this project takes the selfies of individuals from numerous different countries into consideration, displaying the results visually make it easier for everyone involved to understand the results. It helps eliminate the language barrier that could occur if it was displayed in a different manner.

Due to the use of visualization approach to reveal the results of the project, it makes it easier to narrow down searches to a certain age, gender, country to compare results.

 

The Mapping of the Republic of Letters uses data visualization to understand the correspondence of networks. When specifically looking at Voltaire, visualization is used to see his correspondence and to understand his connections to certain people and places. The method used fits with the subject matter because looking at letters and other historical archives used in this process makes the connections very clear and easy to see where his ties are to. A map is used to connect the countries which is best for understanding this specific type of information because the study is discussing the ties between countries all over the world. Those looking at the work will immediately be able to tell where most of the communication took place.

 

This visualization shows the number of letters sent/received from Voltaire between a specific time period.
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Practice Blog

Practice 8/28 – Tyler George

My first digital humanities approach I chose to look at is mapping, by observing the Map of Early Modern London (https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/agas.htm) page created by many members, who were lead by Janelle Jenstad, Martin Holmes, and Mark Kaethler. This map is designed to streamline the information found in encyclopedia, library, and stow editions all into one place with an easy user interface. Primarily this map is an example of textual analysis, by bringing hundreds of texts together to provide the viewer a streamlined overview of each particular area, while also providing the information to dig deeper into their research should they choose. The map is also an example of visualization, while also preserving and analyzing the areas of historical London. This is a great way to do this because maps provide a much more clear representation of what London actually looked like than you would ever find in a typical textbook. This interface allows us to visualize great amount of historical information in an accessible way. Easy to use, this map allows me to zoom in on a location, click on it and provides vast information on that location. Additionally, you can sort by category and pull up any locations relating to that category with ease. This map revolutionizes the way users view maps and find certain things in London. Not only does it show me the location of each place, it provides historical context as well as hundreds of articles about each place. This is easily the best interface for viewing a map, as it is easy to search for or find new places, and provides more information on each place than possible to find anywhere else. Lastly, this map is able to include where each piece of information came from, making it easy to verify the authenticity of their information.

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Another interesting website I viewed is titled Selfie City (http://selfiecity.net/#) coordinated by Dr. Lev Manovich, by there help of several contributors. This site provides image plots trying to categorize the commonalities of selfies in particular areas. This is a clear example of visualization, define by Johanna Drucker as “a methodological reversal which makes visualization a procedure rather than a product and integrates interpretation into digitalization in a concrete way”  (Whitley reading). This site uses image analysis to relate themes between selfies, for example the tilt of photos, use of glasses, age, gender, etc. There is definitely no better way to find information regarding selfies by region than through their technology used that closely examines each image. One interesting stat found was that Sao Paulo females tilt there head on average 17 degrees in their selfies compared to Moscow males who average a 7 degree tilt. This is a very interesting stat that I would never have previously thought possible without the use of this technology. Their automated analysis of images allowed them to recognize just the smallest details that would’ve taken forever to browse through so many photos with just the human eye. When examining photos, this is truly a remarkable discovery that will revolutionize the way we study images.

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Practice Post from Tuesday

In the project that I choose was the “Database of Indigenous People in North America.” In the project, the primary Digital Humanities focus was Archive in the site itself. With Archiving it allows people to see documents, letters and other images that can be easily accessed in then site, than having someone go to specific place just to see the physical copy once. With looking over it there it has a secondary approach to this in mapping areas that have impacted by events in American History. Some of them having named locations where Natives of the Land use to settle and the territory that was assigned to them by the American Government. With the methods that were presented in this project  it can fit into a scholarly subject matter in understanding the History of the Indigenous people in a certain place and time. With having the perspectives of many people coming from newspapers, photographs, census and etc. it allows the average person connect the ideas of the past for them understand the actions of those people in the past. The determining factor that makes the digital representation to conveyed to world is by the type material that is given and the amount information one has in their disposal to explain a subject matter. One has to determine in what ways can we share this information to a audience. Some people would just publish it into a book that can only be read in a physical copy. Or there are people who rather share to a public domain that is online to capture a larger audience. Another example can be an audio recording that was captured of very important event. The ways people allow it to be heard is either going to the object and get the permission to hear it, or having a copy online that can be easily accessed by one click.