Tag: maps

Categories
Blog #1

Blog #1: “On Material and Digital Archives”

Creating a digital artifact from archival documents allows for a much more pleasurable experience for research. Digital artifacts are able to compile vast amounts of information into one place. This allows for much more accessibility, than traveling the world viewing artifacts in each location. Many more people are able to view artifacts online, where they do not have the time or money to view all those artifacts in person. Additionally, many artifacts are in old handwriting styles that not everybody can understand, so digitizing these allows everybody to be able to easily view. Also, many artifacts are old and very fragile, but digitizing these allows anybody to view artifacts without risk of damaging preserved materials. I feel these digital artifacts are sufficient enough that there is basically no need to view the physical original artifacts. When transcribed and put together well, these digital artifacts provide all the information you would acquire from viewing the physical artifact. These articles are often categorized allowing you to more specifically research your interests.Overall, digital artifacts allow for viewers to easily find more information in one place than ever possible before. 

One problem I could see occurring from digital artifacts is human error. When texts are transcribed by humans, there is always the possibility of something being transcribed poorly. This would result in the research of an inaccurate representation of an artifact. Another issue is these digital artifacts need to be maintained well also. The digital world is constantly evolving, so these resources need to have people making sure their artifacts are staying up to the standards. This causes more time and money to go into the process. However, if everything is transcribed well, digital artifacts are much more efficient for researchers, though take much effort from authors.

I believe while the world is evolving, so are the research strategies. Researchers are often interacting more with the material on the screen rather than the printed page. This allows for accessibility to more researchers, creating even more information. As research continues to evolve into the digital world, we will continue to have more information provided at the click of a button. This is truly a remarkable evolution, as there has never been so much knowledge in one place than we have today.

Also, digitized texts are able to highlight key pieces of information one might not even notice through printed texts. Long artifacts would be skimmed through by most people. But through design of a digital source, authors are able to highlight pieces of information they find important. For example, the Selfie City (http://selfiecity.net/#) page I explored provides statistics on what they believed to be their most important findings. This clearly shows viewers the key pieces of information they might not pick up on while researching on their own.

The Moravian Lives project contains a map, which shows viewers where the authors found all their information. This is the same experience I had when viewing The Early Map of London (https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/agas.htm). These authors make sure to provide exactly where their sources come from allowing users to easily verify the authenticity of their work, limiting any possibility of error in one’s research. Additionally, they both start with a distant view, but allow you to zoom in on areas of focus, giving researchers full control over their work.

 

Categories
Blog #1

Blog #1

In the Research Projects that were looked at like the, “Database of Indigenous People in North America,” had many interacting material that are displayed in our screen with a click of our mouse. With the new interactions of these archives conveys that our research practices are changing in order to be more visually pleasing to people and be more accessible to the public. In the Research Projects, 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 the site, than having someone go to specific place just to see the physical copy once. However, there are disadvantages to that.

There are disadvantages when analyzing things in digital form because there is significance when looking at the object in first hand. It can show if the object is truly of significance or not to a specific area. No one can truly understand meaning of a place unless one goes to that specific place and talk to the people of that area or walk around that area in order to imagine how a person will live in this place.

With looking at the Research Projects in Archive it has its clear advantages with having more approaches to this like Maps. Maps help in looking at mapping areas that have impacted by events in American History, Southeast Asia, and many more. In the archive of  “Database of Indigenous People in North America” it give examples of 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 specific Research 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 be 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. One of the many ways people will be allowed to hear it is by either going to the object itself and get the permission to hear it, or having a copy online that can be easily accessed by one click.

The physical and emotional relationships to our objects of study are shifting in a digital age that can’t be stop. The reason is that is for efficiency. Lets say someone has found a huge discovery that can impact our world and the way to share it quickly is by using online tools that can be presented to a huge audience and can be analysed by other researches around the world. In a matter of time.

Digitized materials enhance the necessity of and desire for archival work because the physical location where that material came from can help us understand the meaning of that piece because a picture of a place can’t supplement the meaning of a place.

      

 

Categories
Practice Blog

Paige’s Trial Post

This shows some of the different locations one could click on to compare the different selfie styles. This specific picture shows all the different selfies taken in each location, which I find very interesting because it is so popular in today’s society.

In the project, selfieCity, the primary digital humanity focus is visualization. It is a combination of selfies that have been taken by people from all different cultures and society’s all around the world. Each selfie shown is very different and unique; each person looks different and has a different way they take a selfie. For example, some people smile in their selfies and some make duck faces. The angle the photo is taken also differs from selfie to selfie. This project allows us to see up to 3200 photos within a short amount of time and to capture the idea that the norm of taking a selfie changes based on where you are from. A secondary approach in this project may include crowdsourcing because the viewer obtains a large source of important information within a short amount of time. It makes sense that Visualization is an efficient way to portray such subject matter because selfies taken from around the world is the best way to see the differences in society and culture. It is a more engaging way to understand than for one to explain through words.

Visualization was also used in the second project I viewed, Map of Early Modern London. A secondary approach is also crowdsourcing because the project offered a location by category bar that allowed me to easily look up important locations on the map. I was able to obtain information quickly and efficiently about what London looked like through a visual field. The project gathered information from five encyclopedias and condensed it into a more fun style of learning. It offered me information on the people, the streets of the city, lifestyle, etc. The digital representation was helpful because the subject matter is about a city. People tend to be more engaged and understand material better if you have a visual sense of what the city looks like and have easy, quick access to the important material, instead of reading long, detailed articles.

This map shows part of Early London. In different colors based on the category, important locations are pin pointed. If interested, you can then press on the location and get the important information on the certain location. This prevents one from having to read through a very long text to find information on one location. It is quick and efficient.