Tag: Timeline.js

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Blog #5 Uncategorized

Blog post #5

With the whole process of this timeline for Esther Latrobe there has been many revelations on things that came up during the making of the timeline. As Bodenhamer explains it in his article, ” we recognize our representations of space as value laden guides  to the world as we perceive it, and we understand how they exist in constant tension with other representations from different places, at different times, and even at the same time.”(14) This whole timeline lets us perceive the journey one takes in ones own life. However, this timeline has its own limits in how one can convey the journey of someones life with limited amount of information that was given in our memoir for Esther Latrobe. “Each artifact (memoir, timeline and etc)  would constitute a separate record anchored in time and space, thus allowing us to keep them in a relationship, and each layer would contain the unique view overtime of an individual or a social unit.” (27)

With spatial thinking includes processes that support exploration and understanding. Also, it help us visualizes relations, imagines transformations from one scale to another, creates a new viewing perspective on what we are able to see, and helps us remember images in places and spaces. Spatial thinking also allows us to externalize these ideas by creating representations such as a map timelines for us to understand the journey of story.

In the memoir that my group worked one there were not many dates on the life of Esther Latrobe. It was mostly about the sicknesses she faced during her life, how she always prayed for god for forgiveness and etc. There was a comment from one of my group members that got us thinking how the traveling information is not represented in the timeline or in the memoir. It does tells us where she goes, but it does explain how long it took to get there, the method she got there and her experiences she had to face when journeying to a place. Latrobe journey consisted of her being born in Bristol, England in 1802 then moving Tytherton, England in 1820. Later on moving to Gracehill, Ireland to become a teacher and finally settling in Ayr, Scotland where she died in peace.  This journey she had must have been a long one for her because in the age of existence she did not the luxury that many humans have now in getting to one place to another.

Overall, the experience of transcribing the memoir of Esther Latrobe was an experience of a life time. “All spaces contain embedded stories on what has happened there. These stories are both individual and collective, and each of them link geography (space) and history (time).” (16)

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/f3dca7a4d193ca671fee0fb5c4ff5c7d/the-life-of-latrobe/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″></iframe]

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Blog #3 contextual research

Blog #2: Timelines

Image result for chronology
Chronology Pattern

 

The method utilized to represent historical data is just as important as the the information it contains. Modes of representation can determine the clarity of the information being shared and are examples of  interesting ways to analyze information. Chronology and Geography, two modes brought up by Grafton, show us the pros and cons of using certain modes of representation to present historical data/events.

Image result for geography
            The Layers of Geographical Representation

During the creation of the Timeline.js project and reading of Grafton’s work, I got to experience and learn how information and the mode of how it is represented have a close and dependent relationship. In Cartographies of Time, Grafton shows how modes of representation have progressed throughout history, highlighting the improvements and background that led to timelines. Historical data can benefit or suffer from its compilation into a timeline or its representation on a map. I definitely witnessed the benefit of each mode on the events that I pulled from my transcriptions. All timelines, the medium of chronology represented in this project, are unique and have different forms of organization. My timeline utilized contextual events in relation to the historical events in my transcription and then presented a visual in order to better support each event. The main benefit of this method is its organizational value that creates a better understanding of the historical events, both literally and contextually, for the reader. This method also makes the presentation of the data more interesting with its visuals and contextual events. Another interesting aspect of this timeline is how it has the capability of utilizing maps, a popular medium of geography, in its visuals. The main con of utilizing chronology to present historical data that I saw in this project is that the “story” can become compromised in the process of collecting the data to compile into a timeline. For instance, when scouring the transcriptions, we automatically pull the events that come with a date; in order to chronologically organize data, we feel the need for numbers. Because of our reliance upon the time, days, months, and/or years that structure the line, we sometimes fail to dive deeper into the events represented, sacrificing the “story.” Grafton points this out in his work, stating, “Our idea of time is so wrapped up in the metaphor of the line that taking them apart seem virtually impossible.” In this process, many key events in the transcription are not pulled simply because they were not attached to a specific time, day, month, or year and, in turn, are not represented and shown to the reader. Even if these events are included and compiled into the timeline, there is a compromise in accuracy; the author must then generalize the time in which the event took place. With geographical representation, events and data can also be compromised. Similarly to how events without time, day, month, or year cannot be included in timelines without being compromised, events not marked by a location cannot be geographically represented without being compromised.

After the completion of my timeline, I came to the conclusion that the modes of representation identified by Grafton are very beneficial when used to present certain data. In addition, I noticed how these modes of representation can be detrimental when used to present other data. My findings evoke the debate of whether or not the purpose of these modes is to tell a story or simply organize data. In my opinion, they do both. These modes organize the data/events in a way that we can formulate a story. As Grafton points out in his work, the author must first look past the linear when creating the timeline, and the reader must do the same if we are to utilize all of the benefits that come with timelines.  The lines of a timeline are the lives of the story; when they end, the story ends. And the visualization of the locations of the events provided by the use of geography as a mode can make sense of the data and further support the story.

LINK TO TIMELINE: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19D5MbZfE71t0zlKwUYbnZyNQD3EcQef-JETzGkvr17k/edit?usp=sharing

               Timeline visual: Mode of Geography
          Timeline Visual: 18th Century Marriage
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Blog #3 contextual research

Blog #3

When events are placed in chronological order it presents a visual of the order in which the events took place. This is important because when readers are presented with new and important information containing multiple dates, it’s hard to mentally sort out that information. As Grafton points out, creating a chronological order for events represents history in a way that is contextual, visual, and memorable. In my opinion, a line is capable of telling both a story and chronology of events that took place.

The above image shows how the line is represented in a spatially.

Through the Timeline.js project, I was able to understand how particular events in time influenced the decisions of the people from the memoirs and how it affected their lives. Because our memoir had so many components, we created our timeline by stacking the data. As a result, a line was created through space by the website. Grafton wrote about how W.J.T. Mitchell said, “The fact is that spatial form is the perceptual basis of our notion of time, that we literally cannot ‘tell time’ without the mediation of space” (13). As a group, a few of the dates that we had overlapped each other. If this information wasn’t stacked and written out chronologically, it would’ve been difficult to understand. Grafton made this point evident in his introduction by saying, “by comparing individual histories to one another and the uniform progress of the years, the reader could see the hand of providence at work” (15).

In this image you can see how the dates are stacked based on their chronology.

For myself, the most difficult part of this project was finding contextual events that correlated with my memoir. Once we each found dates that we felt suited this project, the timeline created a chronological story that was easily and better understood. Though it was difficult, our information allowed our group to explore the relationship between ideas and modes of representation. Overall, the information that we found added to the development of our timeline and furthered our understandings of the Bethlehem memoirs.

 

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Blog #2 contextual research

Grafton & TimelineJS Analysis

Blog # 2

Through reading Grafton’s Introduction, I learned that the two modes of representation are chronology and geography. These two modes immensely help clarify historical events, but they also obscure events. With regards to determining all there is to know about a certain event, these two modes help immensely because we know exactly WHEN and WHERE that particular event happened. With this, we can make deductions or inferences about why that said event occurred.

Timelines are actually less than 250 years old (Grafton 14). All they really are is a way of visualizing the numbers that we use to record our history, but they can also restrict our outlook on life. Grafton says “The timeline seems among the most inescapable metaphors we have” (Grafton 14). It makes time way more linear than it has to be and almost completely removes the flexibility of our concept of time. It has been hard to come to terms with these ideas and modes of representation, but I have done it successfully. By telling us a one-way story, they have told us a chronology of our perception of the world, but have also erased our opportunity to perceive time as a story.

This concept is actually extremely relevant to my group’s project. We were assigned the Bethlehem memoirs to transcribe an analyze. Other groups’ assignments were the memoir of one person, but we had several different writers to transcribe. So as other groups would have one coherent timeline for all of their events, we had 4 or 5 separate, overlaying timelines.

With this in mind, conceptualizing the complex relationship between ideas and modes of representation was near impossible. We were just given seemingly unrelated transcriptions with no background. We had to use different sources to get a deeper understanding of what we read. For example, Professor Faull gave me a book titled “A Tale of Two Plantations”, which depicted the lives of slaves in the Mesopotamian slave plantation in Jamaica, and how the Moravian missionaries brought the Gospel to them.

 

Viewing the timeline as a rigid linearity would be ineffective, as there are multiple stories going on at once. Grafton says that our idea of time “is so wrapped up with the metaphor of the line that taking them apart seems virtually impossible” (Grafton 13). The key here is flexibility, and being able to perceive several chronologies at once. TimeLine JS made this flexible view possible by stacking the different events on top of each other as they occurred.

Overall, using TimeLine JS made analyzing these events easier in that it gave a way to compare the events throughout time. This has given a deeper meaning to all of our separate work; it has integrated everything we’ve worked for together.