Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
Question to be answered
I propose to create a digitized version of my Senior Capstone Project. My current project is a series of maps I have created on ArcMap, a comprehensive timeline, and a narrative of chapters that answer the question how has the landscape of Davidson College changed between 1837 and 2013. My background research includes archival research, history books, aerial photography, and interviews. I am investigating the history of the landscape to the East of Baker Drive and to the North of Laundry and Commons – including the ecological preserve, “down the hill”, the cross country trail, and the newly purchased McIntosh Farm. Although I have created these maps, timeline, and narrative for my Capstone Project I have no way of presenting them as one unit. Yes, there is a paper, but no way of presenting all of my work to the general public unless the viewer is well versed in ArcMap and has access to my folder of work that includes images, maps, Davidsonian articles, and other research. While the final paper is important, it is also important to link the paper back to the initial research in case someone wants to verify or explore my sources. Additionally, my capstone currently isn’t digital. As Seth Long argues, digitizing maps can “move work closer to an objective view of material space. To fix these issues I will use my DIG360 project and create an online exhibit using Omeka and the Neatline Plugin.
How the question will be answered
The online exhibit will include a page (or neatline time frame) for each of my maps overlaid on a present day map of Davidson College. As you go through the exhibit hopefully you will be able to click on each building, road, or other feature and find the source I used to draw it along with the narrative that goes along with that time period.
Going Beyond my Capstone
In order to place this project in conversation with our class goals, I will look towards the future of Davidson College and include a short study on the ideal College Campus. I will adapt methods from the human centered design activity, and Sommer and Atkin’s Shopping mall paper and ask a number of students and faculty what their ideal campus (only in my study area) would look like. I will provide a basemap of Davidson College for them to have references and draw from. I will not ask them to pull anything from memory, but instead to focus on what they value in the Davidson College landscape, and what they would change. To combine the data I will draw out the ideal map of Davidson College in a similar format as McLean’s Smell map on ArcMap and include it in my omeka exhibit. The smell map uses a complicated key and categorization method that I will adopt for symbolizing student and faculty mental maps. Instead of including a narrative with the exhibit I will write a short discussion on the use of value mapping as a way to understand human relationships with the landscape around them.
Goals of Project
- To digitize capstone project in a user friendly, in depth Omeka exhibit
- To develop a map of the Student and Faculty Ideal Campus in my study area