Public – Page 3 – Digital Maps, Space and Place

October 24, 2014

PA Proposal

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Kiana Barry

Proposal

For my final project I will study race in the town of Davidson as it has changed over the last 50 or so years. Because the topic of race and place is so personal and individualized, I want to make this into an oral history that is presented over time through mapping tools. Hearing the stories of Davidson residents of all colors and relating those stories to each other and the physical history of the town will be my biggest task. Even though racial trends can be very academic, they affect different people different ways and part of my project is contextualizing these understandings in a physical way through maps. One of the best tools for this is the mental map. Katrina Soni asserts in her piece “Exploring Human Dimensions of Multifunctional Landscapes Through Mapping and Map-Making”, “mental maps are an amalgam of information and interpretation reflecting not only what an agent knows about places but also how he or she feels about them,”(27). My mental map of the town of Davidson will be very different from another students’ based on my year and the amount of time I have(not) spent exploring, which is reflecting that I know very little about the town because up until recently, I never felt it was integral to know much about the town. Because my center is the campus and I do not have a car on campus, my mobility is limited. I think this is related to the idea of mapping supermarkets in which the person who is asked to map the local supermarket versus a larger chain market. Because of frequency of visits, people knew how to map the stores they frequented often just as I could map Davidson College but not anywhere past the train tracks or Main Street really because I don’t visit those area frequently.

Looking at Seth Long’s piece, “Digital Maps and Social Space” speaks explicitly to the point that maps are selective in what they display which reflects on the cartographer. When we looked at maps of Davidson in the archives, the map that didn’t show past the train tracks which is the African American area of Davidson had an explicit message about Davidson: that part of town is not important. Drawing form Lefebrve’s Production of Space, when thinking about the Sparrows Nest or the Train Tracks themselves, both structures that represent segregation in Davidson, the Sparrow’s Nest outlives its original purpose while the train tracks still represent a divide between socio-economic classes and races.

My goals are: tell the story of Davidson from accounts of people who have lived here for a long time against the backdrop of a physical landscape of a map. My next step includes meeting with Dr. Blodgett in Archives to get leads on different people for interviews and for an overview on how the town has changed.

October 24, 2014

PA 6 Project Proposal

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

October 24, 2014

Interactive Davidson Search Map

While conversing with my classmates about problems they faced with regards to geography and mapping, I recalled my own troubles finding locations around Davidson when I first arrived. While there is a standard Davidson Map, the map provides little information as to what buildings are and is generally unhelpful if you don’t already know the name or location of what you are looking for. For example, someone might know they need to find a music building, but they would be unable to know where it was if all they are given is a long list of buildings who’s names refer to donors rather than the things they house. Therefore, I am proposing to create an interactive map that adds one more detail to the equation: Descriptions of the space indicated on the maps.

Dealing with LeFev’s ever present discussion on the difference between space and place, the key thing this project attempts to address is how space relates to the places depicted on the map. The general Davidson map only gives physical dimensions and names, whereas your average user could need much more information than that. In addition, much of the external data needed for these brief descriptions is already publicly available, just simply not organized into a usable medium.

The basic plan to put this idea in action is as follows. First, I will collect as much information as I can about all the various buildings that are important to Davidson College. This may include off campus sites as well as clarification on important areas within large buildings, such as the Duke Performance Hall in the Union. Then, a system will be created where a user can either choose a building from a map and get the associated description or type in key words or phrases into a search bar in order to find a particular description of what they need. Rushel and Herny have stated, the use of a particular type of tool is important to understand how you might limit your users in the future. The plan right now would be to make this available on a mobile app so people can access it at just about any time. Of course, like Douglas Adams said in his interview, it is important to critically think about how the tool will manifest and what problems this media might present. The biggest challenges will most likely be in the programming of the app, while data collection and implementation may simply be somewhat time consuming. It may be that the idea takes form as a website instead with easier maneuverability and different available tools.

October 23, 2014

Memory Box

For alumni and current students, the campus of Davidson College holds many memories, and, for my final project, I would like to present those memories and thoughts on a map of campus. As suggested in the “Ten rules for humanities scholars new to project management,” it is important when starting any creative process to ask, “What contribution/important intervention is this project making?” In mapping the memories of Davidson College campus, I aim to archive the student experience and how that has changed overtime–including positive and negative, social and academic experiences. Having locational memories of Davidson’s buildings could potentially inform administrative decisions about the necessity of the current slue of renovations and building projects on campus, inform the college about the mental health of its students, highlight current and historic problem areas on campus, or merely be an interesting record of the time spent at Davidson.

The culmination of this project is an interactive website (or mobile app) that will allow users to zoom and tag places on campus and anonymously insert memories. In addition to engaging current students to insert their memories, I aim to contact alumni or use the resources in the Davidson Library archives to bring in a historical perspective on what students used to do and what has happened on campus. The memories presented on the website will entirely depend on what users bring to the site: memories of going out during Frolics or memories of studying during finals. Potentially, as Nedra Reynolds found in “Maps of the Everyday: Habitual Pathways and Contested Places,” user input may reveal spatial boundaries between certain groups on campus, similar to the Leeds students who were afraid to walk through certain parks or neighborhoods or the anonymous interface may serve as a sounding board for current issues (similar to YikYak). Ultimately, my role in the project will be to create a design that is easily accessible and fun to use.

The first and most important step in the methodology for creating the website will be to decide which tool could create a simple and clean design for users. Second, I will ask people to post memories to the map and to share the website in order to gather data and create as holistic of a picture of Davidson as possible. Thus, as I move forward, I will need to keep the user of the website in mind, since user input is the crux of my project. Although I will be working alone on this project, I think that some of the goals outlined by Stan Ruecker and Milena Radzikowska in “The Iterative Design of a Project Charter for Interdisciplinary Research” are applicable to my own project. Specifically, their goal to “move forward at a steady pace” is an admirable goal for any project; however, I believe it is important to keep in mind, as they do, that creative projects can often pass through many phases before the final version and creativity should not be hindered by deadlines. As I mentioned above, the user will be the critical component of this project and I will need to test and revise the interface of the website in order for design a website that not only works but also inspires people to use it.

As I develop the website, I may find that there are limitations to what I can achieve. For example, in many in-class discussions, the topic of exclusion has been a primary focus–who has access to the map, whose view does it represent, are maps accurately representing the truth? In making a repository of memories of the Davidson College campus, I may also have this bias and may have to limit which memories can be included. For example, while Chambers should obviously be included on the map, I may not be able to include places that are important for certain groups, such as the backstage of the theatre or the varsity athlete’s weight room. I also may not be able to include places that are not marked by physical structures. This limitation is summarized by Henri LeFebvre, who raises the question about the relative importance of the built versus the natural environment in a landscape–i.e. are the freshman dorms more important than the tree behind Commons?

In conclusion, through Omeka or a mobile app, I aim to design a map that serves as a memory box for Davidson College that will not only serve as diary of the student body, but may also reveal something new about the current situation or history of campus.

October 15, 2014

Burning Down Davidson

In this exhibit, I use Heganoo, which advertises itself as a “personalized interactive mobile map” to create a story about the fires that have occurred on Davidson College’s campus. Although Heganoo is limited in terms of overlaying historical images and maps on to current day scenes and creating a data-thick map, it is a useful tool to provide spatial context to a story that has an ordered plot. As can been seen below, the basic Heganoo event map provides numbered locations for a storyline:

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 7.18.56 PM — Heganoo Basic Event Map

I think that story lines are Heganoos speciality. Some of the alternatives to Heganoo are Neatline, which specializes in compiling information and allowing the user to explore independently, and History Pin, which makes historical comparisons easy by overlaying historical images onto Google Maps. Heganoo does not incorporate ambiguity or allow user interaction, which Bethany Nowviskie considers to be important attributes of Neatline. Instead, similar to Charles Cunningham’s “21 Steps,” Heganoo guides the user along a constructed story path and compartmentalizes information in order for it to be easily understood.

Not only could the stories of Davidson fires be told using another mapping tool, they could also have been told without maps altogether. However, as Farman argues in his article, “Site-Specificity, Pervasive Computing and the Reading Interface,” there is an importance in site-specificity and including the locations of the fires adds another dimension to the experience of the stories. In my exhibit, in addition to learning the details of each fire and some specifics about each building, knowing the location of each building allows the user to get a better sense of campus. For example, the location of older fires allows the user to get a sense of the old campus and the newer fire in Belk informs the user about how the college expanded down the hill. Additionally, the map enables the user to locate other buildings on campus, such as the church from which people ran to save the burning Watts dormitory.

In conclusion, I feel that Heganoo is the best application for presenting project similar to the exhibit I created that features the locations and stories about burning down Davidson College.

October 15, 2014

PA 5: Evolution of Campus Workout Facilities

Heganoo Exhibit

I have taken an in-depth peek into the construction and destruction of gyms on campus throughout Davidson College’s history to form an argument stating that the increase in importance of physical fitness as well as the increase in the college’s financial capabilities resulted in more fitness centers existing on campus. Heganoo, which we decided was great for events and the life of a subject, proved to be effective at depicting my narrative. Seth Long, in Digital Maps and Social Data addresses that maps (such as poverty maps) are “a mashup of spatial and non-spatial data”. His point resonates in my Heganoo exhibit because my narrative would be much weaker if it lacked images and description as well as the interactive aspect. As the map maker, I can ensure that the reader has an understanding of my argument since I can accompany the map with non-traditional map features such as text and pictures.

Furthermore, in Mobile Stories, Farman states in “Site-Specificity, Pervasive Computing, and the Reading Interface” that ““Stories tend to offer the illusion that they present the events in their entirety (and if they leave out anything, the omitted portions are simply not relevant)” (Farman, 9). With Heganoo, I was able to shape an argument with all relevant information because of the tools that I had in hand. As a viewer of maps, it is helpful to see change in location accompanied by dates, explanations, and images that can further educate the user.

The college’s history involves the ‘birth and death’ of buildings; some ‘die’ faster than others, and the ‘birth rate’ for certain types of buildings is higher than other types. For example, as expected, academic buildings typically outlast and are more frequent than athletic buildings. Until, 2001, only two workout facilities (not places where teams compete, but places where students can workout) ever existed on campus at the same time. Previously, the need for more dorms or academic buildings took priority over athletic facilities (rather appropriately), which is evident by the demolishing of the first two gyms on campus. The reason for one type of building taking priority over another can be explained by Lefebvre when he mentions in the Production of Space that “(Social) space is a (social) product” (Lefebvre, 27). For Davidson College, at one point in time, there wasn’t enough need for workout facilities to be a top priority for campus updates, but as the social structure of Davidson changed so did the structure of space. The increase of fitness centers is a result of necessity, capability, and social change on campus; as time goes on Davidson College is more capable and aware of providing students with fitness centers (and this could apply to other types of buildings as well).

October 14, 2014

PA 5 – Davidson College in the Medical World

http://shrouta.org/cms/neatline/show/medical-advances-at-davidson-college

Today, Davidson College is well known for its liberal arts education that prepares students for a variety of future careers and graduate schools. Although Davidson’s “College” status prohibits graduate programs such as a medical school, Davidson College’s history is linked closely with the medical world. Using Omeka’s plugin for Neatline I have created a visual narrative depicting just a few of the important medical advances that have occurred in throughout Davidson College history. As Farman argues in his Chapter in Mobile Stories, stories do not have to be linear and cohesive. In fact, the discontinuity of Davidson College’s medical history is exactly what I intended to capture in this exhibit. In Bethany Nowviskie’s article, she describes Neatline as unstable – “extensible, never fixed or complete”. This idea is perfect for describing the Medical History of Davidson College. With small facts here and there, Neatline helps to piece together a more general view of the impacts Davidson College has had on the greater medical world.

By using Neatline I was able to overlay the points in my Medical History story on a 1915 planned map of Davidson College. This allows me to blur the line between the physical world and narrative world (as discussed in Ritchie’s Chapter 4 of Mobile Stories). Like Ritchie discusses, the technology of Neatline can make the story, in this case not the artifacts found in Davidson’s Archives but the story of Davidson influencing the medical world, appear more real. By overlaying my pins on a planned historical image I address Ritchie’s claims and attempt to create a narrative describing the historical moments that give Davidson College recognition in the medical world today.

October 3, 2014

An Hour of Free Time Places Wrestlers Where?

I have used my geo-referenced map from 1939 with an overlay of data applied by QGIS to create a chloropleth map that shows were the wrestlers will most likely be during Common Hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays (if limited to a certain area, as shown on my map).

The wrestlers chose where they would most likely be in this area during Common Hour.

I gathered my data by simply sending a message to the wrestlers asking where they would most likely be during Common Hour if they could only pick buildings that are considered to be in the same area of Chambers. This includes the Chambers, Freshman dorms, the Union, the Library, the Doe Weight Room (behind library), and all of the buildings on the “D”. The reason I only inquired about this range of area is because my 1939 map doesn’t include all of campus.

My data strengthens the information contained on the map because it provides understanding besides simple location of buildings. This map does two things effectively. First, it shows location of new and old buildings on campus; the fact that the 1939 map cannot cover the current campus shows how much the campus has grown. Second, it provides a narrative of where the wrestlers decide to place themselves when they have an hour of ‘free time’. Most of the wrestlers chose to go to the weight room while some went to the Library or Union, and others went to their dorms. From this we can figure that some wrestlers might have work or desire sleep, some may take this time to eat while most would try to work out. This data might be a good start to predicting the behaviors not only of wrestlers but of Davidson athletes. and even Davidson non-athlete students.

My greatest challenges were working with the limited 1939 map, acquiring answers from all of the wrestlers in a timely manner, and navigating QGIS. I limited the wrestlers’ choices to the buildings that the 1939 map covered in order to remedy my situation. As for QGIS, using the program is the best way to figure it out. Learning in class is helpful but actually working through mistakes is a true learning process. I’m beginning to understand the learning curve of QGIS; only “sort of” knowing it renders it rather useless, however, becoming familiar with QGIS opens up many doors to mapping.

October 3, 2014

La Connaissance: Acquaintances around Campus

As a Freshmen, getting to know people is an important part of life. Therefore, I have mapped out how many people I know in various dorms on campus.

One of the first issues I ran into in the creation of this map was the dissonance between the two styles of maps that were in the overlaying process. The given map of Davidson had a very large focus on portraying the buildings correctly, while the roads were simply one-dimensional lines. Conversely, the map of Davidson I used was very focused on portraying the roads accuracy, while the buildings had a lot of variation in their accuracy of scale. Therefore, in the first overlay of the map I did the points were very far off as I had attempted to approximate reference points on the roads as well as the buildings, which made the map very inaccurate. By focusing solely on the buildings for reference, I was able to get an overlay that lined up much more cleanly.

The second problem I encountered was the fact that when attempting to make a gradient with QGIS, my shapefiles would disappear. Since the shapes are rather important for the message of the map, I had to work out a workaround by using the categorized style. After inputting my data values into the categorized system, I set the colors of each category individually so as to represent a gradient. The downside to this workaround is that the gradient may not be equally spaces in its color values.

Interestingly, from this map I can see that my social web seems to either stretch to include a particular dorm or not. It is no surprise that Cannon has the largest amount of people, given that it is my home dorm, but the inclusion of Richardson is interesting, given the lack of proximity between it and Cannon. However, it is important to note that this map does not include those people with which I am friends or acquaintances whom I do not know where they reside. Despite that, I think this map presents an interesting picture of my social reach at Davidson and I would be very interested to see how it changes over the course of my time here.

October 3, 2014

QGIS: The Good and The Bad

For those who have the know-how on using it effectively (or the patience to figure it out), QGIS can be an extraordinarily useful tool for combining layers of data, geographic information, and images. Although the map below presents a clean, simple combination of all three, the process in making it was by no means easy.

In the example below, the base layer is geographic data contained in the shape files of buildings in Mecklenburg County (marked Davidson_buildings on the legend) to which I have added a georeferenced map of Davidson College’s campus dating from 1974. These two layers are interesting juxtapositions in of themselves especially for those who wish to conduct a historical comparison of a certain space. However, in this example, the map stretches beyond mere historical comparison and the combination of building shape files and the map of Davidson College’s campus becomes the background for the shape file data on the number of international students’ currently living in the dorms.

PA #3 Final MAP — QGIS Output Map: Background features a 1974 map of Davidson College campus. Data displays the number of international students’ housed in dorm.

While this QGIS map does not present a unique or insightful comment about the history of Davidson College or the composition of its student body, the map does exhibit the capabilities of the QGIS software and also provides insight into the difficulties that can arise when using this tool.

First, using QGIS, the user can georeference (i.e. embed geographic data points in the image) images and the latitude and longitude lines to align images, shape files and data. In the map above, I aligned the 1974 map of Davidson College visually with the building shape files; however, the latitude and longitude points were useful it that they connected the location of buildings with the data about dorms. Second, I combined the geographic information of the dorm data with the previous layers and formed a new shape file layer that is seen in the green/blue tinged dorms. Here, the shade of the color of the building represents how densely each dorm is populated with international students. As can be seen on the legend, the more international students living the dorm, the darker the shade; thus, the viewer is easily able to see that Sentelle has the most international students.

Although I stumbled a few times in the process of getting to this finished product (as can been seen in the wonky orientation of Knox’s polygon shape file and the frustrated file name “Output Hopeful”), the ultimate outcome is a clean, visually simplistic representation of both historical and numerical data and a testament to the useful possibilities of QGIS.