Week Three: Space, Place, and the Digital Humanities (August 7-11)
The third and final week of the institute will explore the different ways that digital technologies inform, and are informed by, thinking on space and place.
Monday, August 7, 2017
On Monday we will examine the pre-history of digital spatiality though a consideration of the cartographic imagination. The history of cartography as a specific form of spatial imagination will be explored through key readings. We will visit the extensive cartography library of Boston Public Library and be introduced to the Boston Map Project – a project of Northeastern’s NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks in partnership with Boston Public Library. This project involves the digitization and geo-rectification of key maps of Boston held by the library to produce an on-line interactive, layered series of historical maps with annotations to tell the story of urban socio-spatial change over 250 years of the city’s history. This project will link back to the artist walk from the week two in providing another way of exploring spatial change in Boston. Ryan Cordell will hold a geo-rectification workshop in the afternoon.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
This will be followed on Tuesday by a two sessions on “Digital Tools for Mapping and Remapping Space” which will include further demonstrations of the capacities of digital tools for transforming cartography. In particular, participants will learn how to use Neatline, a geo-temporal mapping and timeline plugin for Omeka.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
On Wednesday, visiting lecturer, Anne Kelly Knowles, will give a lecture on Empirical Mapping and Geovisualization which will show the ways that humanities scholars are visualizing geographic information. It will highlight the conceptual bases for distinct modes of representation, including the Cartesian grid of conventional cartography, the sense of place conveyed in more pictorial mapping, the notion of spatial narrative, and emerging ideas for visualizing topographical (physical) and topological (relational) space.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
On Thursday, guided by our visitor, Cindi Katz, the final session in this series of three, “Visualization, Displacement and Imagination,” will connect the cartographic imagination back to themes of the spatial imagination that run through the course. In the afternoon, there will be a final workshop/presentation for participants’ projects.
Friday, August 11, 2017
The final day will feature a roundtable (including Katz and Knowles) on the prospects for a genuinely transdisciplinary geohumanities. The afternoon will conclude with another round of presentations for participant’s projects. In the evening, the Summer Institute will conclude with a final group dinner (see syllabus for details).
