Mapping & DH

As the concept of digital humanities continues to grow and expand its reach, more and more of the aspects it embodies are gaining popularity. New links are slowly emerging between DH and subjects that might have previously been thought of to be unrelated. The most popular link so far, has been the one between bringing digital humanities together with geography. That is precisely why we use programs/websites known as “mapping” tools.

To start off, you may be asking yourself: “What do mapping tools do?”. Well quite simply, they map. They map anything and everything from events centered on an author’s life to the daily routine of a character mentioned in a book. If the entire concept of mapping is new to you, don’t worry. Hopefully by the end of this blog post you’ll have a good understanding about the entire concept. For now however, and in the case that you’ve read my previous blog post about timelines in DH, try to think of mapping tools as a means to more vividly visualize a timeline (minus the date/time stamps). So for example, let’s take a character from a Sherlock Holmes book. Let’s say this character was at location A in 1975, and visited locations B and C in 1996 and 1997. A timeline would show these events dotted on a symmetrical-ish line with their corresponding date stamps in the correct order. A map however, would pinpoint the locations of A, B and C on a map software that can more easily help you visualize where the character had gone and how far he had travelled. This might seem useless to some, and to others it may be a nice little feature to try out. But for researchers, data analysts and many others, mapping tools are an entirely different story.

There are a number of tools available online to help you map out books you’re reading or to aid you in a data/trend research you might be conducting. In my English 256B class that I’m currently enrolled in, we had the chance to explore several different tools. The most notable tools of the bunch however, have been Google MyMaps and the Z-axis tool. Another one that I also found particularly interesting was “mapping literary London”. My maps has combined google maps (an application we use daily, with DH. Google MyMaps is hands-down the easiest-to-navigate of them all, clearly showing you your desired output in a rather aesthetically pleasing manner. Z-Axis on the other hand, was overly complicated.

Google MyMaps may be easier to use if you’re looking for a quick source of information, particularly if you can find the desired books already uploaded along with a map. The Z-axis app however, is much more complicated but apparently also much easier for those looking to create a map from scratch. Not because it’s better than Google MyMaps, but because It’s more detailed and more attractive to use.

Going on about the different tools you can use may be slightly useless given that many of you might have not had much of an experience with using them, meaning any explanation I make about the ins and outs of the tools won’t be of great use. So close this blog, open up the tool of your choice, and get to mapping!