--- tags: notes --- # MAP IDEAS!!! One initial thing we thought could be useful as a "launch" activity would be a workshop where we teach our Learning Lab Undergraduate fellows (and staff) some of what you know, then give them the task of mapping things related to our studio: * a simple map of how to get to the studio * a simple map OF the studio and what's in it * a more technical map of the signal-routing in our studio (we have of the order of 200-300 cables running throughout the space) but then we are also starting to encounter a number of courses that are interested in the "mapping-as-storytelling" idea... - map as game-board - map as interpretive illustration of a fictional world - Students can "map out" a story (or connecting multiple stories) they read as a final project - map an article (with layers) - map as an illustration of network and of object/people movement - map, if overlay-able and recorded as a video, to show changes over time - map for assignment - e.g. history of social medicine and epidemics: give students John Snow's cholera outbreak statistics and London city map, and come up with the mapped analysis themselves - map as digital humanities analysis - map as an interpretive tool for character development - map as moral decision-making tool (mattering maps) - How can we use maps as a tool to track important narratives and values when there is no “right” answer? - History — lots of maps! Historical maps in 19th century. Maps and narratives. 19th century map of a region of Brazil—a narrative of empire, what the colonial govt would like for that region…the maps were sort of aspirational. - Contesting maps. Take a historical map and then discuss the theoretical and historical context and change the map to reflect their conversation/historical evidence of what was going on at the time. - More from Eduarda: I think it could really go well with the example you guys showed of the physical model of the Boston Common, and could be used in the Harvard map idea Marlon was discussing. I think contesting already-existing maps by doodling, tweaking, cutting-up, or pasting ideas into a physical model of them could be a good way for students to 1) think more critically about map-making, and 2) imagine new, creative ways of making maps and representing contested narratives. As a social historian, I was thinking for instance of how the maps I consult in my research do not take into consideration the historical subjects I study the most - common citizens, enslaved workers, indigenous subjects, street workers, religious practitioners, etc. What would it look like if I visually contested a known map as a social historian that centers these subjects' worldviews? What do we do with borders, with streets, mountains, rivers, oceans? There are some interesting articles I have read on that a while ago: - Benton, Lauren. A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900. Cambridge University Press, 2010. - [Bonilla, Yarimar and Max Hantel, "Visualizing Sovereignty: Cartographic Queries for the Digital Age," sx archipelagos 1, 2016.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1goZhKU5_yzoS4tHda8ecQh1Tu1TNw5-9/view?usp=sharing) - This article could give us some food for thought, I think. And it includes lots of visual representation of data. - [Johnson, Walter, “What do we mean when we say, ‘Structural Racism’? A Walk down Florissant Avenue, Ferguson, Missouri” Kalfou 3, 1, Spring 2016.](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/wjohnson/files/ferguson_kalfou_published.pdf) - This one, by Walter Johnson, from the History Dept, is to me a written, contested map of Ferguson. May be interesting to take a look at as well. What would a visual map-version of this article look like? - Celtic - Mapping folklore and stories, migration and political changes and how they change folklore More map inspo: - Jessi's favorite map...[map of Christopher Robin's Hundred Acre Wood] (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/38069559328497850/) - [LL curated **medium-maps** board on Pinterest](https://www.pinterest.com/learninglabpins/mediummaps/)