This week we learned about GIS mapping. I didn’t have much experience in spatial humanities or mapping at all prior to that class. It is a very powerful tool however and I can see how it adds to the digital humanities space in terms of data analysis, especially regarding spatial data. Exploring how to add different layers and compare datasets in those layers made me realize how much we can do with GIS. With ArcGIS, there are also built-in layers from Ersi and Living Atlas which makes comparisons of data a lot more accessible.
GIS platforms like ArcGIS simplify the process of spatial mapping and analysis. The process of creating the map of the museum object was quite intuitive to follow. The main component involved setting up the data correctly so that the platform would be able to add the locations onto the map. Since the data of our tomb figure was provided to us by the Perlman Museum, we were able to create the spreadsheet including the locations the figure was at different points in time. The rest of the work ArcGIS really did for us. Once we imported the data into ArcGIS and selected the location column for the points on the map, the map was created as shown in embedded above. Seeing how simple the process of getting this data onto the map further solidified how much power this and other GIS platforms are.
It is also a great tool in other aspects of data visualizations because of the options to change symbols, variables, labels, etc. While this project did not require too much of that because the dataset only has four points, I can only imagine how larger datasets could be visualized compactly with this tool. After working with ArcGIS, my curiosity in spatial analysis has grown, and am excited to see more of what we can do with other platforms and data.
