Geographic Information Systems in the Digital Humanities
Geographic Information Systems in the Digital Humanities
Geographic Information Systems in the Digital Humanities
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer software system for the spatial analysis of data and for designing and generating maps (Gieseking, 2018). It works with geospatial data, which is any data that includes a spatial location, or put another way, data that can be spatially located. GIS is increasingly important in the digital humanities, as evidenced by a large list of thousands of digital humanities projects that employ GIS technologies (see DH GIS Projects). Such projects include mapping the army barracks of 18th century Ireland, a mapping of Mediaeval roads, geospatial representations of organizations in China during the Song dynasty, a geospatial database of the main published collections of Icelandic folklore, and projects directly related to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Although maps generally provide point-based information, they can also represent spatial dynamics and patterns of movement.
Another example of the synergy between the digital humanities and GIS is the creation of a GIS-generated 3-D model of Mitchelville, South Carolina, the first town of freed enslaved people in that state. The project, a collaboration of a GIS expert (Eileen Johnson), an art historian (Dana Byrd), and a student, provides users with the experience of those whose history is incomplete because so much of it was often lost, destroyed, or unrecorded (Gieseking, 2018).
The main data for geo-humanities research is predominantly text, images, video, performance, and archival evidence, in contrast to the quantitatively more objective data employed by the social sciences. This distinction between qualitative–quantitative and evidence–data, however, is only superficial, as boundaries between quantitative and qualitative projects are often porous.
GIS, on the other hand, has the potential to bridge the qualitative/quantitative dichotomy, and, in many respects, the digital humanities have the ability to exert a profound influence on the future of GIS itself (Gieseking, 2018). The quantitative (locatedness) and qualitative (spatialities) are combined in digital humanities GIS (GIS in the digital humanities): “There is a move towards using GIS technology to highlight the imbricated relationship between the locatedness of everyday life and the spatialities of cultural practices” (David Cooper and Ian N. Gregory, cited in (Gieseking, 2018)).
Although maps and other geospatial data visualizations related to humanities areas (history, literature, the arts, etc.), as well as the technologies to create them, retain their pivotal importance, are more significant influence of the digital humanities on GIS is the critical analysis of those data visualizations and archives (Gieseking, 2018).
As will become clear in the discussion of the synergistic relationship between geographic information systems (GIS) and the digital humanities, GIS has many important a