Blog Post #6: Maps and Virtual Spaces (Stephen Bentzlin)

After reading chapter eight about mapping and GIS, I learned that maps, regardless of their complexity, are most essential towards political and social work because maps can differentiate one entity over an other, and can compare different entities together. For example, maps regarding the spending of our U.S military from two presidential candidates shows the care that each person has for our military and the safety of our country. Not only do maps provide extraterrestrial data, but they set as the easiest basis for people to make decisions based off the data. Regardless of what data goes into a map, there are common themes between all of them: selections for a base map, creating symbols to define them in a legend, and methods to display and format the data. On Voyant, the termsberry tool is a useful map because it allows you to see the frequency of different words together. When you hover over one word, other words next to it with highlight in purple to show the frequency of these words being used together throughout the text. This is an amazing feature because it allows us to depict the tendencies in our author's writing and shows the purpose of doing so.

In chapter nine about three-dimensional and virtual models, it talks about the uncertainty that 3D models have when relaying the truth, verifiability, and accuracy of the information within them. More commonly used today, 3D models are mainly based off simulation. This is an issue because simulated effects can lead to deception and inaccuracy which promotes entertainment aspects over scholarly aspects. 3D models aren't always based off pure simulation though. The book mentions a conducted research by a structural engineer named Kirk Martini who wanted to find building inquiry on the reconstruction of Pompeii. For his study, he focused on one building that was in the center of Pompeii, being taken down from an earthquake just years before the famous volcanic eruption. To create a realistic 3D model, he studied the rubble patterns and analyzed the patches and repairs of the building to more accurately explore his hypothesis of effective reconstruction in Pompeii.

Overall, these concepts helped me define the purpose of curation in digital humanities and my understanding that we can hold accurate data for long periods, if not limitless amounts of time, which helps us as a society grow and improve in many different aspects. This includes our military, our fundamentals as a country and individuals, our goals and aspirations, and much more.