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Sep. 18th, 2015 01:11 amI am completely failing to sleep tonight. Whose idea was having this workshop at nine-thirty tomorrow?
Sep. 18th, 2015
Humanely Mapping the Holocaust
Sep. 18th, 2015 05:43 pmThe colloquium talk today was on the challenges of applying GIS to mapping the Holocaust in a humane, ethical way. It was fascinating, but some of Anne Knowles' group's end results were emotionally difficult.
One criticism the project has faced is that their earlier approaches, simply visualizing locational data encoded in things like the Aushwitz architectural plans or Einsatzkommando reports, creates a depersonalizing distance. That we are left seeing the Holocaust from the perspective of those who implemented it, not from those who survived its horrors.
For me, my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the details of those events are inseparable from visualizations. Maps with vector arrows or charts showing when, where, and how many were killed are encodings of the violence and terror that lurk right behind them. At the same time, I see the validity of this criticism, and so does Anne. In response, her group has attempted to incorporate perspectives of survivors through sources like diaries and interviews and by creating visualizations that are more abstract and artistic. Speaking for myself, they are quite effective.
I decided to head home after that. I've already been feeling kind of stressy lately, and the presentation did not incline me toward socializing with folks I don't know very well. Maybe that's a convenient excuse, but I'm here at home where I can get some more work done anyway.
One criticism the project has faced is that their earlier approaches, simply visualizing locational data encoded in things like the Aushwitz architectural plans or Einsatzkommando reports, creates a depersonalizing distance. That we are left seeing the Holocaust from the perspective of those who implemented it, not from those who survived its horrors.
For me, my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the details of those events are inseparable from visualizations. Maps with vector arrows or charts showing when, where, and how many were killed are encodings of the violence and terror that lurk right behind them. At the same time, I see the validity of this criticism, and so does Anne. In response, her group has attempted to incorporate perspectives of survivors through sources like diaries and interviews and by creating visualizations that are more abstract and artistic. Speaking for myself, they are quite effective.
I decided to head home after that. I've already been feeling kind of stressy lately, and the presentation did not incline me toward socializing with folks I don't know very well. Maybe that's a convenient excuse, but I'm here at home where I can get some more work done anyway.
