Reading Across Places

Bodies and Structures uses a method that we call “reading across places” to enable multivocal spatial history. Reading across places means allowing concepts of space to emerge from different articulations and experiences of place and vice versa. Bodies and Structures uses reading across places to enable users to analyze the production of spaces and places from either direction and as a dialectic. The environment encourages “an associative, connecting method of assemblage [best] described as rhizomatic,” in which unexpected amalgams or connections emerge through “forced juxtaposition of dissimilar components designed to produce frictions” (Pearson and Shanks 2014, 205). In this sense, Bodies and Structures uses digital tools to create spatial histories that are performances (of juxtapositions) as well as processes (of multivocal interpretation).

Or, as we like to say: Release the Rhizome!

Ok But What Do You Mean Really?

The point of all this is that you don’t have to start with a cartographic map and work down to specific stories tied to specific locale. You can do that [GEOTAGGED MAP / ATLAS SCREENCAST]. But you can also start from the spatial concepts that those historical experiences generated and explore their historical manifestations in multiple places[HOW TO SCREENCAST]. Or, you can start from the map of the site to see how we as authors created relationships between people, places, themes, and events in the digital space of Bodies and Structures [HOW TO SCREENCAST].

Hold My Hand

To get a feel for the site and its possibilities, we suggest that new readers explore the site first in this order:

1. First, read through one or two modules in their original order [K/D: HOW TO NAVIGATE A MODULE SCREENCAST]. To do so, start with the List of Modules page.
2. Second, find that module’s first page on the Complete Grid Visualization. Use the Complete Grid Visualization to see how that module connects to other modules and pages within the site [K/D: SCREENCAST - USING THE COMPLETE GRID VISUALIZATION]. You might find some surprisingly generative juxtapositions [Builder: SCREENCAST of a Surprisingly Generative Juxtaposition].
3. Three, use the Complete Grid Visualization to see which Crossings [NOTE] and Subtags [NOTE] we have applied to the module. Open that Crossing or Subtag. Scroll down to see the other pages that have been tagged by the same Crossing or Subtag. Pick one and read through it. What does this juxtaposition [Builder: SCREENCAST] bring to the fore?
4. Four, use the Tag Map to see how a particular spatial concept manifests in different historical contexts [K/D: SCREENCAST - HOW TO USE THE TAG MAP]. Consider how the concept takes on different historical meanings in specific contexts [Builder: SCREENCAST - CONSIDER THE CONCEPT].
5. Five, use the new Lenses tool to create your own slice of the site’s content [K/D: SCREENCAST - USING THE LENSES TOOL]. Practice creating the following Lenses:
   1. a list of all of the pages tagged by “primary source translations.”
   2. a Word Cloud of all of the pages that have been tagged by “primary sources translations.” Change the parameters of the Lens (for example, add pages from a second tag; or analyze only the pages from two tags that share a particular text string or piece of metadata).
   3. Convert the Lens into a Map visualization. Click on a pin. Using the dct:spatial metadata, create a Lens that shows all of the pages with geospatial metadata within 100 km or 100 mi of that page.
   4. Create a new Lens that shows how we have categorized pages that contain a particular text string. Create a force-directed graph that includes all of the pages that contain the text string “colonial” and the items that they tag or are tagged by.
   5. Use the Lens to retrace your steps. Create a Lens that shows a list of all of the pages that you have visited in the past three hours.
6. Finally, use one of the five Entry Points to dive in from the top down.

Follow the path below to see other Sample Visualizations and Sample Lenses as well as a guide to using Bodies and Structures in the classroom. You can find other how-to screencasts on our Show Me How page. Or, skip ahead to the so what: "Reorienting Our Scholarship."