Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Collaborative Mapping - Personal Projects and Questions

NOTATION 3 - ARCH 699 - Michael Whitmire
http://www.vimeo.com/9693423

Which is more effective: the gentle journey through a slideshow via progressive images, a series of video shots stitched together as a whole, or an intentionally-linear, photographed and geotagged route through a site? All of these correspond - roughly with the first two and exactly with the third - to a path, a route travelled. The path of the first two are hand-drawn into an online map, which is in turn linked to each video:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=100666044675598845897.00047f0f7ce0e388b3d29&ll=34.693202,-82.788661&spn=0.002616,0.005509&z=18

Neither route, however, is an exact record of the actual path travelled, nor are the photos of the slideshow tagged with exact locational information. While close, the paths are approximate - and I believe they serve some purposes, such as communication and illustration of existing issues, very well.

The original video, made of actual video footage, is also found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR3CH03pjuA

The second linked video, the one produced as a slideshow, is also found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nL_utwO04k


Ultimately, the slideshow video of the Apartment Complex to to Catchment Basin to Stream (mirroring my own second video, above) co-produced by Nick and myself, and compiled and presented primarily by Nick, has a much more measured, definite, and linear nature. Its production as a linear, measurable, and intentional path was considered from the beginning, and that nature shows up in the final piece. Linking to this presentation with the online Google map is pending.

The embedding of the linear GPS route, presented by Nick is his Flash production to the German group, into the online map is also pending. [*need link to Nick’s Flash presentation HERE*]. I expect that layering the “Route” from the GPS device onto the collaborative online map would manifest a line more quantitative than the hand-drawn lines I have used in that map already to indicate my own two videos. As such, the GIS Route might serve additional useful purposes, such as providing compatible correspondences to other data layers, such as topographical data, speaking for example to expected water flows across the landscape.

As an additional consideration, the linking of historical data with this map would be useful in determining past forms of the site. For example, “Was there a preexisting stream in the area?” and “Does the eroded gully predate construction?” I have heard that Google Earth provides historical data. Surely such data is also available in local historical records, construction records, and the like. The appeal of the online data is that it is so accessible. Which is the best path to answering the questions about past landscape form?