The area told as a story

Project abstract

In modern European societies, maps are seen as the natural way to communicate about geography. This is different in other historical periods. In the project description I show some examples of historical periods in which maps are not used very much, although they are known. In my opinion, this lack of use is not based on a lack of cartographic tools or knowledge only. I think there are other reasons why people choose to use verbal texts to communicate about geography, reasons that may be difficult to see for people living in a modern map based society. In the proposed PhD project, I will look for such reasons by trying to find examples of verbal texts being superior to maps.

The source material for the project will be a document from the 18^th century: Major Schnitler's border examination protocols. The digitally available, TEI encoded textual version of this material will be used as the source for a database. This database will represent a model of the geographical information I read from the text.

This model will be a version of the geographical information in the source text, expressed in a formal language. The model will also store contradictory facts if and when they exist. Possible contradiction can be found using rules of calculation that will be developed on top of the model. The model will be used to investigate my hypothesis by trying to express the information in the model as maps.

Based on the results of this research, I will discuss the possible existence of geographical structures and features found in the model that can not be expressed on maps without significant loss of meaning. This way, I hope to gain new knowledge about how people express themselves in verbal texts about geography, as opposed to map based expressions. In the longer term, I hope this will help us understanding more about the reasons why some cultures are very map oriented, whereas others know about maps, but only use them in very limited areas.

Articles

• Eide, Øyvind. "Sound, Ink, Bytes. Geographical Information through the Centuries" New Knowledge Environments [Online], Vol 1, No 1 (2009). URL: http://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/INKE/article/view/156
• Eide, Øyvind. "Computer Mapping of Geography and Border Crossing in Scandinavia" CLC Web [Online], Vol 13, No 3 (2011). URL: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol13/iss3/22/

Book chapters

• Eide, Øyvind. "Verbal Expressions of Geographical Information." New Worlds out of Old Texts: Developing Techniques for the Spatial Analysis of Ancient Narratives. Elton Barker, Stefan Buzar, Chris Pelling, and Leif Isaksen (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, Forthcoming.

Presentations

• INKE 2009, Vicoria, BC, Canada October 23–24 2009: Abstract. Presentation. Conference webpage. Participation supported by the INKE project.
• Seminar at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK October 30 2009: Abstract. Presentation.
• PhD seminar at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London, UK December 16 2009: Presentation.
• Transcending the Boundaries: doctoral research across disciplines. Workshop at the School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester, UK January 30 2010: Presentation. Workshop webpage.
• Invited presentation at the seminar for the Research Group for Lexicography, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, Norway February 19 2010: Presentation (in Norwegian). Research Group webpage (in Norwegian).
• Presentation at the Humanities + digital Visual Interpretations conference at MIT, May 20-22 2010. Presentation. Video of the presentation. Conference webpage.
• Presentation at the colloquium New worlds out of old texts: interrogating new techniques for the spatial analysis of ancient narratives in Oxford July 1-3 2010. Abstract. Presentation. Colloquium webpage.
• ICLA 2010, Seoul, South Korea August 15–21 2010: Abstract. Presentation. Conference webpage.
• So What? King's College London's Graduate Research Forum February 14 2011: Presentation. Event web page.
• PhD seminar at the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London February 16 2011: Presentation.
• Comparative Literature Research Seminar, King's College London March 9 2011: Breaking Lessing’s Rules? Maps, Documents and Defoe.
• SDH-SEMI 2011, Fredericton, Canada, May 30 –June 1 2011: Abstract. Presentation.
• Interface 2011, University College London, July 27–29 2011: Short presentation.
• NorSIS2011—Media Acts, Trondheim, Norway, October 26–28 2011: Abstract. Presentation. Conference webpage.
• PhD seminar at the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London November 23 2011: Presentation.
• MLA Annual Convention, Seattle, USA, January 5–8 2012. Abstract. Presentation.
• Digital Humanities Australasia, Canberra, Australia, March 27–30 2012. Abstract. Presentation. Conference webpage.
• Digital Humanities, Hamburg, Germany, July 16–22 2012. Abstract. Presentation. Conference webpage.
• The Department of Digital Humanities' New Scholars lecture series and the Arts and Humanities Research Institute's Interdisciplinary Seminar, King's College London, UK, March 1 2013. Presentation. Sound recording.
• The 26th International Cartographic Conference, Dresden, Germant, August 25–30 2013. Paper. Presentation. Conference webpage.

Research visits

• Copenhagen October 3-8 2009, supported by Fondet for dansk-norsk samarbeid. Report (in Norwegian).

In the media

• Interview in The Norwegian Research Council's news section (in Norwegian).