PRAXIS OF MAPPING
Process, Form and Theory
Process and Practice of GIS
This project is the culmination of several different practices that were a mix of a continued practice of long-time interests, and a semester’s worth of new skill development. The central practice of my project was learning how to use the map-making software, ArcGIS (Geographic Information System). Establishing the goal of making a series of maps using this software which before this semester I had only the vaguest knowledge of, was an objective that placed me way outside of my comfort zone. Throughout my years of basic tech classes I have not been very quick to pick up new software skills and often found myself trailing behind other students— especially in completing relatively monotonous functions in Microsoft Excel. This semester, through my map-making praxis, I have done more work in Excel, and other related chart producing programs, than I ever wished to do before, and have found myself not only developing an expertise in the program, but also becoming lulled by the repetitive data entry process into an overwhelmingly pleasant trace-like state. Something that was once a frustrating chore has become an essential utility and a centering, meditative process. However, the process of learning ArcGIS was not all about returning to old mental blocks about skills that I had before been slow to develop, and triumphing over them. It was also, in large part a struggle against the limits of time, and a highly involved analytical process that was for the most part, non-verbal.
I have found that map-making in ArcGIS is a 5-fold process:
1. Preliminary Research
2. Data Entry
3. Conversion/Translation
4. Visualization
5. Analysis
I will walk through these steps using examples from data featured in my “MAP AS CODE”, and “MAP AS WARFARE” maps.
1. Preliminary Research: As in any research project, the initial step in knowing what to look for is developing questions that you want to answer. For my MAP AS CODE, I was looking to find many different kinds of seemingly discordant data, in order to create a sense of texture and density over the map’s surface. One set of data that I was interested in exploring was statistics of the birthplaces, genders, races and ethnicities of Nobel Prize in Literature winners since 1901. I was interested in seeing if there were any spatial patterns that would illuminate trends in literary recognition through the Nobel Prize.
2. Data Entry: I spent several hours finding this data and compiling it in an Excel spreadsheet. Below is a screenshot of a small portion of the results for Nobel Prize in Literature winners since 1901:
3. Conversion: In order for the data that I compile in excel to be readable by the ArcGIS software, I must first convert the Excel file into a GIS table format. This is usually a pretty simple process, but it requires filling out a data entry form that is written in an obscure GIS language for linking files. Also, you must be careful to create unique ID fields that you will be able to link up with other data later, or else you will have to rewrite and reprocess the entire excel spreadsheet again. The picture below shows the successfully converted table in ArcGIS, layered over a basic country polygons visualization.
The translation bit of this process is an extension of conversion, except I am using “translation” to describe all the processes of relating data sets within the ArcGIS software, rather than from outside of the software into it. I’ll use my MAP AS WARFARE as an example.
For my MAP AS WARFARE, I wanted to find out if there is a correlation between the places where the United States exports chemical weapons, and the places where teargas was used against peaceful protestors in 2013. In order to visualize this comparison, I wanted to use “flow-lines”, lines that go from one point of a map to another, in order to show the flow of goods, currency or people, to symbolize the flow of weapons from the U.S. to countries all over the world.
ArcGIS is founded on geometry, so in order to create flow-lines, I had to link many different data tables and sets, to create start X, Y and end X,Y points for my lines. Often, through linking different data tables, data is inexplicably lost. The picture below is a failed attempt at binding data sets for a XY to line function.
For my MAP AS WARFARE, I wanted to find out if there is a correlation between the places where the United States exports chemical weapons, and the places where teargas was used against peaceful protestors in 2013. In order to visualize this comparison, I wanted to use “flow-lines”, lines that go from one point of a map to another, in order to show the flow of goods, currency or people, to symbolize the flow of weapons from the U.S. to countries all over the world.
ArcGIS is founded on geometry, so in order to create flow-lines, I had to link many different data tables and sets, to create start X, Y and end X,Y points for my lines. Often, through linking different data tables, data is inexplicably lost. The picture below is a failed attempt at binding data sets for a XY to line function.
Note how all of the entries in the LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, StartX_1 and StartyY fields and missing and filled in as 0.
Depending on the difficulty of the function I am trying to perform, translation can take a day, a week or five minutes. When the data is finally translated it creates a basic:
4. Visualization :
Depending on the difficulty of the function I am trying to perform, translation can take a day, a week or five minutes. When the data is finally translated it creates a basic:
4. Visualization :
Above is a successful visual rendering of the flow-lines between the U.S. and the countries that buy our chemical weapons.
Design, the final stage of visualization, is arguably more of a central part of the analysis of a mapmaker, so I will shift into
1. Analysis : What makes the map featured in the visualization section, only the very basic, preliminary step of coming to an analysis of data is that it is not at all expressive of the world of internal data that the red flow lines of chemical weapons represents. For one thing, it represents each flow of weapons in an equally weighted burgundy line. It gives the viewer, no sense of the quantity or value of the exchanges that the lines represent. In order to improve the map, I would have to join the XY to line data with data for the specifics of chemical weapons being bought and sold. Only by doing this, could I begin to think about what this map says about the correlations between U.S. military exports and teargas use against peaceful protestors.
All of these steps require patience and a dedicated attention to detail, especially since this software was made by, and primarily for, people who are fluent in programming codes. Many code-type shorthands are used in the software’s internal calculations. You must write out these calculations manually in order to do anything in the program. One of the reasons I did not share my praxis of mapmaking on the blog is because most of my work was non-verbal and difficult to explain when I was in the midst of learning it myself.
Although I still have a long way to go in the process of becoming fluent in ArcGIS, I have definitely gained proficiency and a basic command of the software. I have also made great strides in conquering my fear of being bad at something in the process of learning how to do it. It is for this reason that I think my praxis of map making may have really been a praxis of practice itself.
Design, the final stage of visualization, is arguably more of a central part of the analysis of a mapmaker, so I will shift into
1. Analysis : What makes the map featured in the visualization section, only the very basic, preliminary step of coming to an analysis of data is that it is not at all expressive of the world of internal data that the red flow lines of chemical weapons represents. For one thing, it represents each flow of weapons in an equally weighted burgundy line. It gives the viewer, no sense of the quantity or value of the exchanges that the lines represent. In order to improve the map, I would have to join the XY to line data with data for the specifics of chemical weapons being bought and sold. Only by doing this, could I begin to think about what this map says about the correlations between U.S. military exports and teargas use against peaceful protestors.
All of these steps require patience and a dedicated attention to detail, especially since this software was made by, and primarily for, people who are fluent in programming codes. Many code-type shorthands are used in the software’s internal calculations. You must write out these calculations manually in order to do anything in the program. One of the reasons I did not share my praxis of mapmaking on the blog is because most of my work was non-verbal and difficult to explain when I was in the midst of learning it myself.
Although I still have a long way to go in the process of becoming fluent in ArcGIS, I have definitely gained proficiency and a basic command of the software. I have also made great strides in conquering my fear of being bad at something in the process of learning how to do it. It is for this reason that I think my praxis of map making may have really been a praxis of practice itself.
