This is simply amazing: http://hypercities.ats.ucla.edu/
Contrary to the crime map, sexual assault map, and walk score map which each show grid-like streets with a few markers to indicate crimes or points of interest, Hypercities provides more of an engaging experience. Not only does the site give you a satellite view of a modern city of your choice which allows you to get more of a feel for the city and a more accurate assessment of the layout and topographical features., but his site provides multiple maps from completely different eras that can overlay the satellite image with adjustable opacity. Now, I've never been one to like history or claim to be interested in it, but this mapping site provides a more tangible form of historical documentation. Instead of learning about an ancient city and its development, this site allows you to see history unfold. Of particular interest to me was looking at Rome and observing different mapping styles, and seeing how the placement of certain places (such as the Colosseum or the river) differed slightly from map to map. It's fascinated to be able to sort of *see* the spatial awareness with regards to the city, and how surprisingly accurate some cartographers were despite the obvious lack of technology! This map is terribly fun to play around with, and provides what I think is an enriching educational experience.
That being said, upon visiting this site, I went immediately to view Paris and Rome --- I've visited both of these cities and fell in love with them. Really, I just fell in love with Europe. This brings me back to my view of Edmonton as being somewhat dulled. While a map of Edmonton on this site could be interesting just for the sake of seeing the development of my hometown, it's a newer city, and I think part of the magic of Hypercities is the ability to see a map of Rome from the year 211 - a time so long ago and so hard to reach out to. Maybe I'm just so deeply disconnected from Edmonton that I don't even care how it came to be. Maybe some of you could agree that a Hypercities map of Edmonton wouldn't be nearly as fascinating as the one of Rome.
Mapping my Edmonton could help me to see better my life as it is intertwined with the city. I worry, however, that in defining the city through my interaction with it, I will only discover that my life is boring and has helped to create the dullness that seems to pervade my Edmonton. Oops?
Haha I loved the last part of this blog especially. In regards to the second last sentence, I feel that it is positive for some people to find out the status of their life even if it means finding out what they did not want to find out, aka that "life is boring". This discovery would hopefully break you out of the cycle in which you currently live, one which may not be to the potential you could possibly reach. With that said, your life probably isn't boring! Or if it is, could be instantaneously and radically changed had you the knowledge that it was such.
ReplyDeleteI happen to love social studies and loved hypercities as well. I definitely agree with you that it would lose some of its magic, its ability to transport you thousands of years in the past, if it were to be applied to somewhere like Edmonton. However, I think it might show just how fast the modern city grows. Considering that Edmonton and Strathcona were two separate cities only a hundred and twenty years ago, would it not be great to see how Edmonton swallowed that city?