CESTA Seminar with Mateusz Fafinski

Date
Tue October 16th 2018, 12:00pm
CESTA Seminar with Mateusz Fafinski

Catrographies of Text: Unstructured Historical Textual Data and Maps

Working on large sets of historical documents (corpora of charters, sets of chronicles, letters etc.) poses many challenges similar to working with big data. Visualizing results of analyses of such sets on maps and linking texts with images is essential for creating new interpretative possibilities. Such practice also creates new layers of meaning, where digital facsimiles coexist with source texts and commentaries in cartographical space. But curated, interactive maps of corpora offer not only possibilities but also pose challenges. Pre-structuring data sets limits the usability of the end product for research. Moving from theoretical questions about pre-structuring data to practical examples of work on mapping Anglo-Saxon charters, we will try together to see whether it is possible to approach large historical data sets in a more flexible and interactive manner.