Reading 1: Cartographies of Time

Minard Map Having seen Minard’s war map before, having it explained made it even more apparent how brilliant of a visualization it is. I suppose the main value that it provides is in the instant data transfer that occurs by looking at it–it’s very clear how quickly Napoleon’s army shrank on the campaign. My new favorite part of this map is the space-centric approach to visualization, and making time fit the geographical data at the bottom since it’s much less relevant (especially at the time) than the geographical progress towards (and away from) Moscow.

Reading 2: The Potential of Spatial Humanities

Similar to Minard’s map, this piece challenges the importance of time in narrative. Bodenhamer puts emphasis on the limitations of spatial visualizations as they exist today, and I agree this is a part of the field that needs work.