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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | Re: [gislist] topic change |
| Date: |
01/12/2007 09:20:00 AM |
| From: |
Nonie Castro |
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I just LOVE looking at maps that children make!
Look at the photos I took from the ESRI convention in 2005:
http://app.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/35079/
-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of David Lamb
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 7:09 PM
To: Chris Bevilacqua: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] topic change
Good point! It doesn't seem to carry over into our day to day lives.
I do think that maps (slightly different topic) do impact the way we
conceptualize the world and our view of space. Maps are made of the
"geographic primitives". Perhaps as adults we can start to separate the
representations from reality better. I've seen examples of third
graders told to draw a map of the world, and they put Alaska in the
lower left-hand side of the United States. Or ask a group of 2nd
graders where north is, and they will point up towards the ceiling.
North is always up :). It can actually be quite jarring to see a map
that doesn't follow tradition and puts north pointing down. Some maps
of Australia do this.
What about though when we take the outside world and put it into a GIS?
When you go from "reality" to the GIS, a fire hydrant becomes a point,
your apartment becomes a polygon. If we create a model of something a
GIS, such as site selection, then we have conceptualized this process to
fit within the conception of space using points, lines, polygons, and
fields. Perhaps we can never achieve a truly complex model of "reality"
until we step back and reconceptualize our ideas of space and objects in
space...within a GIS that is. Not that I have any clue what a
reconceptualization of space would be. It's really difficult for me to
visualize a fire hydrant as something other than a dot/point. Maybe as
we move towards more software that is 3-d capable, different ideas will
come about. Perhaps another way of putting the original question is
that GIS technology doesn't affect our day to day views of space as I
think you said, but it does seem (to me) to impact the way we explain or
interpret the world around us.
I don't know much about the anthropological literature either. There is
a fairly interesting and accessible book called Art and Physics that
discusses different conceptualizations of space.
Thanks for your response!
David
________________________________
From: Chris Bevilacqua [mailto:cbevilacqua@rmc-consultants.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 3:39 PM
To: David Lamb: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: RE: [gislist] topic change
David,
This is a fascinating topic! I would argue that we don't truly
conceptualize space as points, lines, polygons, and rasters - even we
that spend all day working with GIS. I would also argue that the
abstract representations of space we use in our "GIS world" have little
impact on the way space is conceptualized in our day to day lives. In
my opinion, the spread of GIS technology will not have a broad impact on
how people view space. I don't think of my apartment building as a
polygon, the fire hydrant outside as a point, the street as a line, and
so on.
This is really an athropological topic. I am not familiar with the
anthropological literature regarding space, but a brief web search
suggests this topic has been well explored. The conceptualization of
space is influenced by cultural and psychological factors that are too
complex to be represented by any software.
Chris
Chris Bevilacqua, RPA
Archaeologist/GIS Specialist
________________________________
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com on behalf of David Lamb
Sent: Thu 1/11/2007 3:00 PM
To: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] topic change
As I feebly try to steer the list in another direction.
I think this brings up a much more (personally) interesting question. I
would imagine that considering ESRI has such a huge market share of GIS
software, at least in the United States, that ESRI software must come up
a lot in a GIS question and answer setting. Of course, the argument
against that statement is "Why doesn't Geomedia come up as often?" What
I actually think this series of emails brings up again is the Tool vs.
Science debate. Is it possible to separate our tactile visions of GIS
(arcview, geomedia, manifold, mapinfo, grass, etc.), moving away from
the little black box, to get understanding of the "science"? Software
is so tied to GIS as a whole...and so are certain brands. You cannot
deny the role that ESRI has played in the GIS world. Perhaps the
broader issue is that some folks are tired of getting tool questions,
and want more science questions? I don't know, and don't want to put
words in peoples' mouths. I would imagine most people subscribing to
this list are GIS users rather than GISc
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