This is a video of how progress made in technology creates new ways of viewing the past and finding new discoveries. If we take the comparison of a digital map to a body, as in “the Anatomy of a Web Map” by Alan McConchie and Beth Schechter, we can see how new findings are added to complete the digital map of Stonehenge. The authors further explain that both bodies and web maps have systems and components that interact and intertwine. And that instead of cells, maps use data, and that instead of circulatory and digestive systems, web maps have style, servers and tiles. To explain a web map, a comparison between a web map and a digital map is made. According to “the Anatomy of a Web Map”, web maps are accessible on the computer while digital maps are viewed on electronic devices and are exclusive from the internet. What was particularly interesting to me was that the first digital map that I used was map quest. Map quest, according to the presentation, is the first initiate for digital maps. In the slide show, little tiles of a map are loaded instead of one big map, because it is faster. One tile can show a map of the world and zoomed in images increases the amount of tiles used. It was also interesting to find out that maps are made in advance and stored in cache. These changes in how we present and view the world is similar to how archeology finds the past through new technologies. The limitations of the internet, such as how it was too long to upload an actual map as it is noted by Alan McConchie and Beth Schechter, is a subtle effect of how we present the world. From this it seems that the way we work around the limitations of technology affects the way we represent information. On the article “Digital mapping project reveals Stonehenge Secrets” by Michelle Starr, it is said that “All of this information has been placed within a single digital map, which will guide how Stonehenge and its landscape are studied in the future. Stonehenge may never be the same again.” We can now view the Stonehenge not only digitally, but also we can see how it is fleshed out as archeologist find new discoveries. It is interesting to see that the more technology advances, the more it affects the way we view the world. We do not only use technology to navigate the streets, but also to find and renew the past.
Work Cited:
Alan McConchie and Beth Schechter, “Anatomy of a Web Map”
http://www.cnet.com/news/digital-mapping-project-reveals-stonehenge-secrets/