I appreciated how Bonde et. al opened their article, “The Virtual Monastery: Re-Presenting Time, Human Movement, and Uncertainty at Saint-Jeans-des-Vignes, Soisson,” and thought it fitting to insert that passage here as well for a proper introduction: “Most digital projects devoted to the presentation of historical monuments, archaeological sites, or museum collections contain an element of deception. To varying degrees, they ask the viewer to believe that he or she is “really there.” I appreciated their acknowledgement and statement that though projects of a spatial nature certainly help in one’s understanding of what is being presented, nothing can truly beat being there physically, and at the time in question. “Virtual reconstructions are knowledge representations—hypotheses—to be questioned and tested. Because of this theoretical position, digital humanists acknowledge that their representations are surrogates in a very self-conscious way.” However, spatial analysis and 3-D modeling are as close as we can get.
Spatial analysis can help reveal historical truths in a visual and dynamic way, transforming the lesson from not only reading text to texts and 3-D interactive visual tools or aids. It can help highlight intentional architectural building as well as mistakes or inconsistencies. Like mapping, it can help one further synthesize information with a visual element. It gives one the opportunity to expand the ways in which they analyze history, to see potentially previously hidden relationships and connections. For example, the Virtual Cairo project allowed historians to take previous information about the physical layout of Cairo and compare it to other information that stated that, though Cairo turned out to have a “highly ordered geometric form,” that, “Such a highly ordered and hierarchical urban scheme belies the traditional view of the Islamic city as an irregular, organic form.” It does eventually begin to take on the form of typical Islamic cities by the Medieval period, however utilizing spatial analysis allows one to document these characteristics and changes (over time), like the many changes Bayn al-Qasrayn underwent over a given period of time. Space plays a starring, integral role in this and similarly-based spatial analysis projects.
Amber Sophia 