The focus of the articles and activity for class this week is the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) in the humanities. The term GIS is very simple for the vast amounts and types of information it covers. In broad and brief terms, quoted from Ian Gregory and Paul Ell’s GIS and its role in historical research: an introduction, it is “any information that refers to a location on the Earth’s surface.” HGIS is much the same, though the relevant information must also be historic or historically relevant. In practice, the examples covered in other articles all use digital systems to track, place, and trace information relevant to the research topic on a map. If you’ve seen a plot map of Civil War Battlegrounds, or a map pinned with locations of historic buildings, that is a good example of HGIS. Each example assigned for this week had its own challenges, but the long-form article by Loren Siebert, Using GIS to Document, Visualize, and Interpret Tokyo’s Spatial History, was a good breakdown of the different types of engagement, challenges, and research that go into these often long processes.
Difficulties Siebert both experienced and proposed included: the sheer amount and diverse range of sources; that GIS systems and results want complete data that is often unavailable; that changes in geography and borders over time can be difficult to find in sources and difficult to visualize in a GIS project; that the data-driven approach that a digital GIS system is meant for can flatten and dehumanize the human experiences meant to be covered by HGIS; and that, while GIS can give historians new perspectives and avenues of research to explore, they can also create the impression of patterns that do not really exist, correlation is not causation.
That last part is especially relevant to Susan Grunewald’s Beyond the Archive article, What GIS Mapping Reveals about German POWs in Soviet Russia. In plotting the location of POW camps and locations of industrial production across what is now Ukraine in the post-war USSR, Grunewald notices a correlation between the site of coal mines and other large industries and POW camps. Grunewald’s conclusion is that the location of industry informed the location of POW camps, and that POWs were used as forced labor at levels unprecedented and unknown to history thus far. However, there were vast numbers of coal mines and other industrial areas across all of Ukraine and much of Soviet Russia, and there is a distinct lack of POW camps at many of the other sites. While Grunewald did discover an interesting correlation, her article shows what happens when GIS becomes the basis for a claim instead of supporting evidence. GIS and HGIS can be part of the research process, but they can’t stand alone as evidence for a historical claim.
During class, we experimented with QGIS software, which is meant for creating and displaying HGIS. I mostly learned that I hate it. As software, not as a concept. After trying to download QGIS on three separate devices, I finally got it to work in just one instance. I managed to break the software in new and creative ways a few times during class. My proudest moment from the activity was not rage-quitting and throwing my laptop out a window. I do think HGIS is a fascinating and important tool, and I am capable of using complex software and even modding, but the QGIS system is infuriating. I plan to do my best to avoid using it as much as I can in the future.
You are not alone in your hatred. I too broke the system. Frankly, I’ll take a paper map, pin and red string over GIS any day!
Fortunately, I was sitting near Karine, so I was able to follow the instructor by watching her laptop screen. At home, without the pressure of the classroom, I used tutorials and was able to create a map of Paris and figure out how to add data to it. In my opinion, trying to learn a completely new program in such a short time, especially when others already have some experience with it, can be very frustrating.
Anna, sorry that you had so many issues with the software in class, that must have been a frustrating experience! I agree with you that QGIS had a little bit of a learning curve to it, I want to take some time to play around with the software a bit more in my free time.
Hi Anna, our small group discussion this week about digital mapping was really interesting, and I love how you’ve described it in your blog post “correlation is not causation.” Thanks for sharing those art history maps on dig sites – they were really cool! I’m glad that you haven’t thrown your laptop out a window!