Collaborative Map
This interactive map draws together the research being conducted during the Mississippi. An Anthropocene River project, making the landscape readable as a space with proximal connections and interrelations of systems and activities. Using narrative and collaborative research practices, it documents and displays the activities of the Field Stations and all associated projects with direct input from the artists and researchers in the form of posts placed by themselves at specific locations on the map. In addition, thematic compositions of GIS data display will be elaborated by Brian Holmes, acting independently or in collaboration with other artists and researchers. This results in a highly detailed and usable map-based research tool of the entire Mississippi basin that geospatially represents an archive of all the matters of concern identified by project participants.
The Collaborative Map offers three levels of engagement.
The Posts layer allows users to place an icon at a location of their choice, sorted according to one of five categories: Geology, History, Industry, Culture, and Ecology. Text, image or video can be added to the posts, from either a PC or via mobile phone on the fly.
The Field Stations layer is where groups of participants are encouraged to work with the map editor to determine a geographical area of interest and to compose a specific basemap, adding various kinds of information which will only be visible in their section. Major inputs involving the analysis of places, the documentation of works, or written and visual narratives of all kinds can be added to these according to the logic of the Posts layer.
Thematic layers are those through which individuals or groups work with the map editor to use GIS data for the representation of particular problematics, such as colonial history, current social conflicts, flood regimes, river engineering, fertilizer use, geological structures, ecoregions, or property rights, to name just a few. The resulting information is delivered through the map itself as rich layer of raster or polygon overlays, with associated legends and small popup windows for data-points.
