Hestia2: reading texts spatially

Hestia2是一个基于空间阅读和文本可视化的创新公共参与项目。赫斯提亚的研究团队来自古典学、地理学和计算机学，他们产生了两项创新成果：希罗多德的《历史》中对地理空间的理解是根据地点和民族之间的联系，而不是地图上的点；以及网络技术的发展和使用，用于视觉化和思考叙事。Hestia2代表了从单一文本的地理空间分析实验到通过各种创造性手段将Hestia的成果提供给新受众的刻意转变：(i)在研究人员和非学术团体之间举办一系列研讨会，促进Hestia文本空间分析的知识交流；（ii）一个创新的在线平台，旨在提高普通爱好者、学生和教师阅读希罗多德的体验，并可扩展到其他具有空间方面的文本；以及（iii）旨在传播Hestia资源并引起公众兴趣的博客和免费学习材料。随着数字媒体迅速改变信息的查看和处理方式，数据可视化是学术界和非学术界都面临的主要挑战之一。文化遗产组织、政府机构和从事数字经济工作的公司，都必须处理以对用户有意义的方式呈现大数据的问题，但这些方式不能降低数据的复杂性，也不能给出误导性的画面。Hestia2利用原始项目的关键知识成果——对文学文本中嵌入的空间关系的分析——来讨论数据可视化的人文主义方法，这种方法基于复杂而混乱的真实内容，有助于促进这场辩论。在由四部分组成的系列研讨会中，Hestia2考虑：(i)用于数据探索的网络分析技术、方法和模型；（ii）地理信息系统在制图文本中的作用；（iii）数据的数字化可视化，特别是复杂的文学文本；（iv）数字技术在多大程度上帮助非学者获取和理解研究。为了促进教师、学生和普通爱好者更广泛地参与原始项目对希罗多德历史地理的重新想象，Hestia2将不同的技术创新汇集到一个有凝聚力的、直观的阅读界面（称为GapVis）中。通过这个平台，用户可以一目了然地掌握地点参考的总体分布，在叙述中移动，看到地点出现和“从记忆中消失”，并专注于单个地点，包括它们与“同时”提到的其他地点的关系。通过与经验丰富的学术创新者一起试用Hestia GapVis， Hestia2将确保为爱好者、学生、教师和研究人员提供一个强大且用户友好的阅读界面。此外，通过使用Pelagios项目对希罗多德中提到的地方的参考索引，Hestia的用户将能够链接并汇集与这些地方相关的不同类型的在线数据，从提到这些地方的其他文本，在那里发现的人工制品和铭文，到它们的数码照片。为了加强Hestia成果的传播，所有活动都将记录在博客上，并通过社交媒体传播，同时将制作免费学习材料以丰富资源。博客将持续传播和讨论研讨会的成果，以及对GapVis阅读界面的反馈。通过记录使Hestia数据集适应GapVis的工作，Hestia2还为其他用户制定了指导方针，这些用户可能希望重新利用GapVis来显示他们自己选择的具有地理空间元素的文本。最后，Hestia2将与开放大学的开放学习单位合作，建立免费的学习材料，为在GapVis中阅读希罗多德提供背景。

Hestia2 is an innovative public engagement project based on the spatial reading and visualising of texts. Involving a research team from Classics, Geography and Computing, Hestia produced two innovative outcomes: the understanding of geographic space in Herodotus's Histories in terms of connections between places and peoples rather than as points on a map; and the development and use of web technologies for visualising and thinking about a narrative. Hestia2 represents a deliberate shift from experimenting with geospatial analysis of a single text to making Hestia's outcomes available to new audiences through a variety of creative means: (i) a seminar series fostering knowledge exchange of Hestia's spatial analysis of a text between researchers and non-academic communities; (ii) an innovative online platform designed to enhance the experience for general enthusiasts, students and teachers of reading Herodotus and be extensible to other texts with spatial aspects; and (iii) a blog and free learning materials aimed at disseminating Hestia's resources and generating public interest.With the digital medium rapidly transforming the ways in which information is viewed and processed, data visualisation is one of the key challenges to academic and non-academic groups alike. Cultural heritage groups, government agencies and firms working in the digital economy, all have to deal with the problem of presenting big data in ways that make sense to their users but that do not reduce the complexity of the data or give a misleading picture. Hestia2 uses the key intellectual outcome of the original project-the analysis of spatial relations embedded in literary texts-to discuss humanistic approaches to data visualisation which, by virtue of being based on real content that is complex and messy, can help contribute to this debate. In a four-part seminar series, Hestia2 considers: (i) network analysis techniques, methods and models used for data exploration; (ii) the role of GIS in mapping texts; (iii) digital visualisations of data, especially complex literary texts; and (iv) the extent to which digital technologies help non-academics access and comprehend research.To promote wider engagement among teachers, students and general enthusiasts with the original project's re-imagining of the geography of Herodotus's Histories, Hestia2 brings together the disparate technological innovations into a cohesive, intuitive reading interface (called GapVis). This platform allows users to grasp the total distribution of place references at a glance, move through the narrative and see locations appearing and 'fading from memory', and focus on individual places including their relationships to other locations mentioned 'in the same breath'. By trialling Hestia GapVis with an experienced academic innovator, Hestia2 will ensure a robust and user-friendly reading interface fit for the enthusiast, student, teacher and researcher alike. In addition, by using the Pelagios project's index of references for places mentioned in Herodotus, users of Hestia will be able to link to and bring together different kinds of online data associated with those places, from other texts that mention them, artefacts and inscriptions found there, to digital photos of them.To enhance dissemination of Hestia's outputs, all activity will be documented on the blog and disseminated via social media, while free learning materials will be produced to enrich the resource. The blog will promote continuous dissemination and discussion of the findings from the seminars as well as feedback about the GapVis reading interface. By documenting the work of adapting the Hestia dataset to GapVis, Hestia2 also sets down guidelines for other users, who may wish to repurpose GapVis for displaying a text of their own choice that has geospatial elements. Lastly, Hestia2 will work with the OU's OpenLearn unit to build free learning materials that provide context for reading Herodotus in GapVis.