I have to say that I am the biggest fan of maps, during my spare time, I am always wandering on Gmaps, exploring every part of the planet. Thus, last class was a real pleasure for me. That bird-eye view, granted by a map is quite unique and helps us understand the real proportion of the planet, transforming a city in a grain of dust on that huge sphere, called by 8 billion people home.
Describing our cities was quite interesting, some of my classmates expressed deep connections with their places. My approach was a little bit different…maybe because I’m not attached of places? Or maybe it was just fun to describe my city underlining the funny and not-so-common aspects. After all of us pinned on map our towns and commented to other 3 places, the image was mesmerizing, the class suddenly became one kind of a cluster composed of pieces from thousands of kilometers away. One particularly place amazed me a lot: the Siberian town that was closer to Vladivostok than to Athens( I checked this fact after).
At the end, we discussed about how different points could be connected and tested this through utilizing Gephi (If I remember well) software in order to run a simulation. We saw a representation of a system, our system, translated into small dots that were united by lines, representing our interactions. It was a different kind of class but I enjoyed it a lot, and I consider it helped us zoom out a little in order to have an image of us, of life and why not, of technological evolution that made possible our meeting.
Hi wiredfeeback,
I really enjoyed reading your reflection. Especially your interested in maps let me think about how useful it is to see the world aorund us from the bird’s perspective. This perspective can force us sometimes to think outside of the box and leads to a more wider perception of the environment.
@wiredfeeback,
I can really relate to your fascination of maps. Especially the map of the world can summarize the size of the world and give a whole different perspective. Before I came to Athens I checked out the Map of Athens to see where I´d like to live and where to go. From 2k Kilometers away it seemed so small and so does the world map. I think we just have to remind ourselves all the time, that when you actually walk around and not look on the map its just sooo much bigger and further away than expected. And so is the range of our hometowns.