Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Ghosting Copenhagen

Today I learned a new term in urban historical research and mapmaking. "Ghosting."

Ghosting, as Herr Bosselmann verbosely described, is the exercise of overlaying new maps on top of old, examining each one through the other, looking to see the process of urban transformation over time, looking to see which historical forms have remained, looking to see which have not. And understanding precisely "why".

In sum, looking to the past to understand the present; taking it one step further to predict the patterns of our urban future.



It is quite a fascinating topic, for sure. That said, Herr Bosselmann is a little impatient with my current pace of taking his simplified chicken-scratch maps and turning them into a multi-layered smorgasborg of urban know-how. Thus is the reality of the student-professor digital divide.

Things I was told today:

"It is your job to outsmart the computer's laziness."
"Ghosting is going to teach this computer a thing or two."
"Yes, the reason that block disappeared so long ago is due to the tannery."
"We must not forget the moats, Rachel. We certainly must not."

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