About the book
‘ZOOMLAND. Exploring Scale in Digital History and Humanities’, edited by Florentina Armaselu and Andreas Fickers, is the 7th volume of the book series ‘Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics’, published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
Despite a variety of theoretical and practical undertakings, there is no coherent understanding of the concept of scale in digital history and humanities, and its potential is largely unexplored. A clearer picture of the whole spectrum is needed, from large to small, distant to close, global to local, general to specific, macro to micro, and the in-between levels. The book addresses these issues and sketches out the territory of Zoomland, at scale. Four regions and sixteen chapters are conceptually and symbolically depicted through three perspectives: bird’s eye, overhead, and ground view. The variable-scale representation allows for exploratory paths covering areas such as: theoretical and applicative reflections on scale combining a digital dimension with research in history, media studies, cultural heritage, literature, text analysis, and map modelling; creative use of scale in new digital forms of analysis, data organisation, interfaces, and argumentative or artistic expressions. Zoomland provides a systematic discussion on the epistemological dimensions, hermeneutic methods, empirical tools, and aesthetic logic pertaining to scale and its innovative possibilities residing in humanities-based approaches and digital technologies.
Embark on an experimental online game set on the uncharted island of ZOOMLAND
Designed by Kirill Mitsurov and Daniele Guido, the online game, inspired by the book-land(scape) metaphor, invites the player/reader to embark on the small island of ZOOMLAND and explore the unknown territory by looking for signs and symbols that represent different heuristic perspectives and thematic entry points from which the content of the book can be discovered and explored. In order to do so, the player/reader has to collect the chapter cards assigned to the various objects scattered across the island. These objects, according to their size or position relative to the ground, can stand for three conceptual standpoints – bird’s-eye view, overhead view and ground view –, one of which is attributed to each chapter. Through this quest, the player is building a symbolic map of the island that offers another way of looking at the configuration and nature of the assembled pieces and another means of accessing the actual manuscript of Zoomland.
Your thrilling adventure starts here.
Teaser:
