Digital mapping makes it possible to create layers upon layers of culturally, socially, and historically relevant materials to the recuperation of historical memory in the Iberian peninsula. Virtual Cartographies is a digital map that combines data collected from the Spanish Ministry of Justice—which identifies over 2,600 mass grave found throughout Spain—, with a rich collection of multimedia texts directly related to specific gravesites [(including fictional narratives, documentaries, YouTube films, social media content, blogs, videogames, academic and online news publications, as well as historical documentation found through the Spanish National Historical archive (PARES – Portal de Archivos Españoles)].
Virtual Cartographies is the digital companion to my dissertation titled Mass Graves and Remembering through Ritual: Historical Memory in Contemporary Spanish Literature, Film, and Digital Media. By studying the performative aspect of the current disinterment and reburial process of mass graves dating back to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and ensuing dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), I reflect upon contemporary representations of loss and recovery of historical memory in Spain.
Mapping the dataset acquired from the Spanish government alongside media analyzed in my dissertation, I have built a prototype of Virtual Cartographies. Through the creation process, I have been exploring such topics as: how to display multimedia content on a map, how to designate spatial ambiguity, and pedagogical approaches to using digital maps in the university classroom.
I had the opportunity to attend and present at the Spatial Humanities 2016 Conference in Lancaster, England. The European Research Council supported this major European conference and it was hosted by Lancaster University. The program aimed to explore and demonstrate the contributions to knowledge that digital mapping technologies (GIS platforms) enable within and beyond the humanities. The two-day conference included speakers presenting on two simultaneous panels on various aspects of using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in humanities research.
