Critical GIS .com

Community Mapshop 2015 has culminated in a series of outputs and engagements, but most recent among these, is our Atlas for a Community Mapshop . This is a compilation designed by a student in the course,  Renae Mantooth , containing a number of the graphics and maps produced at the mid and final reviews for the studio. Using Denis Wood's Everything Sings  as our inspiration, the class was asked to prepare graphics in grayscale, allowing for their easy reproduction and circulation. You can read the digital text, here (or below, or download ). We explored the following themes: Food Network Education Opportunities Modes of Travel Bus Shelter Inequity Uneven Housing Landscape Wifi Inequity Blue Grass Trust Plaque Program Facade Dichotomy From the text: Drawing on the last twenty-five years of scholarship in critical cartography and critical GIS, this workshop begins from the premise that maps are more than windows on the world. Maps do not only provide a re...

#Mapshop 2015 will focus on the NE quadrant of Lexington. GIS Workshop at the University of Kentucky is becoming Community Mapshop this Spring semester. I've retooled the course and the partnerships, hoping to inspire a different kind of community-based classroom project from those in 2013 , 2012 , 2011 , and 2010 . Think Bunge and Wood . More studio; less laboratory. This course will become part of a broader initiative within the College of Arts & Sciences at UK, beginning in Fall 2015, simply called Mapshop: http://mapshop.as.uky.edu . (Our website currently points to the old GIS Workshop page under the New Mappings Collaboratory, but the new site will be functioning by December 2015.) The course description for this Spring follows: Drawing on the last twenty-five years of scholarship in critical cartography and critical GIS, this workshop begins from the premise that maps are more than windows on the world. Maps do not only provide a record of geographic phenomena b...

The following video wraps up the Spring 2013 GIS Workshop at the University of Kentucky. Read more about these partnerships here .

The design and marketing team in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky has finished producing a great video showcasing a couple university-community partnerships from my GIS Workshop course.  Also see an article written by the UK PR team, copied below. [ See a previous iteration of this kind of video about GIS Workshop, here . ] GIS Workshop: Community Partners from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo . GIS Workshop Strengthens Community Ties LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 27, 2012) — For the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, it was an opportunity to reorganize youth programs; for the nonprofit Seedleaf, it was a way to better connect with volunteers; and for students in geography Professor Matt Wilson's class, it was the chance to apply their skills to engage with the Lexington community. Students in Wilson's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Workshop course spent the past semester applying their knowledge of geographi...

In TSP's Sunday paper, Seth Slabaugh gives a good overview of our interactions with community partners this semester, with quotes from two students: Ryan Cooper and Bryan Preston.  Read the story, here . MUNCIE -- Ball State University is making maps to help the community identify its neediest areas, including severely eroded river banks, neighborhoods heavy with low-income residents who are without health care and historic homes lacking attention. Then it's up to the agencies to use those maps to visually see solutions. Two of Ball State's geographic information system (GIS) workshops are helping the United Way and Open Door Health Services locate low-income residents who need public assistance. Another one is showing the city of Muncie which of the century-old homes in the Emily Kimbrough Historic District need to be repaired. A fourth shows where soil is eroding into the White River, turning the water the color of coffee with cream. "We know the data, we know the po...

Erin Moore and Ben Reckelhoff at the Center for Media Design are promoting this year's GIS Workshop with a nice article (below) and short video as part of their February Emerging Media Initiative Update . Geography students provide GIS services to local non-profits by Erin Moore, Emerging Media Initiative; video by Ben Reckelhoff, Center for Media Design  In spring 2010, Matt Wilson, Emerging Media New Faculty Fellow in Geography, launched a unique GIS course that partnered geography students with local organizations in need of digital mapping services and analysis. Last year, student teams provided mapping solutions for four community organizations, including Delaware County United Way and Open Door Health Services, a community health center for the uninsured and under-insured. United Way and Open Door have continued their partnerships with Ball State into 2011, offering opportunities for a new class of geography students to apply their skills to important social issues. For t...