Representations of the Exploration of UNL City Campus Post-COVID

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After I explored the impact that COVID-19 had on UNL City Campus, I created two representations of my experience that I would like to share with you: a visual narrative created with StoryMap, and visual representation created using analog technology, i.e. pen and paper. 

I created the StoryMap visual narrative, which you can find here, with the intent of expressing part of my experience as I explored UNL campus, identifying and documenting ways in which the pandemic affected campus life. My focus for this representation of the exploration is the combination of physicality and temporality: I want to convey the passage of time as I moved through campus. The StoryMap is an enhancement of the photographic documentation of campus (link on the sidebar to the left), which only indirectly conveys the physical and temporal experience of my exploration. The photo album includes descriptions of the places I visited, but experience portrayed by the images in incomplete; it shows snapshots of my experience, but does not create any sense of immersion as it lacks key elements of the experience. The StoryMap is more personal than the photo album, thus removing some of the distance between the viewer and the experience. 

Analog representation of my exploration of campus.

The analog representation, unlike the StoryMap representation, does not convey any sense of temporality; it is not a narrative. However, this representation highlights key aspects of my experience that are not as apparent in the StoryMap. My drawing, unlike the images in the StoryMap or photo album, contains very little detail and is in black and white. This representation is simplified to an extreme degree compared to the others. It does not include any extraneous features such as trees, benches, or signs, only showing what I feel are essential components of the experience. This lack of detail emphasizes the emptiness on campus post-COVID. The squirrel, which is much larger in scale than either Andrews Hall or the Union, was the most significant encounter I had during my exploration; I encountered no people. In short, the simplicity of the analog representation amplifies the emptiness of campus. 

If you would like to read more about the different tools used to create these representations, visit the Dev Report 5 page, which discusses the differences between StoryMap, GeoJSON, and analog representations. 

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