By Ashlyn, Martha, Troy, Maddie, and Rachel.
In attempting to document the human experience, it is important to consider the abstraction and complexity of human and spatial identities. For this reason, it is crucial to explore new progressive forms of qualitative data that holistically portray experiences in a way that is tangible by emotional intelligence. We see this data documented primarily through audio/visual methods; however, that leaves a lot of exploration room in our use of this data in the context of Geographies of Religion.
We begin with our raw data, in this case, the recordings and photography/videography of our people and places. We can hold these data in storage, but it doesn’t guarantee that we will be able to access this data in a way that it can be time efficient. We code the data for common themes that show up, such as those revolving around identity and place, and represent them in formats ranging from the cartographic to the cinematographic. Through these mediums, we see the broad topics in geographies of religion, while incorporating the lived experiences of our subjects of study in our research. This allows us to take in the data from a variety of scales, increasing in scope from the individual. Each one of our projects begins with collection from the smallest scale, leading to the uncovering of meaningful concepts as we move forward.