Different facets of this project have been moving at different paces throughout the semester (by “facets,” I do not mean “people”). At this point every day seems precious, and at times it’s felt to me like we’ve/I’ve been running in place. Actually, seems more like we’ve been running in widening concentric circles, or a fibonacci spiral (which is coincidentally the logo of Omeka, the platform we’ll be using). Accordingly, each time we come back around, we are really in a slightly different place: we know more and have better understanding of where we were before.
Taylor, who is handling most of the development, and I discussed the project at length today. The complicated dual function of this project– to create both a tool for converting a database into a JSON script, and a demonstration of what this tool might help visualize about a historical cemetery– is finally resolving itself into a clear and finite set of tasks to be completed: the website, the historical documentation, and the datatbase component. Each of these is challenging in its own way, but there is consistent movement on all fronts.