URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2023_M

At the top of the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Kingston campus sits what may be one of the area’s best-kept secrets: 300 acres of forest, wetlands, and streams called the North Woods. The forest just north of Flagg Road is home to pine stands, vernal pools, historic ruins, and a myriad of native species. And while just steps away from campus, The area is relatively unknown to much of the University community — something Assistant Professor of Professional and Public Writing and Natural Resources Science Madison Jones is hoping his skills as a transdisciplinary researcher can help fix. Jones uses digital technology like web-based apps, digital maps, and augmented reality to connect communities to the cultural, historical, and ecological significance of places like the North Woods. He develops this place-based work through a layered approach to storytelling called “deep mapping.” A term familiar to environmental historians and 19th century Americanists, according to Jones, deep mapping isn’t widely known as a method today — and he thinks it should be. By combining scientific, artistic, and cultural information, digital deep mapping helps communicate a comprehensive, meaningful sense of place. “You take different kinds of thinking about a place, and you layer them on top of each other until you get this rich, deep connection,” Jones explains. “The geological history of a place offers us one perspective, whereas different cultural histories of a place add different dimensions to that understanding such as significant events, nonhuman species, the ways humans use the space in contemporary culture.” Jones is collaborating with stakeholders across the University to craft a digital deep map of the North Woods. Through a mobile phone app featuring rotating installations along walking trails, visitors will be able to learn about native species, seasonal ecological features, and indigenous and colonial histories, among many other topics of interest.

JONES USES DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO CONNECT COMMUNITIES TO THE CULTURAL, HISTORICAL, AND ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PLACES. HE DEVELOPS

The Layers of a PLACE Modern technology connects communities to the cultural, historical, and ecological significance of a place.

THIS PLACE-BASED WORK THROUGH A

LAYERED APPROACH TO STORYTELLING CALLED “DEEP MAPPING.”

written by ALLISON FARRELLY ’16

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