Final Project Proposal

For my final project I would like to do a map depicting the Moorish Invasion of Spain and the Reconquista. This would probably be done in two separate maps, but as the subjects are related I feel it will work well. It will be similar to the maps we did in Labs 5, 6, & 7 on Operation Barbarossa and will involve motion tweens, shape tweens, and user controlled buttons. Also I liked the faux GIS map we did so if I could incorporate that I would like to do that too. I want it to have an old world feel and still be clean and sophisticated. I don’t want the user to feel too overwhelmed. I picked this topic because I feel it lends itself well to that style of map. As much trouble as I had with some of the elements of those maps I feel it will be a good way to showcase my newly learned skills. In a previous life I studied Spanish and one component of that was Spanish history. I found the invasion of the Moors and the Christian Reconquista to be pretty interesting. I hope I can capture that in the map I plan to do.  For this map the audience will be the academic world, specifically professors and students, or history buffs.  I found a couple of examples that I think I can improve on. They are animated, but seem lacking in many ways. For instance one shows the movement of the invasion but doesn’t offer any additional information in the form of roll-overs or hyperlinks. Also I feel a time line would be very beneficial.  I have found a few websites, including Wikipedia and the History Channel that have good timelines that I will use to get my information. I will use Adobe Flash, ArcGIS to get a base map (possibly), and other Adobe software such as Illustrator. To stay on track and get my project completed on time I plan to spend about a week and a half on the invasion and a week and a half on the Reconquista. That should allow me to be done with a substantial amount of the project in time for peer critiques. I feel like I can definitely improve upon the examples I already have.  I know one of my obstacles is going to be getting a good base map, since modern boundaries don’t necessarily apply.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors

http://staff.esuhsd.org/balochie/studentprojects/moorchristian/