The Space–Time Aquarium is Full of Albatrosses: Time Geography, Lifestyle and Trans-species Geovisual Analytics

Abstract

AbstractThe volume of research that involves movement track data sets of increasing size and complexity has grown significantly as data-capture technologies have developed and expectations for ongoing growth of research opportunities have hardened. Techniques for describing such data vary, some utilising a purely geometric measurement while others seeking to involve activity and purpose as elements of movement description. Such enriched data is typical of sentient entities that interact with their environment and other sentients. This paper is solely about such sentient, self-navigating objects. It is also restricted to consideration of movement fields through the lens of geovisual analytics, or equally, in this case, reviewing geovisual analytics through the lenses of a sample of sentient movement data sets. Fundamentally the paper asks whether different kinds of entity require adjustments to given visualisation tools, and if this is so, how such adjustments might be related to the different processes and geographies of the entities involved. The arguments are largely based around two ‘rich’ data sets: Halifax time use and Muriwai possum movement data sets.KeywordsMovement visualisationGeovisual analytics Sentient movement Animal trackingSpatio-temporal activity patternsTime geography