Aqueous Earth Catalog

Aqueous Earth Catalog is an open source, interactive geospatial visualization tool that will accompany my book manuscript. The map is live at aqueous.earth.

Named after the U.S. magazine Whole Earth Catalog (1968-1972), whose mission was to inventory tools, methodologies and technologies, and otherwise useful resources in a comprehensive, global scale, the Aqueous Earth Catalog will encourage students and researchers to shift their understanding of the cultures as static and land bound to fluid, dynamic, and interconnected.

In its first and current iteration, Aqueous Earth Catalog is a cartographic database that situates films and videos studied in Aqueous Image on a world map. Plans for future builds include search and filter functions and a geofencing feature.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if:

  • you are a fellow researcher, student, web developer, or a specialist in geospatial analysis and want to collaborate, and/or

  • you would like to contribute films to be marked on the map. You can also fill out this form.

If you are interested in making a similar map with your own geospatial data, check out the Media Mapper project below.

Media Mapper

Media Mapper is a mapping tool that shows geospatial data on an interactive global map freely browsable with pins that mark a set of given coordinates. The user can browse the map to view pins that refer to a text in the database.

On its own, media mapper is an empty skeleton application that will function only with a given dataset. It was initially built for “Aqueous Earth Catalog,” a map that shows media texts that feature bodies of water. Visit the Media Mapper website to see more maps using the application, or to find out how you can make your own map.

Please visit the Media Mapper website for more information.

Media Mapper was designed by me, with the generous support of CARGC at the University of Pennsylvania, and created by Ben Tyler of Lost Creek Designs.

Media Mappers On the Globe:
Working group & Symposium

As a CARGC postdoctoral fellow, I designed and led a workshop series with media scholars from U.S. and overseas institutions to explore different uses of the Media Mapper. In April of 2026, I organized the symposium Media Mappers on the Globe at the University of Pennsylvania and presented this work to scholars and the public along with Liang Wu, Ph.D. (Cornell University) and Weilin Zu (University of Virginia).

View all maps created by Media Mappers here.