Concept
Juncture is a new tool and open source framework that aims to help researchers and students construct complex and compelling narratives using state-of-the-art tools for digital writing. With Juncture, students and scholars will be able to create subject-specific multidisciplinary and multimedia websites consisting of visual narratives featuring interactive map and image components; IIIF images, which allow for zooming, panning, and annotation; a comparison image slider; network visualization; and a Global Plants specimen viewer.
While developed for the Plant Humanities Initiative, Juncture has potential application beyond the study of plants. The tool is flexible and scalable to meet a diverse set of uses in a variety of areas of study, from students engaged in project-based learning to scholars creating a new and public academic resource. With Juncture, an author just needs a Github account and enough knowledge of Markdown – which they can pick up in less than thirty minutes -- to start to create their own visual essays. As digital skills develop, visualizations can become more complex and compelling, incorporating GeoJSON mapping, Knight Labs’ TimelineJS, D3 network and ring visualizations, and more. While these technologies may seem intimidating at first, Juncture makes implementing these technologies feasible both for digital humanists and those without formal computer training. And since the technologies used for its features are standard and open, any skills developed using Juncture will be transferable to other efforts.
The Plant Humanities Lab is the flagship use of Juncture. Kent Maps Online was also built using Juncture.