A custom toolkit for building interactive, place-based narratives — for scholars, communities, and artists telling layered stories about real spaces.
Features
The MapTool is a platform, a process, and a product — designed so that the act of mapmaking is itself an interpretive act.
Pin coordinates to places and attach text, images, audio, video, or web pages — building a rich, navigable narrative layer on top of geography.
Multiple authors and perspectives can coexist on the same map, making co-construction of place-based stories explicit and visible.
Projects run in the browser or as native mobile apps — including offline, location-triggered audio and geotagged experiences in the field.
Embed 360° video, archival images, audio tours, AR links, or external websites — whatever the story of a place requires.
Three Use Cases
The MapTool supports three distinct relationships between authors, maps, and audiences.
Spatialize a text or body of research. Place pins, layer media and interpretation directly onto the map, and share a navigable scholarly argument about place.
Guide people to specific physical locations to unlock an experience — a video, an AR layer, a web page. The map is the interface between place and story.
Build and curate a collection of geo-linked media that powers a separate mobile app or website. The audience never sees The MapTool — only the experience it shapes.
Case Studies
Each project explores a different relationship between authorship, community, and place.
