About

LayerCake--an interactive mapping tool--was initiated by Sharon C. Smith, Ph.D., former Program Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT). She served as the PI for the project. Michael Toler, Ph.D. now serves as the project PI and is the interim AKDC Program Head. Working with designer and programmer, James Yamada (MDes, Harvard GSD, 2014), the tool is currently under development at AKDC@MIT. A 3-axes mapping tool, LayerCake enables users to build maps layering narrative, time, and space simultaneously. It is our intention that LayerCake be used by scholars, researchers, and students to tell stories, display collections, and reveal complex temporal and geographic relationships in ways that purely spatial maps cannot.

In LayerCake, latitude and longitude are mapped on the horizontal axes while time is mapped on the vertical axis. The scale of the time axis is remapped to accommodate the chronological span of items on the map. Users may explore the map by panning, orbiting, and zooming their point of view. They may also click on map items for detailed information.

LayerCake was developed using three.js, moment.js, OrbitControls.js, socket.io, node.js, and mongoDB, as well as UI scripts written by Panagiotis Michalatos at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It shares DNA with the metaLAB (at) Harvard Book Biography Machine project.

We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please contact us at layercake@mit.edu