When British attention lands, 1750–1829

Map title

When British attention lands, 1750–1829

Author

Omer Shadmi

Owner

Zoe Beenstock

Publication date / version

Version 1 (publication date to be added)

Geographic coverage

The Levant and neighbouring regions: from Constantinople and the Black Sea in the north to Upper Egypt and Nubia in the south, and from the Aegean to Babylon in the east

CRS

Lambert azimuthal equal-area, centred on 38°N, 25°E (+proj=laea +lat_0=38 +lon_0=25 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +datum=WGS84 +units=m); no EPSG code

Dimensions

Three panels of 99.9 × 123.5 mm each

Map file

Zoe m2.png

Software

QGIS 3.34 (opens in 3.40); Claude (Anthropic); Kepler.gl (data exploration)

Documentation date / method

29 October 2026. Written in retrospect from the project files and the records of the Claude conversations. Documented by The Spatial Studio (spatial-studio.net)

Permanent link

https://spatial-studio.net/maps/british-attention-in-time/

Stage

What was done

AI / Human

1.

Dataset of mentions of the Levant in a list of British periodicals by keywords

Human (Inna Kizhner)

2.

Creating a spatialized dataset of places included in the original dataset: geocoding the database by automated reconciliation with Wikidata and other datasets with constant review and decisions making about what places to include, right reconciliation, and right names to use.

Human (Omer Shadmi, Zoe Beenstock)

3.

Visualizing the spatialized database using Kepler.gl

Human (Omer Shadmi)

4.

Exploring insights in the visualization

Human (Zoe and Omer)

5.

An AI agent created by Zoe to search for insights in Kepler.

AI (Claude)

6.

Exploration of important insights using Claude and in dialogue with Omer. Three different maps were chosen for production

Humans (Zoe)

7.

Creation of map drafts by Zoe’s Claude

AI (Claude)

8

Omer sent Zoe a prompt to produce a QGIS project he can design.

Human (Omer)

9

Zoe’s Claude produced a QGIS project

AI (Claude)

10

Review of the AI-generated QGIS project for CRS, locations, layers sources, labels, and data

Human

11

Design rounds using a Claude skill Omer created: options for the basemap (colour, relief, sea texture), fonts and symbols, shown on all three maps, while the data is locked. After each round Omer chose and refined the options.

AI (Claude) generates options; Human (Omer) selects

12

Change of CRS from an equirectangular projection (true scale at 31°N, as in the creator’s figure) to a Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 38°N, 25°E, used for all three maps. Claude proposed it and rendered both versions for comparison; Omer chose it.

AI (Claude) proposes and renders; Human (Omer) decides

13

Further design rounds, including symbols for the time register (rings, with divided rings for places named in more than one register) and a calmer, lighter look. The categories were reduced to past, present and present seen through the past.

AI (Claude) generates options; Human (Omer) selects and gives feedback

14

A joined style brief for M2, written from M0 and the current state of M1. Where sources conflicted, M1 and the series ledger took precedence.

AI (Claude), at Omer’s request

15

Building the M2 QGIS project from the creator’s final M2 data and the style brief, reusing M1’s basemap, layout and frame sizing: ring symbols sized by number of mentions, leader lines for crowded places, label placement, and a script that checks the result.

AI (Claude)

16

Version 2: every place named on its ring; bold labels only for the biggest rings and the places that change most; a one-line legend; a 33°N line; and a second layout sized for a Word figure. Claude built these and checked label positions in QGIS.

Human (Omer) specifies; AI (Claude) builds

17

Review in QGIS: Omer reported problems (symbols shown as question marks, identical pies in all panels after relocking layers) and asked how to change the map. Claude diagnosed the problems, gave manual instructions, and produced files for larger rings, draw order and renamed symbol files. An enlarged inset for the crowded Palestine area was added in the layout.

Human (Omer) reviews and edits; AI (Claude) diagnoses and fixes

18

Recording the sources and licences of the data and fonts in the project README.

AI (Claude)

Data

Source

Places and other data

Researcher’s dataset of place-mentions in samples from four British periodicals, 1750–1829: The Gentleman’s Magazine, The Monthly Review, The London Magazine and The Universal Magazine. Data mining: Dr. Inna Kizhner.

Land and sea polygons

Natural Earth 1:50m (public domain)