Category — Cartography

A review by Sam Coale of  “The Forth Part of the World”, a “sumptuous, lavishly illustrated history of map-making and the visions of the world it incarnated,” by Toby Lester.

It is a fascinating, tortuously dogged (on the part of scribes and friars), meticulously detailed tale of how various maps came to be amid the humanist stirrings of Florence, the early Portuguese explorations of Africa, and all that “fed into a collective quest for knowledge, power, and wealth the likes of which had never before been seen. That quest was at once mystical, rapacious, evangelical, self-centered, grand, inspiring, and often delusional.”

Lester’s account, according to Coale, “sparkles with wit and tidbits.”  For instance:

The West became the “occident,” which suggests falling and dying, like the sun. “Oriens” in Latin means rising; hence the Orient, the East, Christ’s star, and why we use “orient” to describe finding our bearings.”

It looks like it is well worth a look.

A nice little overview of the work of the modern cartographer and cartography in the UK’s Independent can be read here.

“You have to create symbols that work with each other. There’s a hierarchy of information for each map and you have to make sure the important things stand out,” he adds. This involves communicating well with clients.

Today’s online edition of the London Times has a couple of articles commenting on the demise of the paper map with the rise of GPS and internet mapping services like Google Maps.

The article, “Heritage wiped off the map as sat-nav puts motorists on road to ignorance“, notes that in a recent presentation given by British Cartographic Society president Mary Spence, with the demise of paper maps and cartography, important cultural, heritage and other features, (like those often included on many paper maps,) get omitted from digital versions so they can fit on small screens, effectively eliminating much of the knowledge that tends to be inherent in paper maps.

Ms. Spence notes:

“I recently went to Worcester,” she said. “The street map was wonderful, but the cathedral was missing.” Motorists following Google Maps through Wiltshire may be told to “exit on to the A303 toward Andover”, but they may have no idea that they are passing Stonehenge.

The Times also has a commentary on the aforementioned article entitled, “Here Be Dragons – Internet maps make travelling a more efficient, but duller, experience.”

In maps, as in life, so much of what is interesting unfolds in the margins. The highlights of a long drive very often result from the impromptu diversions taken in search of petrol or lunch.

But an internet map? To paraphrase Wilde, it knows the route to everywhere and the value of nowhere. It gives you what you need, but not what you want to make the most of a trip.

Update: Read a related London Telegraph article: Map reading skills ‘dying out due to internet and satnavs’. 

[tags]GPS, Mapping, Cartography, GIS, Google Maps, Internet Mapping, British Cartographic Society[/tags]

I ran across this all-to-brief, but highly entertaining 1953 film of cartographic history, brought to us courtesy of the British Ordnance Survey. Perhaps an early excample of the use of computers in mapping, the clip documents some of the steps Ordnance cartographers employed to keep up with the hectic pace of mapping the quickly changing British countryside. It’s the first I’ve ever heard tell of a “tellurometer“.

[tags]cartographic history, surveyors, cartographers, british ordnance survey, maps, map making, cartography[/tags]

No doubt we have each, in our own way, been touched by the recent disasters in Burma/Myanmar and China. I just finished reading an interesting article that outlines the ever-increasing role of cartographers and GIS specialists in aiding and enabling humanitarian relief efforts in disaster zones.

• Zero hour: Natural disaster strikes without notice, triggering international rapid-mapping responses
• Minutes later: Geographical survey centres, like the US Geological Survey, send alerts to relief agencies. A simple location map is put online, with the epicentre identified. Other agencies add basic population information
• Within hours: Relief workers carrying GIS (geographic information system) technology are deployed to the affected region. They begin to gather updated information from the affected scene
• Once aid workers are on the ground: An On-Site Operations Co-ordination Centre is set up to co-ordinate the relief effort. Mapping information from the field is collated there
• Within 48 hours: The latest field information is combined with accurate 1:5,000,000 “base maps” to form the first complete maps of disaster-zone data
• In following days: A daily routine emerges, with basic maps updated every 24 hours. Bespoke maps requested by relief workers can now be constructed within hours

GIS technology is advancing quickly, enabling non-governmental organizations like Map Action to respond rapidly with new maps, but the technology is still expensive and continues to rely on workers on the ground, as mentioned in a previous post.

[tags]mapping, GIS, cartography, disaster relief, China, Burma, Myanmar[/tags]

There is an interesting article about maps and the Festival of Maps in Chicago in this past Sunday’s online edition of the Washington Post.

No matter the age, maps have always inspired that eternal human penchant for dreaming of far-off places, for locating oneself in the universe. As vessels of wishful thinking, they transform us into explorers lured by the mystery of the unknown, if not a lust to conquer it.

The lengthy and informative article also includes a short slide show of images from the Chicago Festival.

[tags]antique maps, map exhibitions, cartography, chicago festival of maps[/tags]