In general, the database behind hastac.org includes little information about the physical geography of HASTAC members. There is an optional profile field in which members can enter their location information, but only a scarce few of you have done so.*
In geography, size matters. On maps, large always wins over small. We’re human. We’re wired to quickly spot patterns and make visual comparisons. See Tufte, Edward.
Picture a map of your own state. How does it compare in size to the states next door, the largest states, the smallest, or Texas?
I recently joined with map-minded folks to build GeoTron 5000 to put the power of comparative geography and spatial literacy in hand. Choose two places and the GeoTron 5000 robot spins up two maps to show exactly how those places compare.
So what’s going on behind the scenes in GeoTron 5000 to enable these mappy comparisons?
GeoTron 5000 houses an international map library based primarily on Natural Earth, a fantastic public domain vector dataset. The Natural Earth maps were pre-processed using Quantum GIS geographic information systems software to present consistent comparisons of land area from California to Kyrgyzstan. International country lists and official land areas were harvested from the United Nations Statistics Division via their World Statistics Pocketbook and Demographic Yearbook. Domestic datasets are from the US Census.
GeoTron 5000 is free at the Apple App Store and includes all 50 US States and the District of Columbia. Additional geographies outside the USA are available for comparison via in-app purchase. The app requires no cell service, no internet connection, and no international data plan when traveling.
Travel is one of the best tests of our spatial literacy. When away from familiar territory we can use the size of places we know well to better understand places we’ve never visited. Travel guide books assume a high degree of spatial literacy when offering comparisons like “Germany is about half the size of Texas”. But spatial thinking is best served when we choose familiar frames of reference. For example, to understand the relative size of China’s Great Wall, HowBigReally.com displays the massive wall scaled and centered over any location, here Charlottesville, Virginia:
Visualizing comparative size and shape requires skill in spatial thinking. Packing a suitcase, parking a car, finding a restaurant, finding your car when leaving the restaurant…all involve visualizing spatial relationships based on size, distance, shape, and changing points of reference. Artsy infographics overlay the world on Africa and popular television explores Mercator’s map distortions. We’re all thinking spatially every day.
“Spatial literacy is the competent and confident use of maps, mapping, and spatial thinking to address ideas, situations, and problems within daily life, society, and the world around us.” – Diana Stuart Sinton, Geographer and Spatial Thinker
Universities host spatial studies centers , organize spatial studies conferences, and offer graduate level training in spatial literacy. And spatial literacy is a topic of growing academic focus beyond the higher ed classroom. Kids love maps. Using maps to illustrate comparative size promotes spatial thinking at an early age.
“Spatial thinking can be learned, and it can and should be taught at all levels in the education system.” - National Research Council
Much of Edward Tufte’s brilliant work on visual literacy is centered around maps. In Envisioning Information he writes of maps:
“No other method for the display of statistical information is so powerful.”
Scaled maps for geographic comparison using How Big Really or GeoTron 5000 inform spatial reasoning by answering the key question: compared to what?
Size matters.
[Cross-posted with johnston9494.blogspot.com]
Love this map made by Christian Nold.
http://stockport.emotionmap.net/background.htm
'Whilst conventional maps show static architecture and exclude humans, this art project presents a vision of Stockport that represents the emotions, opinions and desires of local people. Over a period of two months in summer 2007, about 200 people took part in six public mapping events. This map collects together and shows the results of the two activities: Drawing Provocations & Emotion Mapping.'
The sort of tubes/pillars represent the emotions of people at particular locations using the GPS/GRS device invented by christian nold. Its no surprise that Christian has worked with looking into perceptions of an area as he had done similar when featured in http://vism.ag/vol2 and he has done other areas.
If you like this then you'll certainly want to have a read of his free pdf book of Emotional Cartography, http://emotionalcartography.net/EmotionalCartographyLow.pdf
Check out his projects here: http://www.softhook.com/
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This is a great project on mapping the history and narratives of a journey/terrain. A sort of map that is more interesting than the territory that Houellebecq proposed.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=k&om=1&msid=103763259662194171141.000001119b4b42bf062c2&msa=0
Looking to use video and record data on a journey, much like Stephen Shore has done on his journey's across america but only through photography. Just multimedia and more forms of it. I'd like to merge the projects Poetry Atlas & History Pin and maybe this atlascine.org that I recently saw but not just Canada.
See http://artcarto.wordpress.com/cartography-narratives/ for more about Story Maps.
More about the project 'Jay Crim and Shekar Davarya spent the summer of 2002 driving across the country on Route 66, collecting interviews with the people who live, work and travel on the old road. The audio, video and images on this map are the result of that summer, and offer a glimpse into what life was like on the now-decommissioned highway and what remains for those who still travel the road. The America's Highway project was intended to create both a history lesson on America of the past as well as a travel guide for visitors on 66 today. The work was supervised by Professor Bill Leslie, History of Science Department and Mike Reese, Center for Educational Resources, The Johns Hopkins University.'
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This ad for Mercedes Benz is really intriguing how google maps vernacular infiltrates reality. Escape The Map
Its been out a while the ad and had meant to post sooner. It is intriguing because I imagine that a projection on the road with the street view would help with sat nav's as opposed to trying to glance to your right to see a sat nav. You could just stare at the street. Would be cool.
But from a mapping point of view I was interested as it mixes the hyper real through the vernacular of google maps with reality. Now from my experiences I had learnt that hyper real was associated with the postmodern and specifically baudrillard 'the map preceedes the territory'. Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal.
Having looked at a recent paper by Sébastien Caquard, Cartography I: Mapping narrative cartography. See here: http://phg.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/06/0309132511423796
Sebastien points out an interesting view of the story map, this is the fictional representation, the story map as Sébastien Caquard puts it;
‘map is more interesting than the territory because it is an idealized simplification of a complex – and often depressing – reality. This resonates with the idea that in the postmodern world most of the time the hyper-real appears joyful beside the deterioration of the environment to which it refers (Westphal, 2007).’
See now this idea of the postmodern hyerreality being joyful is what I remember with Baudrillard and simulacra's, but I wasn't aware of the map is more intersting than the territory a point illustrated by the latest novel by Michel Houllebecq entitled La Carte et le Territoire (The Map and the Territory) (2010).
I'm not sure how we're supposed to weigh between Baudrillard or Houllebecq, but like how Sebastien says they follow with this idea of the joyful presentations of reality. Many of the these joyful selections that have been crowd sourced by google maps.
'Paraphrasing Houellebecq, in other words, ‘Google Maps are more interesting than the territory’.'
This leaves me very intrigued that the story maps that Google are providing are more interesting than reality, much in the repsect that this Escape the Map ad by Mercedes Benz particularly realises well.
It makes me want to visit, or at least try to read the videos / papers that transpire from this: Cartography & Narratives
Meanwhile, read more about the different perspectives on the map and the territory here
I have been trying to get Vism.ag/Vol 4 available in print away from P.O.Demand services and got decent prices too, but still trying to find investment to do a long enough run to realistically make it viable. But... I will try to get an ebook available of it soon and the reason I bring it up is that there are a few selections of work by Denis Wood in the online sample and there's a review of his book Everthing Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas that I'm sure will be of essential reading to cross reference with the thoughts of the Story Map and fictional cartography. (the word fictional still distracts me as google maps work on a degree of truth, they arent made up).
Anyhow, happy hols everyone and will try to get more posts up. In the mean time, follow @visualthinkmap on twitter for more of what I see, just less analysis.
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Edinburgh is the latest creative map to be rendered, vism.ag/edinburgh. Mapped in collaboration with creative-edinburgh.com launching Thursday 3rd November, 6 - 8pm at The Cube, 47 Leith Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3AT.
Identified as one of the 9 creative 'hotspots' in the UK by Nesta, this location has some great places on offer. From Edinburgh printmakers studio, Analogue Books, The Fruitmarket Gallery @fruitmarket to round the corner Stills photography gallery, there appears to be a lot of bustling creativity that the platform of creative-edinburgh.com @CreativeEdin will be sure to promote and keep you abreast of its output both nationally and internationally.
Nearby on Thursday 3rd November, go check it out 6 - 8pm at The Cube, 47 Leith Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3AT
Check out the interactive map to see all the locations on Edinburgh's Creative Map vism.ag/edinburgh
Know any places in Edinburgh that aren't mapped? Sign up and add your own through vism.ag/sharegems
More info: @CreativeEdin
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When I started creative maps, I discussed with my colleague it would be good to show learners what poetry there was about their area to try and get them engaged with a range of creative inspiration and outlets. Behold I came across this:
Poetry has been geographically mapped with Poetry Atlas, not as clean and clear as the well presented HistoryView (Pin) those quill markers are just a bit too overpowering. But the info windows etc are equally great and like history pin it has accumulated quite a few writings about areas. They've even made a layar app or AR reality, as I would love to have ;o). They also to their credit make it really easy to explore their site searching location, browsing poems/ poets. Very Good.
Let the words of inspiration flow through your mind about your places, I experimented with this.
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This looks great. Google maps and history merged into one. I wondered about
how we merge the old and the new somehow.
I
am keen to do old historical street maps overlayed on top of interactive google,
try to bring a spice of art with the idea of collaging like Mercato previous
post.
But its free, it has pretty good clustering of pins as you zoom in and drill
down the data so it doesn't become crowded like it could do. From the group We
are what we Do, who bring you the beautiful Change the world for a fiver book
talking about going green.
Also with it being supported by google you can sign up with your google
details quite easily.
http://www.historypin.com/
http://wearewhatwedo.org/
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This map is not a gps drawing of the owners track walking the dog, but the track of where the dog walked (mostly ran).
I attached my gps enabled phone to the dogs collar (highly protected, insulated) and let him loose until finished walk.
Loved the idea of a record of where he went drawn. go to the google map and really see the zoom of where he went, ok I know its just green.
Reminds me of Claude Heaths drawings from blind folded.
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Over the past two years, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Scholars’ Lab at the University of Virginia Library has hosted an Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship. Today we’re pleased to announce the launch of “Spatial Humanities,” a community-driven resource for place-based digital scholarship:
http://spatial.scholarslab.org/
This site responds to needs identified in conversation with our 21 Institute faculty members and 56 participants (humanities scholars, software developers, and map & GIS librarians). It includes:
Please help us keep this resource current by contributing to it! You can:
Learn more about our NEH Institute:
http://spatial.scholarslab.org/about/
and about how you can contribute to the “Spatial Humanities” site:
http://spatial.scholarslab.org/contribute/
Many thanks to the NEH, the staff of the Scholars’ Lab, our Institute advisory board and faculty, and the scores of Institute participants and fellows who helped to define the project!
