Almost Forgot
Reading Lee Anne Ghajar’s post about the interpretational aspects of cartography reminded me of something I came across a few months back. You ask, “But is a satellite view of the earth subject to the same interpretive categories as the first maps of new continents?” I would answer probably not, although I’m sure we could stretch and find some points about which side of the earth is the picture and its orientation. Regardless the flip side of the question, about how we can add value to maps seems more interesting.
A few months back I came across a site called Worldmapper. Their tagline is “The world as you’ve never seen it before.” And it’s true. Take for example the two images below.
The first image represents the territory size in proportion to the number of botanical gardens found in that area. The second image does the same but for the number of plant species. So here they have taken maps and given them unique representations with two somewhat related sets of data. The disparity between the two is amazing. Moreover, it makes one quickly realize how maps can be instilled deeply with both useful and loaded information. This seems important for us to remember moving forward in class since, as Lee Anne notes, “… historical maps are necessarily objects that must be interpreted.”