http://historiarum.org/2007/11/06/definition-of-a-map/ Thoughts on Digital Media and History Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:02:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://historiarum.org/2007/11/06/definition-of-a-map/comment-page-1/#comment-5061 John Henry Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:48:43 +0000 http://historiarum.org/2007/11/06/definition-of-a-map/#comment-5061 I would put my whole idea in here but I can't post a picture in a comment. I expand this in my blog ( http://notthatmapsheet.typepad.com/not_that_map_sheet/2007/11/maps-are-a-wond.html) but how about a map is a non textual representation of ideas. In reality aren't all pictures Maps? I would put my whole idea in here but I can’t post a picture in a comment. I expand this in my blog ( http://notthatmapsheet.typepad.com/not_that_map_sheet/2007/11/maps-are-a-wond.html) but how about a map is a non textual representation of ideas. In reality aren’t all pictures Maps?

]]> http://historiarum.org/2007/11/06/definition-of-a-map/comment-page-1/#comment-5057 Misha Griffith Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:53:25 +0000 http://historiarum.org/2007/11/06/definition-of-a-map/#comment-5057 Ah Ken, you are dancing about architecture. I for one will hold out the Supreme Court justice's definition of pornography--I know it when I see it. Or how about that scene in the movie "Jaws" when Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider are comparing scars and telling the tales behind them. Yes, we need the symbols, and we need a space to place them. And sometimes those spaces tell us about the relationships between each piece of information. My best friend in high school became a specialist in the workings of the brain--at least that was her research when I last talked to her. She had to work very hard to explain to me how neuro-transmitters work on both electrical and chemical processes to create the synapses that are our thoughts. That memories are not stored as entities in our brains, but that certain ideas trigger the recreation of the synapses that were formed when the action or thought was first acted out. I am afraid I cannot do justice to her science, but the thought of symbols on a map recreating the connections both in the brain and between the symbols on the map has a certain charm. We are hampered with primitive tools--chemical inks on paper or electronic signals inside a computer--in our attempt to recreate these synapses. Or are the maps a way for me to share my synapses with you? Or for us to share Ortelius' synapses? If I were attempting to define maps, I would start with the idea of shared connections, both between the objects on the map and between the map maker and the map reader. The I would address the idea of distilling and reducing information into a handful of symbols. Face it, by the time we finish we will need a document the size of the OED just to hold our definition. Or maybe we could just draw a map. . . Ah Ken, you are dancing about architecture. I for one will hold out the Supreme Court justice’s definition of pornography–I know it when I see it. Or how about that scene in the movie “Jaws” when Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider are comparing scars and telling the tales behind them. Yes, we need the symbols, and we need a space to place them. And sometimes those spaces tell us about the relationships between each piece of information. My best friend in high school became a specialist in the workings of the brain–at least that was her research when I last talked to her. She had to work very hard to explain to me how neuro-transmitters work on both electrical and chemical processes to create the synapses that are our thoughts. That memories are not stored as entities in our brains, but that certain ideas trigger the recreation of the synapses that were formed when the action or thought was first acted out. I am afraid I cannot do justice to her science, but the thought of symbols on a map recreating the connections both in the brain and between the symbols on the map has a certain charm. We are hampered with primitive tools–chemical inks on paper or electronic signals inside a computer–in our attempt to recreate these synapses. Or are the maps a way for me to share my synapses with you? Or for us to share Ortelius’ synapses? If I were attempting to define maps, I would start with the idea of shared connections, both between the objects on the map and between the map maker and the map reader. The I would address the idea of distilling and reducing information into a handful of symbols. Face it, by the time we finish we will need a document the size of the OED just to hold our definition. Or maybe we could just draw a map. . .

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