The program for the First International Workshop on the Origin and Evolution of Portolan Charts, which takes place 5-6 June 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal, is now live. The conference focuses on the history of portolan charts and the analytical techniques used to study them. [via]
Coming next month from Policy Press, the third edition of People and Places: A 21st-Century Atlas of the U.K. by Danny Dorling and Bethan Thomas. The Independent has a long profile of the book, which makes extensive use of cartograms to illustrate data about the British population, and one of its co-authors, Oxford geography professor Danny Dorling. Pre-order at Amazon (direct Amazon U.K. link—it’s more likely to be in stock there). [via]
Jason-3 is the latest earth observation satellite tasked with measuring global sea surface height; its data will be used in weather and climate research (e.g., El Niño, climate change). Launched on January 17, it’s now in its six-month checkout phase and has produced its first complete map, which corresponds well with the map produced by the still-operational Jason-2 satellite, so that’s a good sign. [via]
Is Sexism a Problem in GIS? Caitlin Dempsey Morais of GIS Lounge grapples with a thorny subject. “Over a two week period in September of 2015, I opened a survey on GIS Lounge to those working in the geospatial industry in order to take a look at the question of, ‘is sexism in the workplace an issue for women (and men) working in GIS?’ This article reports back on the results from that survey.”
Map as Metaphor is the theme for this year’s History of Art series, hosted by the New York-based Center for Book Arts. Starting tomorrow and running on three consecutive Friday evenings, a series of panels will investigate “how the map can be understood as a metaphor, both as material artifact and cultural object as well as an artistic tool”: The Socio-Political Map: Control and Power (18 March); The Eco-Techno Map: Data and Online Initiatives (25 March); and The Artist Map: Appropriation and Creation (1 April). Each panel takes place at the Center for Book Arts, 28 W 27th St, 3rd Floor, New York, and begins at 6:30 PM. Reservations recommended; donations requested. [via]
Saman Bemel Benrud, a designer at Mapbox, looks to print maps for inspiration. “I like looking at print maps because they remind me how far web map design has to go. Even an average print map involves a designer making thousands of small decisions about where to place individual features and how to kern and size each label,” he writes. “You can’t work like that with web maps that are global and zoomable.” Still, he provides some favourite design elements from paper maps; it’d be interesting to see how they might be rendered online.
Dave Delisle of Dave’s Geeky Ideas has been doing transit maps in the style of Super Mario Brothers 3; the latest to receive the SMB3 treatment is Ottawa (a city I’m familiar with, since it’s only an hour away). Posters are also available for sale (in non-animated versions, obviously).
Here are two ways to support The Map Room, if you’re so inclined. You can contribute to my hosting costs ($10 minimum) or buy me the equivalent of a coffee ($2). Both methods use PayPal.
With online ad revenues a fraction of what they once were, I’m exploring other ways of making this project economically viable; these are two of them. (I’m also contemplating Patreon, but not yet: I need to rebuild the audience a bit more for that to be worth doing.) Your support is not at all obligatory but would allow me to dedicate more time and effort to The Map Room and upgrade my hosting package to something more robust.
It’s also deeply appreciated. My profound thanks to those who have contributed so far.
Here are some talks and workshops hosted by local map societies coming up in the second half of March 2016:
Thursday, 17 March 2016, Chicago IL. In-Car Navigation Systems: A Twenty-Year Retrospective. Michael Quane, who gave a talk to the Society on in-car navigation systems in February 1996, returns for another talk “to help us understand how much has changed in the world of in-car navigation and to give us some notion of where the field might be five (or even twenty) years hence.” Chicago Map Society meeting. Ruggles Hall, The Newberry Library, 60 W Walton St, Chicago IL 60610. 5:30 PM. Donations requested.
Saturday, 19 March 2016, Richmond VA. Introduction to Antique Maps Workshop. “While examining a variety of antique map types, guest speaker Eliane Dotson will discuss map terminology, color application, printing techniques, manufacture and creation, and clues to look for to identify reproductions and forgeries. Join us to explore questions such as what you should ask or think about when looking at a map and what maps can relate to us within their broader context.” Fry-Jefferson Map Society meeting. Library of Virginia, 800 E Broad St, Richmond VA 23219. 10 AM. Free; registration required.
Tuesday, 22 March 2016, Boston MA. Missing Women, Blank Maps, and Data Voids: What Gets Counted Counts. Joni Seager, author of the State of the Women in the World Atlas (now The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World) will discuss “the persistent paucity of gender-disaggregated data.” Boston Map Society meeting. Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St, Copley Square, Boston MA 02116. Free.
Thursday, 24 March 2016, Washington DC. Watching the Apocalypse: Using GIS and Social Media to Map Refugees. The Library of Congress’s John Hessler discusses the mapping tools used to chart population movements in the face of war, humanitarian disasters and epidemics. Washington Map Society meeting. Library of Congress, James Madison Memorial Building (Geography and Map Room, basement), 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington DC 20050. 7 PM. Free.
Tuesday, 29 March 2016, Denver CO. Marie Tharp, Illustrator of a Paradigm. John Lindemann gives a talk on the woman who mapped the ocean floor. Rocky Mountain Map Society meeting. Denver Public Library (Gates Room, 5th floor), 10 W 14th Ave Pkwy, Denver CO 80204. 5:30 PM. Free.
Wednesday, 30 March 2016, Boston MA. The World for a King: Pierre Desceliers’ Map of 1550. “Chet Van Duzer will give an account of the large (4.4 × 7 feet) and elaborately decorated manuscript world map made by the Norman cartographer Pierre Desceliers in 1550.” Boston Map Society meeting. Boston University, Hillel House, 213 Bay State Rd, Boston MA 02215–1506. 5:30 PM. Free.
Every Person in Scotland Mapped, a dot density map by Heikki Vesanto with a bit of a methodological twist. Rather than randomize the location of population dots within a given postcode, the map “creates a random point within a building shell inside of a postcode area, which is repeated for every person in a postcode. This is in contrast to a simpler process, which does not take into account buildings at all, working simply with postcode areas.” Zoom in and see. [via]
On Cartastrophe, Daniel Huffman points out the problems in Decision Desk HQ’s interactive cartograms for the U.S. presidential primaries, which maintain a state’s shape but resize the counties as the results come in. “Unfortunately, in so doing, they shuffle the counties around any old which way. The Lower Peninsula of Michigan has 68 counties in reality, the Upper Peninsula has 15. But Decision Desk HQ has shoved most of the counties into the Upper Peninsula, which now has 58, vs. 25 that remain in the Lower Peninsula,” Huffman writes. “This means that we can’t really see spatial patterns, which is sort of the point of having a map.” [via]
There are several online versions of the Carte générale de France, the first comprehensive map of France produced by the Cassini family in the 18th century. Some, like those hosted by the EHESS and the David Rumsey Map Collection, georectify and stitch together the individual maps together to make a more-or-less seamless whole. On Gallica, the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s digital library, it’s presented as individual sheets; the Library of Congress does the same with its copy—the better to appreciate the originals, I suppose. [via]
The Syria Conflict Mapping Project (screenshot above), a project of the Carter Center, has been documenting events in the Syrian civil war since 2012 using open source information. “Using these publicly available resources, as well as regular consultations with stakeholders in the country, the Center has documented and mapped over 40,000 conflict events in Syria (including clashes, aerial bombardments, artillery shelling, etc.), the changing relations between thousands of armed groups, movements of internally displaced people, and humanitarian conditions.” [via]
The Onion, two years ago: “Unable to picture where in the Grand Realm the destroyed fortress was in relation to the dreaded desert of Quiltar, a fully grown adult man referred to the map on the opening pages of the fantasy novel The Tower Of Astalon Friday to determine the location of the ruined castle of Arnoth, accounts confirmed.” [via]
#MapMonsterMonday makes the Boston Globe, in a piece looking at how the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map Center curates their weekly posts of map monsters on Twitter and Instagram. (An example below.) Though, to be fair, there are several map library Twitter accounts participating in #MapMonsterMonday. [via]
