Cartography I

Abstract

This report focuses on the growing interest in the relationship between maps, narratives and metanarratives. Following a brief historical contextualization of these relationships, this report explores their current state in the Geoweb era. Using the distinction between story maps and grid maps as an analytical framework, I review emerging issues around the extensive use of technologies and online mapping services (i.e. Google maps) to convey stories and to produce new ones. Drawing on literature in film studies, literary studies, visual arts, computer science and communication, I also emphasize the emergence of new forms of spatial expressions interested in providing different perspectives about places and about stories associated to places. In sum, I argue that mapping both vernacular knowledge and fiction is central to understanding places in depth.

Emerging GIS themes and the six senses of the new mind: is GIS becoming a liberation technology?

“…Instead, they are increasingly used as a medium to tell stories, even in full narrative atlases (Wood 2010;Elwood and Mitchell 2012;Mennis, Mason, and Cao 2013). Such map-based geospatial storytelling has empowered contemporary map-makers to describe reality in a way unattainable by traditional approaches (Caquard 2013; http:// mapstory.org; http://storymaps.esri.com/home). Story maps often integrate text, multimedia and interactive functions to inform, educate, entertain and inspire people.…”

Reviews of Books & Atlases

“…This volume thus very much fits a particular zeitgeist (for an exploration of the potential of narrative cartography, see Caquard 2013). It is a large-format volume featuring the work of 91 designers who use maps for cutting-edge illustration, experimental data visualization, and personal visual storytelling.…”

Reflecting on J.B. Harley's Influence and What He Missed in “Deconstructing the Map”

“…There is simple pleasure in employing a map to solve an everyday problem, in daydreaming about possibilities while flicking through the pages of an atlas (e.g., della Dora 2009), and now in engaging in the vicarious god-like digital play that is possible with Google Earth and StreetView (Kingsbury and Jones 2009). More playful alternatives to the grim struggles over power and rationality that embody a Foucauldian worldview are increasingly gaining traction (see Perkins 2009;Caquard 2013). More playful alternatives to the grim struggles over power and rationality that embody a Foucauldian worldview are increasingly gaining traction (see Perkins 2009;Caquard 2013).…”