maps Flashcards
Maps as Social Constructions
Maps as practices and sites of power-knowledge
* Judgements of ‘best’ arise from privileged discourses which subjugate other cartographic knowledges (e.g. non-scientific, local, cartographies of resistance)
* Maps are transient rather than permanent (exploration rather than presentation)
* Cartographer-user dichotomy is conflated (the user as cartographer, e.g. web-mapping)
key thinker behind social constructions
Brian Harley (1932-1991)
Maps as Communicative Devices
- Scientific, functional approach to cartography
- Separation between cartographer and user
- Presentation of stable, known information by cartographer
- Map communicates information to the user
- Cognitive abilities of map user important
- Search for optimal (best) map through methods of communication
key thinker behind communicative devices
Key author: Arthur Robinson (1915-2004)
Disinformation and Propaganda
- Falsification of maps
- Territorial claims
- Omissions
- Use of shading and colour
- Naming
- See publications by Mark Monmonier
areal aggregation
which areas we put together in boundary has an effect on what the map looks like
what are the three dimensions of colour perception?
- colour hue
- colour value
- colour intensity
colour hues
the attribute of colour that enables an observer to classify it as red green,blue,purple etc (thee human experience of particular electromagnetic energy wavelengths)
different hues are qualitatively different
appropriate for showing qualitatively differing map elements
colour value
the perceived lightness and darkness of a hue
different values are quantitively different a
appropriate for showing quantitively differing map elements
colour intensity
intensity (saturation) describes the purity of a fuel
appropriate for binary data
2 different colour specification systems
predefined systems and perceptual systems
predefined systems
predefined by name or code
will be converted to another colour specification system if printed by computer
perceptual systems
based on human perception
set of colours that the average person can differentiate
example of a perceptual system
Munsell system
will be converted to another colour specification system if printed by computer
older map viewer problems
difficulty seeing colours, especially blue
require more saturated colours
would benefit
from increased font size
colour vision impaired map viewers
red and green often look the same
consider using reds and blues or greens and blues instead
colour connotations
colour often has symbolic connotations that influence the reaction of viewers
western culture and colour connotations
type variation advice
Type style (serif or sans serif) to symbolise nominal (qualitative ) information
avoid more than two type styles on a map
avoid combining two serif or two sans serif styles
avoid decorative type styles
Type weight variations
Bold type implies more, regular type less
bold implies power and significance
use bold instead of underlining
map layout : map elements
frame mine and neat line (have a defined line around frame around map) ( avoid thick ornate lines)
mapped area (there needs to be enough space around the area to locate all the different elements that we need, not too much white around the map and not too close to the margin
inset
title and subtitle
legend (not the same title as the map,
data source (primarily attributed data)
scale
orientation
