''' The Mapping Revolution: Impact of Digital Technologies'''

New digital technologies in mapping act as a threat to traditional cartography and the future importance and understanding of maps. Cartography is the art, method or exercise of accumulating or drawing maps. Maps are more than a tool from getting from one place to another; they are often filled with creative and subjective meaning. “At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a view waiting to be explored. Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequence of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences” (Lynch, 1992, p1).

By considering the role of mapping in early modern society and the relationships between maps and colonialism we can become fully exposed to the potential underlying tones found in maps and use these as clues to what a specific place was like at a point in history. These maps from early modern society may carry bias, but they give a deeper over view of the places they represent, portraying character and insight into hierarchical life. For instance, in Mercator’s projection of 1569 we see 4 obvious bias’: Greenland is the same size as Africa, Africa is actually 14 times bigger, Europe is the same size as South America, When South America is twice the size, Europe is placed in the centre and the equator line is 2/3rds of the way down the map. These biases are created to represent the British Empire in a positive and powerful light.

As long as these maps are looked at with a knowledge of the surrounding context they can lead us to a great wealth of historical research and also give an understanding on how an idea or opinion can be depicted by a carefully considered map.

Today Cartography is in a process of being re imagined both as an art form and in projects that use digital technologies for web mapping. In 1993, the Xerox PARC Map Viewer was released, allowing interactive mapping retrieval via the World Wide Web, moving beyond the accessing of fixed information. It was soon followed by earthquake locating maps, online atlases, geographical databases and address search engines. Between 2004 and 2006 the likes of Open Street map, Google maps and Google earth surfaced; introducing easy to use maps and aerial views; and exposing the world to a pivotal point in the long history of cartography. With the apparent flatness of the images these web pages produce, their value as maps must be questioned. Online mapping, set to takeover as the preferred type of mapping, can be seen as a threat to the long tradition of cartography.

Digital technologies act as a threat to tradition of cartography.

“As a result of public reliance on digital navigation systems, traditional cartography jobs are being downsized, and in many cases eliminated”(Mahaney, 2010). Traditional cartographers have often worked as designers in terms of their vision for a city or place this can be seen in Lucio Costa’s plans for Brasilia. Historically it has been the cartographers’ role to have the big dream and vision for what a place should be like. The skills involved in cartography are in some ways similar to those of architecture and planning, in terms of vision and creative thinking. Traditionally maps are created to imply, to question and to provide a rough guide of possible rules; they are a possibility – not a design in an architectural sense, inspiration. This cartographic way of thinking and conceptualising should not be surpassed by contemporary techniques.

Digital technologies represent a lack of understanding of the importance of a historical framework. “A portrait, a city map, is thus at once the trace of a residual past and the structure of a future to be produced” (Marlin, 2001, p205) “The more we know about cultures, about the structure of society in various periods of history in different parts of the world, the better we are able to read their built environment” (Kostof, 1999, p2). For example, if Rome’s online map is analysed, the map appears flat, there is no implication of its geographical position in terms of its seven hills, through contours or shade, what is old or new, what is roman built and what is not. Consideration should be given to the way a person navigates through Rome; it is unlike the streets of Britain or America. This consists of the progression from one landmark to the next. The map should consider different attitudes to navigation and location in different cultures and societies, aiding the reader in its context. With the 1748 Nolli Map of Rome, Giambattista Nolli shows differentiation between public and private areas; private regions are solid while public are hollow. Revealing the interior public spaces is particularly relevant when considering the publicity and vast number of churches within Rome.

In the book ‘Invisible Cities’ Italo Calvino discusses “Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased. Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little” (Calvino, 2009, p130). He contemplates the merging of cultures, due to an increased exposure to one another through means of technology, and the potential of all city images, and maps, eventually appearing the same. Throughout the book ‘Invisible Cities’ Italo Calvino gives a brief description of 55 cities through a discussion between two characters, by focusing on a particular aspect in each city the book evolves and it soon becomes apparent he is describing one city, Venice. However, in the way the description of each aspect is focused, he depicts all cities simultaneously. With a strong exposure to a variety of different cultures and societies through the ease of accessibility online mapping gives, a heavy influence of western culture is already evident.

Digital technologies act as a threat to the future understanding and importance of the map.

“A strong preference to aerial views, over actual maps, on sites such as Google maps and Bing maps is an area of growing concern in terms of a younger generations map literacy” (Parsons, 2010). With a focus on aerial maps the roof not only becomes the 5th elevation, as Mies van der Rohe suggested, but the most important elevation, we must question why this elevation should overshadow and have more power than all the others, when on the most part the map has always represented the buildings footprint showing us the relation to building and path. By using a map of roofscapes the ease of navigation through the city could be challenging, along with the value of the map as a plan of the city, and the plan as a sectional cut. The aerial views give little clue on contours in an urban environment, and an understanding of scale is lost. The fact that the aerial view is a photo, often leads to a false sense of security in terms of its accuracy, this information despite its appearance, like any map, needs to be checked for error.

“Maps have served a broad range of divergent interests: they are items at once highly practical, eminently political and overtly symbolic; and just as the early modern discourse of geography was both a scholarly pursuit and a commercial activity, they are records of a significant increase in spatial knowledge as well as valuable economic objects in their own right” (Klien, 2001, p64) Digital technologies reduce maps to a basic layer of understanding, losing creative and subjective meaning. This basic level generally tends to focus on roads. Historically the map represents the people of a place, giving hints of culture, society and attitude to space. A hierarchy of importance in spaces found on a map may be implied, suggesting places that should be respected or visited. Thought should be given to the positive aspects of bias in maps and the way clues are given to the past. Taking a look at the introduction of the satire maps of the 1870’s, in the context of political tension, the rise of nationalism and the need and defence of a nations identity, the rise of the ordinance survey map, the publication of the atlas and much proclaiming of the British empire, these satire maps were designed as a response, to inform, entertain and shock by combining current issues with the familiarity of a maps shape. This can be seen in ‘The Serio Comic Map of Europe at War’ by Fred Rose, he uses human and animal features to represent the threat of each country to the next, these ideas are important in the development of our understanding of symbology. Peter Brookes, a current political cartoonist for The Times embarks in similar works. In his ‘Good Friday Agreement the IRA Version’ he shows the Good Friday Agreement with an Ireland shaped hole burned out of it, accompanied with bullet holes, a reaction to two British soldiers being killed. In his Spectator cover for ‘Yobland, our Yobland’ he uses the surroundings of Britain to suit the cartoon by using Ireland as the old lady that Britain is kicking. These forms of cartoons are important, although primarily for entertainment value, they give a subconscious message, showing how easy it is for a map to be distorted for artists own intentions and how a maps accuracy can be sacrificed for the final composition. They insult, inspire and debate; creating questions about what is fact or fiction.

Digital mapping remains reliant on personal opinion. The possibility must be considered that “behind the mapmaker lies a set of power relations, creating its own specification” (Harley, 2001, p63). In heavily controlled countries such as North Korea and China this attitude towards the map may still be occurring. The empty spaces in maps must be considered, in platforms such as Google maps that are reliant on the people from a certain place contributing information about their own area to the map, the implications of heavily controlled areas must be thought about. North Korea lies as a blank canvas, the only pinpoint is the countries capital, and a geographical arrangement can be seen from a zoomed out aerial photo of its mountain ranges. As a totalitarian state, there have been many reports of public execution, torture and thousands of captive political prisoners. North Korea is currently at the front of media attention, recent television footage of the citizens of its capital crying over the death of Kim Jong-il, provided an image that the North Korean government wanted the rest of the world to see; this footage has been greatly questioned in the press. It would appear these people live in fear of having their own opinions and speak only the opinion of the state, this is where bias forms.

Similarly China has heavy control over the Internet and control of public opinion. The government keeps its prisons hidden out of sight, generally low rise and away from the cities. These nationalist ideas are reminiscent of ‘William Morgan’s Map of London’, made in 1682, after the great fire of London in 1666. It is an image of the new city, an idealised vision containing pride and promise, it was the first time London had been accurately surveyed, it contains no disorder, no prisons even though it is known Newgate existed at this time, no work houses, and no overcrowding or poverty, perhaps the deer in St. James’ Park, the reality of which was an effective slum, are the ultimate representation of this idealised vision as a fairly inaccurate image. In the 1800’s Charles Booth rebelled against this form of mapping by creating his ‘London Poverty Map’ in which he accurately surveyed unacceptable living conditions, workhouses and wages; revealing a third of London’s population was living in poverty. These empty spaces are not just apparent in maps; they result in coherent gaps in our knowledge of a place. By the way these countries are represented on online maps, the gaps would never become apparent until the area was zoomed in on, and the data was searched for.

Platforms such as Google maps could enrich our lives and give a true and accurate image of a place. 

“Mercator placed Europe in the centre of his map” (Black, 1997, p30), “the atlases of Ortelius and Mercator, the maps of Nowell, Saxton and Speed were all produced within a recognisably English frame of reference; their cartographic activity bears directly on the international perception of national space in early modern England” (Klien, 2001, p82) Online maps fight previous historical bias, they are created by everyone, for everyone, each person is at the centre of their own map. 

In the case of the Hereford Mappa Mundi, Jerusalem was centred as the religious centre, Ortelius, Mercator, Nowell, Saxton and Speed focused on the centre of the British Empire as a representation of power. Online mapping puts each individual at the centre. If a map is representative of the world or of a nation should China with the largest population, or the United States as the leading superpower, or even Russia as a potential future superpower be seen as the centre? Grayson Perry’s ‘Map of Nowhere’ 2008 inspired by the topics of belief and uncertainty, particularly in terms of the physical and spiritual world, found in the Hereford Mappa Mundi. It borrows its circular format and arrangement of image and text. It is a personal take on mapping belief and the intellectual constraints of religion. It is a very individualistic worldview, placing his self at the maps centre.

Digital technologies have enabled areas that have never been mapped in detail to be mapped by the people that live there, such as Nairobi, Kenya. “We must consider not just the city as a thing itself, but the city being perceived by its inhabitants” (Lynch, 1992, p3) to portray a truer image of the city. “Every citizen has had long associations with some part of the city and his image is soaked in memories and meanings” (Lynch, 1992, p1). Kevin lynch published ‘The Image of the City’ in 1960, he almost predicts the invention of online mapping with his discussions on personal perspective, movement and the memory with which information is gathered. However through his work on personal maps and the way different people perceive the city it must be considered that the information is too personal to be represented in a way that it is forced into the rigid guidelines of an online database, it should be a free flowing artistic form. An ideal example of a personal map is seen in ‘The Image of the City’ (Lynch, 1992, front cover) showing what is important to that particular person. Conceptual consideration must be given to how maps work in the human mind. If landmarks are a form of navigation like in Rome, is this how a place should be represented? Like Lynch discusses, the city is made of paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks and this is what our city image is made up of.

“Within days of the disaster, Haiti's only golf course – and a rare pocket of wealth in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere – had been filled with makeshift tents that became home to an estimated 55,000 people. The transformation of Pétionville was documented thoroughly on Google Maps” (Kiss, 2011, p12) it allowed aid to work quickly and pinpoint collapsed buildings and camps in under 48 hours. By using aerial photography in this way a variety of different services and aid can be given the information needed to act almost immediately, in terms of clearing, rebuilding, supporting the injured and supplying food and water. A month after Haiti’s disaster an earthquake struck Chile killing over 500 people. The disaster mapping technique used previously in Haiti was refined, assisting in an even quicker reaction.

“Maps are no longer static but dynamic, changed in real time by millions of users and offered to us free of charge by the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo or [http://www.openstreetmap.org/ openstreetmap.com], the collaborative global map made for the people by the people” (Keegan, 2010, p18).

The capacity of this collaborative map to change in real time is worrying. Once something is recorded it is in the past, that place has changed and it must be updated. This results in a reliance on one source of information, and the underlying fact that anyone can add any information to it; we potentially end up with the Wikipedia of maps. In the words of George Orwell in 1984: "Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made…could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record” (Orwell, 1974, p54).

Cartography must be seen as art, method and exercise. Within the field of online mapping we see only the exercise. The map needs to understand cultural background and context, along with a historical framework of a place, essentially the method of how it came to be. The creative and subjective meaning that is seen as the art, is also lost. Exposure to these types of meanings are important when considering the potential of biases and the joy of debate and question that can come from them. The over powering of the aerial view clouds the ability to walk through the city, and leaves us naively unaware of the places in our map that we no little about. Wherever we are the map places us at the centre, it disregards what having a centre to a map can tell about how the world has changed.

However, online mappings intentions were good. The search for a truer image of place, by allowing anyone to add to the map is inspirational, but direction is lost in the mundane method of representation. One thing that cannot be argued with is the tool Google Maps has become for natural disaster aid, with its capability to save lives.

As it stands, new technologies in mapping threaten the tradition of cartography and the future importance and understanding of maps, but with the underlying intentions of online mapping and the personal expression of artists like Peter Brookes and Grayson Perry the potential for mapping to collaborate these forms seems inevitable. In the midst of a mapping revolution, we fear for loss of our history, yet stand fascinated at the possibilities of modern technology in embracing both, a hybrid will be created, and the tradition we are so afraid of losing will be saved.

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Digital mapping and cartography

2012-11-21T23:43:19Z

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