Envisioning Information

The paper draws on ideas in postmodern thinking to redefine the nature of maps as representations of power. The traditional rules of cartography – long rooted in a scientific epistemology of the map as an objective form of knowledge – will first be reviewed as an object of deconstruction. Second, a deconstructionist argument will explore the textuality of maps, including their metaphorical and rhetorical nature. Third, the paper will examine the dimensions both of external power and of the omnipresence of internal power in the cartographic representation of place. Cet article s'aventure dans des concepts post-modernes afin de redefinir la nature des cartes comme etant des representations du pouvoir. Longuement enracinees dans une epistemologie scientifique de la carte comme forme objective de connaissance, les regles traditionnelles de la cartographie seront d'abord revues en tant qu'objets de "deconstruction". Ensuite, les arguments d'un "deconstructioniste" exploreront la "textualite" des cartes, y comp...

Deconstructing the map

Graphics have been used since ancient times to portray things that are inherently spatiovisual, like maps and building plans. More recently, graphics have been used to portray things that are metaphorically spatiovisual, like graphs and organizational charts. The assumption is that graphics can facilitate comprehension, learning, memory, communication and inference. Assumptions aside, research on static graphics has shown that only carefully designed and appropriate graphics prove to be beneficial for conveying complex systems. Effective graphics conform to the Congruence Principle according to which the content and format of the graphic should correspond to the content and format of the concepts to be conveyed. From this, it follows that animated graphics should be effective in portraying change over time. Yet the research on the efficacy of animated over static graphics is not encouraging. In cases where animated graphics seem superior to static ones, scrutiny reveals lack of equivalence between animated and static graphics in content or procedures; the animated graphics convey more information or involve interactivity. Animations of events may be ineffective because animations violate the second principle of good graphics, the Apprehension Principle, according to which graphics should be accurately perceived and appropriately conceived. Animations are often too complex or too fast to be accurately perceived. Moreover, many continuous events are conceived of as sequences of discrete steps. Judicious use of interactivity may overcome both these disadvantages. Animations may be more effective than comparable static graphics in situations other than conveying complex systems, for example, for real time reorientations in time and space.

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Animation: can it facilitate?

Languages differ in how they describe space, and such differences between languages can be used to explore the relation between language and thought. This 2003 book shows that even in a core cognitive domain like spatial thinking, language influences how people think, memorize and reason about spatial relations and directions. After outlining a typology of spatial coordinate systems in language and cognition, it is shown that not all languages use all types, and that non-linguistic cognition mirrors the systems available in the local language. The book reports on collaborative, interdisciplinary research, involving anthropologists, linguists and psychologists, conducted in many languages and cultures around the world, which establishes this robust correlation. The overall results suggest that thinking in the cognitive sciences underestimates the transformative power of language on thinking. The book will be of interest to linguists, psychologists, anthropologists and philosophers, and especially to students of spatial cognition.

https://bilder.buecher.de/zusatz/29/29337/29337053_lese_1.pdf

Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) makes babies and parents at once. Drawing on science and technology studies, feminist theory, and historical and ethnographic analyses of ART clinics, Charis Thompson explores the intertwining of biological reproduction with the personal, political, and technological meanings of reproduction. She analyzes the "ontological choreography" at ART clinics -- the dynamics by which technical, scientific, kinship, gender, emotional, legal, political, financial, and other matters are coordinated -- using ethnographic data to address questions usually treated in the abstract. Reproductive technologies, says Thompson, are part of the increasing tendency to turn social problems into biomedical questions and can be used as a lens through which to see the resulting changes in the relations between science and society. After giving an account of the book's disciplinary roots in science and technology studies and in feminist scholarship on reproduction, Thompson comes to the ethnographic heart of her study. She develops her concept of ontological choreography by examining ART's normalization of "miraculous" technology (including the etiquette of technological sex); gender identity in the assigned roles of mother and father and the conservative nature of gender relations in the clinic; the naturalization of technologically assisted kinship and procreative intent; and patients' pursuit of agency through objectification and technology. Finally, Thompson explores the economies of reproductive technologies, concluding with a speculative and polemical look at the "biomedical mode of reproduction" as a predictor of future relations between science and society.

Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies

Focusing on historical examples and the practises of modern cartography, J.B. Harley (1932-1991) offers an alternative to the dominant view that Western cartography since the Renaissance has been a progressive technological, scientific and objective trajectory of development. This traditional view asserts that maps produce an accurate relational model of terrain and, as such, epitomize representational modernism, which is rooted in the project of the Enlightenment; in sum, maps banish subjectivity from the image. Accordingly, cartographers have promoted a standard scientific model for their discipline, one in which a mirror of nature can be projected through geometry and measurement. Cartographers often mistakenly assess early maps by this modern yardstick, excising from the accepted canon of mapping not only maps from the premodern era but also those from other cultures that do not match Western notions of accuracy. In these essays, Harley draws on ideas in art history, literature, philosophy, and the study of visual culture to subvert the traditional, "positivist" model of cartography, replacing it with one that is grounded in an iconological and semiotic theory of the nature of maps. He defines a map as a "social construction" and argues that maps are not simple representations of reality but exert profound influences upon the way space is conceptualized and organized. A central theme is the way in which power - whether military, political, religious or economic - becomes inscribed on the land through cartography. In this reading of maps and map making, Harley undertakes a surprising journey into the nature of the social and political unconscious.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/25148199

The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography

The Institute for Research in the Humanities (http://irh.wisc.edu) and the History of Cartography Project (http://www.geography.wisc.edu/histcart), at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW), hold an annual competition for the David Woodward Memorial Fellowship in the History of Cartography. The fellowship gives scholars an opportunity to research and write on a subject related to the history of cartography in a stimulating academic environment. Proposals should complement one of the forthcoming volumes of The History of Cartography. It is preferred that the 2014-2015 fellow will focus on under-studied topics in nineteenth-century cartography (related to Volume Five of The History of Cartography), but this is not required and the choice of subject matter is otherwise open. Fellows are provided with office space (when available) and access to all UW–Madison libraries and campus facilities. Participation in the lively, interdisciplinary community of the Institute is strongly encouraged.

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The history of cartography

‘On a visit to Leningrad some years ago I consulted a map to find out where I was, but I could not make it out. From where I stood, I could see several enormous churches, yet there was no trace of them on my map. When finally an interpreter came to help me, he said: “We don't show churches on our maps.” Contradicting him, I pointed to one that was very clearly marked. “That is a museum,” he said, “not what we call a ‘living church.’ It is only ‘living churches’ we don't show.” It then occurred to me that this was not the first time I had been given a map which failed to show many things I could see right in front of my eyes. All through school and university I had been given maps of life and knowledge on which there was hardly a trace of many of the things that I most cared about and that seemed to me to be of the greatest possible importance to the conduct of my life. I remembered that for many years my perplexity had been complete; and no interpreter had come along to help me. It remained complete until...

Silences and secrecy: The hidden agenda of cartography in early modern Europe

By developing the broadest and most inclusive definition of the term "map" ever adopted in the history of cartography, this inaugural volume of the "History of Cartography" series has helped redefine the way maps are studied and understood by scholars in a number of disciplines. Volume One addresses the prehistorical and historical mapping traditions of premodern Europe and the Mediterranean world. A substantial introductory essay surveys the historiography and theoretical development of the history of cartography and situates the work of the multi-volume series within this scholarly tradition. Cartographic themes include an emphasis on the spatial-cognitive abilities of Europe's prehistoric peoples and their transmission of cartographic concepts through media such as rock art; the emphasis on mensuration, land surveys, and architectural plans in the cartography of Ancient Egypt and the Near East; the emergence of both theoretical and practical cartographic knowledge in the Greco-Roman world; and the parallel existence of diverse mapping traditions ("mappaemundi," portolan charts, local and regional cartography) in the Medieval period. Throughout the volume, a commitment to include cosmographical and celestial maps underscores the inclusive definition of "map" and sets the tone for the breadth of scholarship found in later volumes of the series.

J. B. Harley

Papers

Deconstructing the map

The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography

The history of cartography

Silences and secrecy: The hidden agenda of cartography in early modern Europe

Cartography in prehistoric, ancient, and medieval Europe and the Mediterranean