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Proper Maps – talk at MAPII 2025 workshop
talk at MAPII 2025 workshop, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 9th Sept. 2025 https://alandix.com/academic/papers/proper-maps-2025/ GPS and digital mapping allow unprecedented accuracy, and the precision of digital storage has replaced the vagueness of the cartographer's pencil. We can dispense with sketch maps for tourism or how-to-get-here instructions instead using proper online maps. But a map is not just a miniature version of a landscape, but an instrument for navigation, education, stories, and experience - not all maps are 'proper' maps set on Cartesian grids. This paper discusses several maps of varying levels of propriety to explore the theoretical and practical world of cartography and suggest how digital technology can enable a diverse ecology of improper mapping.
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Proper Maps – talk at MAPII 2025 workshop
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- 2. maps of mychildhood
- 3. are they propermaps? or just toys models marketing materials
- 4. is this amap?
- 5. human scale three scales •body space – 3D, proprioceptive • vista space – 2.5D, visual • navigation space – network, memory and maps neurological • place cells, boundary cells, grid cells, etc. landmarks bridge
- 6. accuracy and abstraction Korzybski’s“a map is not the territory” scattered remnants of Borges’ 1:1 scale map … but for a purpose
- 7. form and function form thephysical format (paper, cloth, digital, wall mounted or folded) large-scale structure (2D “God’s eye view”, linear,..) fine scale details (contour lines, roads, geology, buildings,…)
- 8. form and function form physicalformat (paper, cloth, digital, wall mounted or folded) large-scale structure (2D “God’s eye view”, linear,..) fine scale details (contour lines, roads, geology, buildings,…) function (purpose) not just navigation! getting a feel for a place buying and selling land political boundaries community and identity personal stories …
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- 11. Tiree Journeys (firstat CVE2000) cartographic (isomorphic) ‘standard’ Cartesian “Lord’s eye” maps cartographic (homomorphic) like proper map but variable scale schematic sketchy, some direction, key features of the journey linear key places, route straightened, similar to some road maps episodic similar to linear, focused more on the incidents and events
- 13. How I gothere … cartographic (isomorphic) ‘standard’ Cartesian “Lord’s eye” maps cartographic (homomorphic) like proper map but variable scale schematic sketchy, some direction, key features of the journey linear key places, route straightened, similar to some road maps episodic similar to linear, focused more on the incidents and events + the view down the route
- 14. (im)proper maps? Tiree journeys Frasan– opening up the archive
- 16. (im)proper maps? Tiree journeys Frasan– opening up the archive walking through childhood
- 18. (im)proper maps? Tiree journeys Frasan– opening up the archive walking through childhood digitally performing Wester Hailes
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- 20. (im)proper maps? Tiree journeys Frasan– opening up the archive walking through childhood digitally performing Wester Hailes Wales a personal view
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- 23. “Post-Renaissance maps cover thesurface of the world with an homogeneous Cartesian grip” (Bender, 1996) is there an alternative? pushing the bounds of normative mapping scaffolding spatial skills
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- 25. can we makeit easier? open mapping platforms that celebrate locality and human meaning
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