Mapping the CityCounter Mapping and Critical Geography

Sumandro Chattapadhyayajantriks.net

Kote, 1792

Kote, 1791

The World on Mercator’s Projection, W.G. Blackie, 1860

Serio-Comic War Map, Fred W. Rose, 1877

A Serio-Comic Map of Europe, John Bull and his Friends, 1900

Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia, Kisaburo Ohara, 1904

The Prussian Octopus, 1915

Russia in 2008, Graeme Mackay, 2008

Rose Diagram, Florence Nightingale, 1858

Cholera Map by John Snow, 1854

Napoleon’s March by C.J. Minard, 1861

Internal Migration in USA by Jon Bruner, 2011

David McCandless, 2009

Africa Map by Kai Krause, 2010

The Economist, 2011

World Economy Cartogram, UNEP, 2000

Road Network, BBMP

Water Bodies, Greater Bangalore

Gorakhpur, Municipality GIS

Google Maps

Google Earth

London Bike Share Map, Oliver O’brien

Local Vs. Tourists, New York, Eric Fischer, 2010

Local Vs. Tourists, Tokyo, Eric Fischer, 2010

Live Singapore! by MIT SENSEable City Lab, 2011

openstreetmap.org

Humanitarian OSM

Humanitarian OSM

Ushahidi

MapKibera

Kibera on Google Maps

Guide Pychogéographique de Paris, Guy Debord, 1957

London Map, Stephen Walter

London Map, Stephen Walter

iSEE, Institute for Applied Autonomy

Greenwich Emotion Map, Christian Nold

Greenwich Emotion Map, Christian Nold

Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities

Opportunities:

[1] Aggregation[2] Spatial ordering[3] Comparison[4] Pattern discovery

Opportunities:

[1] Aggregation[2] Spatial ordering[3] Comparison[4] Pattern discovery

Opportunities:

[1] Aggregation[2] Spatial ordering[3] Comparison[4] Pattern discovery

Opportunities:

[1] Aggregation[2] Spatial ordering[3] Comparison[4] Pattern discovery

Reminders:

[1] Map as worldview[2] Map as proposition[3] Mapping ≠ mapmaking[4] Royal and nomadic maps

Reminders:

[1] Map as worldview[2] Map as proposition[3] Mapping ≠ mapmaking[4] Royal and nomadic maps

Reminders:

[1] Map as worldview[2] Map as proposition[3] Mapping ≠ mapmaking[4] Royal and nomadic maps

Reminders:

[1] Map as worldview[2] Map as proposition[3] Mapping ≠ mapmaking[4] Royal and nomadic maps

In the last few years cartography has been slipping from the control of the powerful elites that have exercised dominance over it for several hundred years. These elites —the great map houses of the west, the state, and to a lesser extent academics — have been challenged by two important developments. First, the actual business of mapmaking, of collecting spatial data and mapping it out, is passing out of the hands of the experts. The ability to make a map, even a stunning interactive 3D map, is now available to anyone with a home computer and an internet connection.

‘An introduction to Critical Cartography’Jeremy Crampton & John Krygier

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[Continued] Cartography’s latest “technological transition” is not so much a question of new mapping software but a mixture of “open source” collaborative tools, mobile mapping applications, and geotagging. While this trend has been apparent to industry insiders for some time, a more social theoretic critique, which we argue is a political one, situates maps within specific relations of power and not as neutral scientific documents. One might expect a critique of the politics of mapping to weaken the power of the map and to work against a transition [towards] putting maps into more people’s hands. But just the opposite has happened. If the map is a specific set of power-knowledge claims, then not only the state but others could make competing and equally powerful claims.

‘An introduction to Critical Cartography’Jeremy Crampton & John Krygier

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Sumandro Chattapadhyayajantriks.net

Courtesy:Al Jazeera, BBMP, Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities, Christian Nold, Eric Fischer, Foreign Policy, Global Security, Google Maps and Earth, India Urban Portal, Indian Institute of Science, InformationIsBeautiful.net, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Jon Bruner / Forbes, Kai Krause, MapKibera, miklianmaps.com, MIT SENSEable City Lab, Oliver O’Brien, OpenStreetMap.org, Stephen Walter, Strange Maps, The Economist, UC Santa Barbara, UNEP, Ushahidi, WikiMedia Commons.