Emphasizing exploration over presentation
Moving beyond the Map Communication Model in visualization 
 of spatial information.
Nora Morales Vision Plus IIID MĂŠxico UAM Cuajimalpa
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‌ Maps and Agency Exploration
Confirmation
Synthesis
Presentation
Arthur Robinson introduced a more rigorous approach to cartography, but mapping have gone well beyond of what Robinson would have guess in the mid-century.
New geomedia technologies
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New geomedia technologies
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Traditionally •
Present stable known information
Now •
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Exploratory environments where knowledge is constructed
J.B. Harley •
Developed the idea of maps as practices and relations of power and knowledge
•
Challenged the cartographic assumption of maps as communication devices
•
And the prevailing picture of transfer of knowledge from the cartographer to the map user
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Question the limits when users are their own cartographers
Home Depot
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1950-1975
Map Communication Model in Cartography
Cartographer
Map
Codify
Transmitter
User
De-codify
Channel Entrance - Transfer - Exit
Receiver
MCM Major principles •
Clear separation between cartographer and user
•
The map as an intermediary that communicates information to the user from the cartographer
•
It is necessary to know the cognitive and psycho-pysical parameters of the map user’s abilities to comprehend learn and remember information communicated by the map
User testing as predominant paradigm
EXPERT
NOVICE
1960s quantitative revolution in cartography
MCM goals
Harleian
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To create a single map
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Provide multiple presentations
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“The best” map
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Emphasized “presentation”
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Static documents
Judgment of “the best” arise from privileged sites of power-knowledge
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Reinforces dichotomy cartographer-user
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Exploration of data
•
Maps are transient, created and erased many times
Power of the resistance 12
“Deconstruction as an account for the power relations of mapping and the map’s agency as discourse.”
– Harley, 1989 –
1986 Dennis Wood and Fels
Maps as a narrative By privileging accuracy and technical authority scientific maps promote naturalization and divide practice between scientific and non-scientific maps. – Crampton, 1999 –
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3 routes of investigation •
Eliciting the “rules of cartography” encompass the wellknown rules of technical production and the less known ones of cultural production.
•
Interpreting maps as social constructed texts that can be interpreted in multiple ways, have contradictions, fragmentations, and cannot be traced back to a sovereign mind or subject. Maps are practices and relations of power-knowledge competing interests of external and internal agendas corresponding to cultural, historical, political aspects.
•
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Geographic Visualization
Visualization is an art of cognition, a human ability to develop mental representations that allow people to identify patterns and create or impose order.
MacEachren 1992 16
“Choropleth map” showing the main municipalities where UAM students come from
García Laura, 2017 LAST UAM-C
“Symbolic map” showing the same information
García Laura, 2017 LAST UAM-C
“Dispersion map” showing the same information
García Laura, 2017 LAST UAM-C
Visualization to expose or to explore
–Alberto Cairo 2011
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MacEachren and Fraser Taylor, 1994
“C3”Cartography cubed
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MacEachren and Fraser Taylor, 1994
Private
Public
“C3”Cartography cubed
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MacEachren and Fraser Taylor, 1994
Private
Public
“C3”Cartography cubed
inte
vit i t c ra
h g i H n
a m hu
-
y
Lowp ma
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MacEachren and Fraser Taylor, 1994
Private
Public
“C3”Cartography cubed
Re kn vea ow l ns
Ex - pl un ori kn ng ow ns
inte
vit i t c ra
h g i H n
a m hu
-
y
Lowp ma
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MacEachren and Fraser Taylor, 1994
ns
visualiza
Re kn vea ow l
Private
tión ...co
Public
mmunica tio
n
“C3”Cartography cubed
Ex - pl un ori kn ng ow ns
inte
vit i t c ra
h g i H n
a m hu
-
y
Lowp ma
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Map of closed streets during 
 Pope visit CDMX (2016)
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Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
Map of closed streets during 
 Pope visit CDMX (2016)
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
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Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
Map of closed streets during 
 Pope visit CDMX (2016)
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
23
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
Map of closed streets during 
 Pope visit CDMX (2016)
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
24
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
Map of closed streets during 
 Pope visit CDMX (2016)
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
25
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
Map of closed streets during 
 Pope visit CDMX (2016)
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
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“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
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Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
27
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
27
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
28
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
28
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
28
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
29
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
29
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
“Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” The Guardian, Paul Scruton, 2011
w Ex o L - pl ity p v i a t c o a m un ri ter n i kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
29
Thermo color map display, according to weather conditions Camilla Hempleman, (2015) Bath England. Designboom
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“Modeling the landscape” Science Museum, Granada, Spain, 2017.
“Modeling the landscape” Science Museum, Granada, Spain, 2017.
Re kn vea ow l ns
Private
Public
Renewing Cartography with visualization
w Ex o L - pl it y v i ap t c a m r un ori inte kn ng h g i ow H an n s
hum
Since the environment is interactive the user in large part determines what information is displayed, at what stage, at certain scale and in what context. “user defined mapping� or a mapping environment Crampton 1999
c tati 2D S tional i Trad graphy ic to raph g Car o e n 2D G lizatio a ) Visu ractive on e zati n i (Int l a Visu dded i e t Emb onmen ir Env
Virtual mapping
Phenomenological Reality
Posible represestations
This transition of mapping could provide new understanding of maps in favor of social change enabled by new mobile technologies.
Virtual mapping
Phenomenological Reality
Posible represestations
This transition of mapping could provide new understanding of maps in favor of social change enabled by new mobile technologies.
Conclusion •
By emphasizing the social constructions of cartographic knowledge rather than a system of communication, we are able to engage in the creation of visualizations in real environment
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How might political action be enabled or retarded by the generation of information by their own citizens or knowledge of resistance groups.
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How can we improve access to spatial information by embedding it into the physical environment.
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Other aspects of protection and personal privacy need to be attending this new geographies of access, might en up in increased surveillance.
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Opportunity of the recovery of subjugated knowledges.
THANK YOU
–Nora Morales nmorales@correo.cua.uam.mx
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Bibliography Crampton, J.W. 1999. Online Mapping: Theoretical context and practical applications. In M. Peterson, W. Catwright ¬ G. Garyner, (eds.) Multimedia Cartography. Berlin: Springer Verlaf, p.p. 291-304 Hempleman C. 2015. Thermo color map display, according to weather conditions. Design boom. Bath, UK. Retrieved from:https://www.designboom.com/technology/thermo-color-map-camillahemplman-07-28-2015/ MacEachreb, A. M. ¬ D. R. Fraser Taylos (eds) 1994. Visualiztion in Modern cartography. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd. Lapenta, F. 2011. Geomedia: on location-based media, the changing status of collective image production and the emergence of social navigation systems. Visual Studies, 26(1), 14– 24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2011.548485 Lapenta, F. 2011. Locative media and the digital visualisation of space, place and information. Francesco Lapenta Visual Studies Vol. 26 , Iss. 1. Robinson, A. H. (2010). The look of maps: an examination of cartographic design (1st ed). Redlands, Calif: ESRI Press. Structon, P. 2016). “Six years of IED attacks in Afghanistan” in The Guardian retrieved from:https://rethinkingvis.com/visualizations/69 Wood, D. And J. Fels. 1986. Designs on signs/myth and meaning in maps. Cartographica 23(3), 54-103.