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♪ [music] ♪
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- [Ken] Hello and
welcome to Cartography.
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This is the first of a
series of short films
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that accompany our
MOOC on cartography.
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And to join me today is
expert cartographer, John Nelson,
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and even more
expert cartographer, Edie Punt.
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- [Edie] Hi.
- [Ken] My name is Ken Field.
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We're going to just spend
a few minutes today talking
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about cartography, what it means,
and what it means to be a smarter
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map maker, how we think about
making maps, and really try to
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encourage you to think about
going beyond the defaults.
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Maybe that's a good
phrase to start off with.
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So, first off, let's define
what cartography is, I guess.
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John, do you want to give
us what your definition is?
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- [John] What is cartography?
Cartography is the communication
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of a geographic phenomenon,
the visual communication,
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so the "o-graphy-of-cart."
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And it's this beautiful
mix of geography,
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which is already awesome,
and art, which is already awesome.
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And then you get awesome plus
awesome and it's just cartography.
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- [Ken] Beat that.
- [John] Beat awesome plus awesome.
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- [Edie] Okay. It's really combining
the idea of where things are
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and why they're there, so the
spatial component, with the art.
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And it's really
about communication,
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so finding a way to communicate
those spatial phenomena in a way
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that resonates with people
and better helps them understand.
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- [Ken] I kind of like to think about the
word or the letters that make up the word,
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because, to me, it encompasses
a lot of different aspects.
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So we start off with the C,
and that to me shouts compromise,
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because everything about
making a map is a compromise.
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You know, a cartographer
makes decisions all the time
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about what to put on the map,
what to take off the map.
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And there are
a lot of compromises.
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- [Edie] Well, you can't put the
whole world on a piece of paper.
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- [John] You can't put
everything on the map.
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- [Ken] That's true.
- [Edie] Yeah. Yeah.
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- [Ken] That's why maps exist.
- [Edie] Compromise.
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- [Ken] Secondly is
this little word "art."
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You know, there is a component of
artistry in making a great-looking map.
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This isn't just about
making maps look pretty,
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but it's the artistry
of communication.
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The next letter along is the O,
and I think that stands for opportunity.
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So making a map is an
opportunity to tell your audience
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something interesting, to communicate
a story, to give people facts.
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- [John] Or if you
don't make a map at all.
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The worst map is
one that never gets made.
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- [Ken] We're going to skip a whole load
of letters and mush them into one here.
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Talk about graph.
Graph, to me, is indicative
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of a mode
of communication.
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So we go to school and we
get taught to read and write
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and we get taught
to use numbers.
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We very rarely get taught to
communicate using graphs or graphics.
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There is a graphical language,
a syntax, an alphabet even.
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That's what this MOOC
is really all about,
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getting us to think about
communicating in a graphical way,
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what works well, what
perhaps doesn't work so well.
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So we might call that graphicacy.
- [John] Graphicacy.
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- [Edie] Oh,
like literacy, but graphicacy.
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- [Ken] Yeah, and that's not my term.
This is a 1958 term.
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- [John] Is that
how it's pronounced?
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- [Ken] You can
pronounce it how you like.
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We're bringing it back.
We're going to learn to be graphicate.
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Yeah?
- [Edie] Okay, graphicate.
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- [Ken] Okay. And then this final letter,
just hanging out on the end here, the Y,
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to me, whenever you make
a map, you ask yourself why.
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Why am I choosing this
particular set of symbols?
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Why have I processed
my data in a particular way?
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And I think that's always important
to keep that in mind is to ask
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yourself a lot of questions about why
you're doing things in a certain way.
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- [Edie] Every bit of ink or screen pixel
you put on there has to have a reason.
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- [Ken] Yeah.
- [Edie] Otherwise it's just noise.
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- [John] I think the why is a super
powerful component of cartography.
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- [Ken] Yeah, and that's what we're going
to try to encourage everyone to do
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by taking this MOOC is to think
about the whys of making a map
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and to learn to sort of not
just accept software defaults,
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but go a little bit beyond them
and think about working with them
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in order to create your
beautifully artistic, graphicate map.
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♪ [music] ♪
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- [Ken] So why
do you make a map?
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- [John] I make a map
because I have to.
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I love it.
Making maps is so much fun.
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But really, I make a map because often
a piece of data looks pretty interesting
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to me and I think that
there's something inside it.
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- [Edie] So you start
with a dataset typically.
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- [John] I do.
- [Edie] Okay.
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- [John] And the inverse of that is
sometimes I'll have a technique
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I want to try out, and the data
itself is kind of a second hand.
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You know, maybe I want to try a
different kind of coastline effect.
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I don't necessarily
always start with the data.
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I think a lot of
cartographers work that way.
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You might want
to try something interesting,
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and the data itself
is just supporting that.
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- [Edie] Sometimes you just need
to explain the reality of a where.
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So maybe it's an article that lists a
lot of different places and movement
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of goods or ideas or people, and that
entire concept, that whole story is
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so much easier for somebody to
understand if they can see it in a map.
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- [Ken] So once we move past the
purpose, you know, you've got
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your purpose for the map, then
we kind of get into a process.
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- [Edie] Okay.
- [Ken] So what's your process
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of map making?
- [Edie] I think a lot depends on
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what kind of map you're making.
Who are you making it for?
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Are you making a map that's
going to be on a piece of paper
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and, you know,
hung on a telephone pole?
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Well, that's going
to be a different process ...
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- [Ken] Right.
- [Edie] ... than you're going to make
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a web map that's
going to go out to,
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you know, hundreds,
thousands of people.
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- [John] That's a good point.
Know your audience.
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Know why you're
making the map.
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- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] Right.
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- [John] Ask yourself why
you're making the map.
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- [Ken] For me, I like to think
of the process as an iterative one.
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- [Edie] Definitely.
- [Ken] Because you never have
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a linear process of
starting to make the map
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and then da, da,
da, da, finish.
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- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] It doesn't work like that.
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Quite often you find things out as you
go along and you change things or ...
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- [John] And it's hard
to know when you're done.
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- [Ken] Sure.
- [John] Like any creative process,
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you always want
to tweak something.
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And if you see
it later, you think,
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"I wish I could have done
something differently."
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- [Edie] Or you're Ken
and you think it's done.
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And Edie walks by your
office and says, "Ken no."
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- [Ken] Yeah,
"I didn't like that.
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Change it."
- [Edie] Yeah.
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- [Ken] I also think there may be,
you know, there's an element to truth
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in 90% of the map
takes 10% of the time ...
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- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] ... and then, you know,
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the final 10% takes maybe
another 90% of the time.
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So you do have to work out
when you're done with the map.
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So maybe that's a good place to talk a
little bit about some of the constraints
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on map making, because this
doesn't just exist in a beautiful, open,
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"I can do what I like"
kind of environment.
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- [Edie] Right.
- [John] If you pay for the band,
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you name the tune, right?
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So if you're making a map for
someone, you have to take their input.
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You have to know what their purpose
is and what their objectives are.
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And you're sort of stuck with
whatever data you're working with,
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because it's been handed to you and you
have a task and you have a deadline.
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- [Edie] Well, and then there's the
classic cartography constraint of
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you can pick your scale, you can
pick your extent of geography,
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and you can pick
your size of the output,
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but you can only have
two of those three things.
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Right?
You can't have all three.
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- [Ken] Right. But you can overcome
that with multi-scale web mapping.
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- [Edie] Right.
- [Ken] But then you may have got
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other constraints, like technology.
- [Edie] Yeah, exactly.
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- [Ken] And also, it's a good
idea to keep the user in mind.
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Who's going to be looking at your map?
Are you going to be making
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a map for children?
Are you making it for school kids?
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Are you making it for
foreign language tourists?
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These are all issues
that you need to think about.
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- [Edie] Right. Somebody
has color vision impairment.
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- [Ken] Right. I like to think about
the old adage of form and function.
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You know, the form of your
map should support the function
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that you're trying
to communicate.
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- [John] And certainly sometimes there's
an inherent theme in the data that can
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have an influence on what design
sensibility you bring to the map.
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- [Ken] I mean, you can go too far.
- [Edie] Yeah. You don't ...
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- [John] Like an over-the-top
pirate map with flaming skulls.
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- [Edie] Well, if you're mapping
something that's a really serious topic,
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you don't want to have a goofy,
light-hearted font, for example.
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- [Ken] That's right.
Exactly, like Comic Sans.
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- [Edie] Like Comic Sans.
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- [Ken] So going back
to this idea of graphicacy,
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you thought we
were done, didn't you?.
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- [Edie] Yeah, graphicacy.
- [Ken] I think a nice way
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of making a map is to structure the way
you lay out the graphics to communicate.
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So if you think about the
written word perhaps in a book,
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for instance,
or in the spoken word,
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we're linking letters into words,
into paragraphs, sentences.
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And hopefully, we're
being reasonably intelligible.
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People are following
what we're saying.
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Everything is coming at you
in serial, one word after the ...
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we're trained
to think about ...
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- [Edie] Yeah, its a train of thought.
Yeah, train of thought.
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- [Ken] ... decoding
language in that way.
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But with maps, you look at
any of those on the wall behind,
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it's everything is one go, right?
- [Edie] Yeah, it's all at once.
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- [Ken] So our brain is struggling
to try to disentangle all of that,
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and thinking about
trying to structure
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that message is important.
It's a constraint.
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- [Edie] I think you can use the
tools that are pretty well-known
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in graphic design to bring
out what's the first message,
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what's the most important thing
that you want somebody to see first,
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and use those graphical
tools, the graphicacy.
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Make sure that the primary
message comes out first.
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- [John] One strategy is you can make
a series of maps, and each series
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of maps introduces some kind
of walking into a phenomenon.
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- [Ken] Right.
- [Edie] Right.
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- [John] Start with a broad view of
something and taking a closer look.
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- [Edie] But even there,
they're going to have a lot
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in common to sort
of ground your reader.
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- [John] Absolutely.
There will be a family of maps.
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- [Edie] So they are oriented to what's
changing about the message on each map.
00:10:01
♪ [music] ♪
00:10:07
- [Ken] I kind of like
looking at old maps.
00:10:09
- [John] I love it.
- [Ken] Because they give you
00:10:11
hints about what works really well,
what perhaps doesn't work.
00:10:13
So let's go back.
Let's look at
00:10:16
Erwin Raisz's Atlas of
Global Geography 1944.
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- [John] Classic. Beautiful.
- [Edie] He makes gorgeous maps.
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- [Ken] I find the use of symbology
and pictorial components and icons
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and color really magnificent.
When you think about some
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of the constraints on the
technology at the time,
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you know, printing 1944.
- [Edie] Yeah.
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- [John] I appreciate his hand.
It's before these tools that automated
00:10:42
a lot of the process.
- [Ken] Right.
00:10:43
- [John] Right. He's forming
these largely from scratch
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and airbrushing
and painting and stenciling.
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It's just profound how much
effort was involved back then.
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And when you have a craft that involves
so much effort from front to back,
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then I think you're more invested
in something instead of just
00:11:01
kind of cranking through
it in a digital process.
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- [Edie] Right. The thing that he was
so masterful at is depicting landforms,
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and I think that is where he really
nails the aesthetics in his maps.
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As artistic as they are,
they're incredibly accurate too.
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He's not just putting mountain
ranges here because they fit in.
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I mean, that's actually where the
mountains are and what they look like.
00:11:26
I mean, he nails it.
[Ken] Yeah.
00:11:28
What I quite like, of course,
an atlas isn't just about topography
00:11:32
and the natural world.
- [Edie] Right.
00:11:33
- [Ken] He uses
some really revolutionary,
00:11:35
innovative statistical charting.
- [Edie] Right.
00:11:38
- [Ken] You know, it's
sort of almost 3D prism maps.
00:11:41
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [John] And amazing cutaways.
00:11:43
- [Ken] Yeah. And again,
doing this by hand.
00:11:45
- [John] The profiles
of his landforms.
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- [Ken] You know, working out
what angles to actually show
00:11:49
of this map
that's going to work.
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I think, more than anything, what this
atlas teaches me is the amount of
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time it must have taken
to think through all of this work.
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- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] And that to me
00:12:01
is maybe a difficulty with modern
cartography, this compression of time.
00:12:06
You can make
a map in 10 seconds now,
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whereas maybe it took him 2 weeks
to do the same thing or even longer.
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- [Edie] Right. Right.
- [Ken] And that's why we're trying to
00:12:14
encourage this
thinking about cartography
00:12:17
and going back to
some of these classics.
00:12:18
♪ [music] ♪
00:12:24
We're going to now talk about
some great cartographers.
00:12:27
We're going to
call them map people.
00:12:29
I'm going to throw out a
name and let's get a reaction.
00:12:31
Tom Patterson?
- [John] [singing] Tom.
00:12:35
- [Edie] Tom, yeah.
Tom is somebody who I don't think
00:12:39
has ever done anything
or come up with an idea
00:12:45
that he hasn't openly
shared with everyone.
00:12:48
- [Ken] So Tom works in the
National Parks Service in the U.S.
00:12:51
And anybody who's been to
a national park will have used
00:12:54
one of products,
one of his maps.
00:12:56
They are works of art.
- [John] Art, absolutely.
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- [Ken] But he's kind of got
a side job of, like you said,
00:13:02
just doing stuff ...
- [Edie] Yeah.
00:13:03
- [Ken] ... websites
and various resources.
00:13:06
And really, the whole point about
talking about these map people
00:13:09
is go and check out their work.
- [Edie] Yeah.
00:13:11
- [Ken] Go have a look at what
Tom has been doing over his career.
00:13:13
Check out his websites
and get some inspiration.
00:13:17
- [John] Something that I'm especially
impressed with about Tom is he's got
00:13:21
these two worlds, right, this
very artistic sensibility and then
00:13:25
a technical mastery.
- [Edie] Yeah.
00:13:27
- [John] So the mathematics
involved in projections is, of course,
00:13:29
intimidating to somebody like me.
But he has his own projection, right?
00:13:33
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] Yeah.
00:13:34
- [John] And he's got that over there.
And meanwhile, he's doing these amazing
00:13:37
shaded relief works of art.
That's all the same human being
00:13:41
rolled up into one
Tom Patterson package.
00:13:43
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] Well, is it?
00:13:44
- [John] Maybe.
00:13:45
- [Ken] I mean, maybe there's
more than one. Nobody knows.
00:13:47
Anyway, check out Tom's work.
It's great.
00:13:49
♪ [music] ♪
00:13:54
- [Ken] A lot of the times we make
our maps using computers now,
00:13:58
but it hasn't always been that way.
And I thought it might be fun to have
00:14:01
a look at some of the oldy
worldly tools of the trade.
00:14:04
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] It's got a ring to it.
00:14:05
- [John] I like it.
- [Ken] I'm just going to pick up
00:14:06
my little magic box here.
00:14:09
Ooh.
- [Edie] What have you got, Ken?
00:14:11
- [Ken] How about that?
- [Edie] Looks familiar, Ken.
00:14:15
- [Ken] Mr. Nelson,
what is it?
00:14:17
- [John] It looks unfamiliar, Ken.
I don't know what this is.
00:14:20
I don't know what a
person would use this for.
00:14:24
- [Ken] Okay. Edie?
00:14:25
- [Edie] Well, Ken, as
you know, this belongs to me.
00:14:28
- [Ken] As you know, yeah.
- [Edie] Yeah, this is my toy.
00:14:31
So this is a scriber, and this is
actually a special type of scriber.
00:14:38
It's a swivel scriber.
As you notice, parts of it swivel.
00:14:41
- [John] I can see it swivel.
00:14:42
- [Edie] There's even a little pin in here
where you can set it to not swivel.
00:14:47
- [John] Is this a line drawer,
like an analog line drawer ...
00:14:49
- [Edie] Yes.
- [John] ... and you can swap out
00:14:51
pen tips or scrape tips?
00:14:52
- [Edie] But those ...
you're right. It's scrapes.
00:14:54
We used to make maps in reverse.
- [John] I couldn't have.
00:14:56
- [Edie] So we'd have
something called scribe coat.
00:14:58
- [John] Okay.
- [Edie] You'd scrape off with this
00:15:00
exactly where you wanted
the light to come through,
00:15:04
which would be
where the ink would be.
00:15:06
- [Ken] Try and make your maps
in reverse and see how you do.
00:15:08
- [Edie] Yeah.
So this one swivels.
00:15:11
- [John] When was the
last time you used this?
00:15:13
- [Edie] In school.
- [John] 2009?
00:15:17
- [Edie] No.
- [John] 2008.
00:15:19
- [Ken] That's probably a
good point at which to stop.
00:15:22
This is the tool of the week.
- [Edie] Scriber.
00:15:26
♪ [music] ♪
00:15:32
- [Ken] On to cartofails.
That's my term.
00:15:35
I think I made it up.
I may have stolen it from somewhere.
00:15:38
But a lot of things get me
a bit angsty about maps.
00:15:42
You know, when I see things
on them, and they're like argh.
00:15:44
One of my
pet peeves is hyperbole.
00:15:49
You know, it's the exaggerated
statement on a map.
00:15:51
This map shows something
wonderful and fantastic.
00:15:56
Or even, "Here are 10 maps
that are going to change
00:15:59
the way you think about life,
the universe and everything."
00:16:02
It's just like let's keep
our maps a little bit more respectful
00:16:06
and perhaps
a little less shouty.
00:16:08
- [Edie] I don't need to know
that your map is a map.
00:16:12
And I don't need to know that
the legend on a map is a legend.
00:16:16
- [John] You don't label
your legend as such?
00:16:19
What if somebody
doesn't know?
00:16:20
- [Edie] If you make the
legend ... too much. Too much.
00:16:23
- [Ken] What about "I love maps"?
We all love maps, right?
00:16:28
Yeah, that's why
we get into cartography.
00:16:30
- [John] This is a cartofail?
- [Ken] Well, it's a cartofail for some.
00:16:32
- [Edie] I would say it's not a cartofail.
I think it's a pet peeve.
00:16:35
I hear a lot of people say,
"I've always loved maps."
00:16:39
And the thing is ...
00:16:41
- [John] This isn't a cartofail.
This is a carto good.
00:16:43
- [Edie] Here's the thing.
It is good.
00:16:44
It is good, but ...
- [John] It's a carto success.
00:16:47
- [Edie] It is. Yeah, it's
an overly obvious statement.
00:16:51
- [John] Oh, okay.
Okay, you've convinced me.
00:16:53
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [John] Not that I needed convincing.
00:16:54
- [Ken] So you no
longer love maps, right?
00:16:56
- [John] This is ...
- [Ken] This is an awkward moment.
00:16:58
- [John] I need
to go take a nap.
00:17:00
- [Ken] Well, let's finish
off with death by push pin,
00:17:02
red dot fever.
It's this tendency ...
00:17:05
- [John] Yeah, measles
maps is what they're called.
00:17:07
- [Ken] Yeah, it's this
tendency of just I've got data.
00:17:08
I've got two trillion points.
- [John] I've got chicken pox.
00:17:10
- [Ken] It's all got to go on my map.
It's all got to go.
00:17:12
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [John] Where is it all?
00:17:13
- [Ken] And that, to me, just says
that the person making the map
00:17:16
didn't think about what
they could leave off, you know.
00:17:18
- [Edie] Yeah.
- [Ken] It's just like,
00:17:19
"I've got all this data.
I'm going to ..."
00:17:21
- [John] Or they could
aggregate it in some way.
00:17:22
- [Ken] You could do a lot of stuff.
We are learning a lot of techniques
00:17:25
in the exercises on the MOOC
about how to process this data.
00:17:28
Does your map have a title
that doesn't make sense?
00:17:31
Does it have
a lot of red dots on it?
00:17:33
Does it say,
"I love maps"?
00:17:35
So with that, I'd like to
offer you both a biscuit.
00:17:38
- [Edie] Thanks, Ken.
- [John] Yeah, thank you, Ken.
00:17:40
- [Edie] Okay.
Oh, one of each, okay.
00:17:42
- [Ken] Lovely.
- [Edie] Thanks.
00:17:44
- [Ken] Cheers.
00:17:45
♪ [music] ♪
