Paul Kahn
Dynamic Diagrams
What Is A Map?
"The map is not the territory."
Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, 1933
"The map is a help provided to the imagination through the eyes."
Henri Abraham Châtelain, Atlas historique, 1705)
- Visual projection
a view of the territory mixing conceptual and visual experience
example: Ptolemy map from the 15th century
- Navigation chart
- detail of coast line and depths for water travel
example: French map of European coast from the 16th century
- Grid projection
- locating points in space according to X-Y grid and actual measurements
example from 11th century Chinese cartography.
- World map
- distribution of land/ocean mass projected onto flat plane
various systems of distortion developed in the 15th-17th centuries
- Political map
- detail of political boundaries
location of cities based on size and political significance (capitals)
example: German federal states from Facts About Germany
- Town view
- view of a city or town as seen from the air
often at an angle of 45 or less so as to capture vertical architecture
example: Turgot's plan of Paris engraved by Bretez and Lucas (1734-39)
- Route map
- strip focusing on a single route through space
example: central Europe centered on Nuremberg after Etzlaub, early 16th century
- Road map
- detail of roads showing differences of road quality
location of "points of interest"
- Metaphor map
- concepts, ideas, visual metaphors in positions that appeal to our experience of geographic information
Satiric map of Europe from 1870
- Transportation system map
- detail of stations on a transportation system plus connecting routes
physical distance between stations is less important than their connection
example: London Underground map
