Mapping Emotional Cartography

Maps are somehow shy. They tend to hide their emotional side behind their clear lines, precise points, minimalistic words, numerical data and informative purpose. But when we scratch the cartographic surface, maps appear to be impregnated with all sorts of emotions. The emotions associated with the topic mapped and the ones evoked through the cartographic design. The emotions felt by the mapmaker while drawing the map and the ones felt by the map user when discovering it. The anger and sadness triggered by social injustices revealed on a map, or the simple pleasure felt while admiring a beautiful cartographic design. The emotional experiences we clearly remember and the most common ones we hardly notice or we simply forget. Beneath the surface, maps and mapping teem with emotions of all sorts. In this introduction to the special issue on Maps and Emotions, we will reveal the multiple relationships that exist between maps, mapping, and emotions

Cartography III: A post-representational perspective on cognitive cartography

In this third report, I focus on cognitive cartography in order to examine how the historical division between empiricist and critical approaches in cartography has shifted recently. I do so by building on Kitchin and Dodge’s argument (2007) that parts of the apparent disjuncture within cartography might be resolved through a greater focus on emergent approaches to mapping as a process, which is the core idea of post-representational cartography. By looking at cognitive cartography from a post-representational perspective I emphasize two major trends. On the one hand, the processual positioning of post-representational cartography simply shifts the historical line of divide, since it inherently disqualifies any cognitive studies that artificially dissociate the map from its context of use and production. On the other hand, by enabling the combination of critical positioning with empiricist practices, post-representational cartography offers opportunities to revisit in practical terms the tensions between these two approaches. It provides an original framework to envision our mental, emotional and embodied relationships with maps and with places through maps and has the potential to bring cartography into a new arena in which the empiricist / critical divide could be transcended

Foreshadowing Contemporary Digital Cartography: A Historical Review of Cinematic Maps in Films

Through an historical review of cinematic maps – or 'cinemaps' – this paper argues that contemporary digital cartography was conceptualized in films. This argument is first developed through a discussion of the emergence of animated maps in docudramas of the 1910s. These early cinemaps were followed by more sophisticated examples that foreshadowed the structure and design principles of 'modern' cartography. The cinemap that appears in the movie M (Fritz Lang, 1931) can be considered the first 'modern' map as it prefigures many of the current functions of contemporary digital cartography such as the combination image/map, use of sound, shifts in perspective and spatial analysis. The remaining functions of digital cartography, including zooming and live data rendering, were conceptualized in cinema by the 1960s, as illustrated by examples from movies such as Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove and Goldfinger. When professional cartographers were creating their first animated maps, most of the functions of contemporary digital cartography had already been implemented in cinema. Building on these results, the paper anticipates the future incursion of mapping technologies into interpersonal, confidential and private spaces through the study of contemporary cinemaps

Les salles obscures canadiennes : un éclairage géographique

Cet article propose un éclairage géographique sur la répartition des salles de cinéma au Canada, de manière à faire apparaître certains éléments structurants de leur organisation spatiale. Cet éclairage est fourni à partir de la conception d’une base de données géographiques évolutive des salles de cinéma canadiennes. Cette base de données inclut notamment les profils sociodémographiques des quartiers d’implantation de chaque cinéma, définis en fonction de leurs aires de services. L’analyse permet de mettre en évidence différentes logiques d’implantation propres aux principales chaînes de cinéma tant à l’échelle nationale qu’au niveau local. Alors que certaines chaînes se répartissent de manière relativement uniforme dans le pays, d’autres ont une approche beaucoup plus régionale, voire locale. En ce qui concerne les profils sociodémographiques des quartiers d’implantation, certaines chaînes ont tendance à privilégier leur implantation dans des quartiers à hauts revenus, alors que d’autres sont beaucoup plus présentes dans les quartiers à faibles revenus. En revanche une analyse approfondie des profils sociodémographiques ne révèle aucune disparité en termes d’accessibilité aux salles de cinéma.The goal of this paper is to provide a geographic perspective on the distribution patterns of cinemas in Canada and to focus on some of the features that underlie their spatial organization. This analysis is based on the development of a geographic and evolutionary database of Canadian cinema centres. Listed in the database are the sociodemographic profiles of the district locations of each movie theatre. These locations are defined in terms of their service areas. Analysis of the data illustrates the different spatial strategies of Canada’s largest cinema chains, both nationally and locally. While the spatial distribution of the cinemas of certain chains is relatively even across the country, it is more regional and local in others. Concerning the socioeconomic profiles of district locations, some chains tend to prefer high-income areas; others favour lower-income neighbourhoods. An in-depth analysis of sociodemographic profiles, on the other hand, does not reveal any significant difference in terms of cinema accessibility

Mapping Globalization: A Conversation between a Filmmaker and a Cartographer

This paper is an edited version of a written dialogue that took place between the fall of 2008 and the summer of 2009 between a filmmaker (Amelia Bryne) and a cartographer (Se´bastien Caquard) around the issue of representing globalization. In these conversations, we define some of the key means for representing globalization in both mapmaking and filmmaking discussing local/global, strategic/tactical, data/narrative and unique/multiple perspectives. We conclude by emphasizing the potential impact of new media in ushering in hybrid digital products that merge means of representation traditional to filmmaking and cartography

Story Maps & Co. The state of the art of online narrative cartography

This article offers a comparative analysis of six applications for mapping narratives on the Internet. Based on the life story of a Rwandan refugee, three main families of cartographic applications were identified: simple applications that allow the user to map stories in a standard format (ex: Tripline and Google Tour Builder); more sophisticated applications directly linked to the world of GIS), which allow the user to tell various stories using maps but which also use maps as tools for spatial and temporal analyses (ex.: ESRI Story Maps, MapStory); finally, applications that are more research oriented using narratives as databases whose analyses can help us better understand the places, their personal and intimate geographies, and the structures of the narratives that refer to them (ex.: Atlascine et Neatline).Cet article propose une analyse comparative de six applications dédiées à la cartographie des récits sur Internet. À travers la mise en carte du récit de vie d’un réfugié rwandais, trois grandes familles d’applications cartographiques ont été identifiées : les applications simples permettant de représenter cartographiquement des histoires de manière uniformisée (par exemple, Tripline et Google Tour Builder) ; les applications plus sophistiquées et plus directement liées au monde des SIG permettant non seulement de raconter des histoires variées à l’aide de cartes, mais aussi d’utiliser la carte comme outil d’analyse spatiotemporelle des récits (par exemple, ESRI Story Maps et MapStory) ; enfin les applications plus orientées vers la recherche qui abordent les récits comme autant de bases de données dont l’analyse peut nous aider à mieux comprendre les lieux, leurs géographies intimes et personnelles, ainsi que la structure des récits qui s’y réfèrent (par exemple, Atlascine et Neatline).Este artículo analiza y compara tres tipos de aplicaciones para representar mediante mapas temáticos relatos en internet. Cartografiando las vivencias de un refugiado ruandés, se han analizado tres tipos de aplicaciones : las simples, que cartografían narrativas de manera uniforme (como Tripline o Google Tour Builder) ; las más sofisticadas que trabajan con sistemas de información geográfica, y que permiten, además de gerorreferenciar los relatos, y utilizar el mapa como un instrumento de análisis espaciotemporal (ESRI Story Maps ; MapStory) ; y finalmente aquellas aplicaciones orientadas hacia la investigación, que gestionan estos relatos como bases de datos para analizar y comprender mejor sus estructuras, los espacios, y las geografías más emocionales y personales (como Atlascine o Neatline)

Mapping Memories of Exiles: Combining Conventional and Alternative Cartographic Approaches

Mapping memories is useful for revealing and understanding the relationships that individuals and communities have with places, but extremely challenging given the complex and fluid nature of memories. To address these challenges, we developed a series of cartographic approaches to map the memories of exiles. In the first approach, we converted ten video recordings of life story interviews into conventional cartographic representations to identify structures and potential patterns in and between these stories. In the second, we invited those who told these stories to comment and provide feedback on the maps, triggering additional memories, untold in the original life story. In the third approach, exiles worked with artists and cartographers to develop their own spatial representations of their life stories. In this chapter, we argue that this mobilization of complementary cartographic approaches is key to mapping memories in a way that both respects the complexity of personal memories of exiles and contributes to a better understanding of individual and collective geographies

Compiling a Geographic Database to Study Environmental Injustice in Montréal: Process, Results, and Lessons

Environmental injustice is a concept that emerged out of the social impacts of environmental degradation within the United States during the early 1980s. In the U.S., environmental injustice is frequently tied to race while in Canada and internationally, more attention has been paid to the correlations between income and environmental hazards. This chapter presents a pedagogical project that aimed to assess the degree and structure of environmental injustice in the city of Montréal, Canada. To reach this goal, a group of graduate students in a course entitled “GIS for Environmental Impact Assessment” (ENVS 663) at Concordia University, Montréal, gathered data on a large variety of socio-economic, health and environmental factors on the Island of Montréal and then attempted to spatially analyze whether there are local areas that suffer heightened risk for environmental injustices. Several neighbourhoods were noted as at risk in these studies, which points to a need for greater research and investigation into the levels of disparity in Montréal and the impacts that pollutants may have on the Island’s most at-risk residents. Through this process students were also exposed to the multiples problems associated with the development of a comprehensive and relevant database in order to study complex environmental issues. Students were able to overcome some of these problems and to collectively compile a database that served as a point of departure for organizing an international workshop entitled ‘Mapping’ Environmental Issues in the City: Arts and Cartography Cross-Perspectives

Penser et activer les relations entre cartes et récits

De prime abord, récit et carte semblent en opposition directe. Le récit offre un point de vue partiel et personnel, souvent chronologique et intimement associé à une trame narrative structurée autour d’évènements vécus, imaginés ou remémorés par un sujet concret engagé dans un cheminement. La carte s’ingénie à présenter de manière synthétique et abstraite des données quantifiables à partir d’un point distant, figé dans le temps, dépersonnalisé et aérien. Bref, alors que le récit serait plutôt temporel, subjectif, émotif et narratif, la carte serait quant à elle spatiale, objective et analytique