{"id":419,"date":"2021-11-04T15:48:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T15:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/?p=419"},"modified":"2021-11-05T12:15:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T12:15:46","slug":"storytelling-and-maps-by-michal-rzeszewski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/2021\/11\/04\/storytelling-and-maps-by-michal-rzeszewski\/","title":{"rendered":"Storytelling and Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Dr Micha\u0142 Rzeszewski<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

Maps have always told a story.\u00a0 This has been a case from the beginning as it is a natural tool of spatial communication. The act of map-making started as a way to depict and describe the known world, transformed into a scientific discipline of cartography and in recent years became perceived as a yet another medium in visual culture, where it can be used to gain advantage in the competitive realities of cognitive capitalism. By doing what it was been already good at \u2013 by telling stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an illustration and a small exercise, take a look at the map embedded in this page in the right panel. It is a very simple interactive map, created using data provided by the participant of a mapping workshop that I organised the first time I was visiting Maynooth University. Try to think beside the initial impression. Think why have I have chosen the colours. Who are the authors of the descriptions? Why have they chosen to share those points? Why there are only points? Do images I\u2019ve added change the impression? What is the purpose of the map? How maps like this can influence what we think about those places? In essence, try to critically read the map. There is always story behind a map.<\/p>\n

With the development of interactive web mapping frameworks, the storytelling approach to mapping was \u2018discovered\u2019. ESRI created ARCGIS Story Maps<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0that soon became a popular tool for creating engaging maps and there is also a plethora of options within other mapping ecosystem such as Mapbox storytelling template<\/a><\/strong>. Many students that I teach and that are introduced to the concept of storytelling through maps welcome this as a revelation. They feel that this frees them of the constrains of the cartographic design and principles and open endless creative possibilities. Others treat this notion as an unscientific abomination that is in direct contradiction to knowledge that they were previously given on cartography courses. Of course, as in many cases like this, the answer is complicated. Map designers must navigate between form, function, available tools, rules of the cartography and ethical responsibilities.<\/p>\n

There are many guides to be found on the web for both experts and amateurs of map-making that are focused on how to create a map that tells a story. They are all good and useful but maps are already always narratives.\u00a0 They tell a story regardless of their original purpose and intent of its creators. Even if a map is not intended as a storytelling device it becomes one as soon as it is designed.\u00a0 Take for example a classic topographical map that is a main product of every national mapping agency. It is used as a base map in many cartographic endeavours and at the first glance it is as boring as it gets. Lots of features, lots of factual information, large legends, boring symbols, bleak colours, nothing really stands out. It is just a representation of some area. It is not even a distinctive place or city. Just a random part of a cartographic grid that indiscriminately cuts the whole country into small pieces. At least this is what I thought as a geography undergraduate. But later on I discovered the wondrous world of the narratives that are hidden in the plain sight. The topographical map is a fixed window that tells a story about the past. It reveals the intent of its creators and choices that were made. What to include? What to omit? What to hide? What to exaggerate? What toponyms to use? What boundaries to highlight? And many many more. And this is just a topographical map. And \u00a0many other types of maps are even richer.\u00a0 The works of Brian Harley in the 80\u2019s and the following critical cartography movement introduced the concept of reading the maps as a work of literary text. As an object of power and knowledge that is always hiding the narrative ready to be revealed by a willing reader.<\/p>\n

Dr Micha\u0142 Rzeszewski<\/a> is an assistant professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan where he explores issues related to digital geography and geographic information systems (GIS). His interests include virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and the relationship between software, code and space.<\/em><\/p>\n

He is visting Maynooth thanks to the Bekker scholarship\u00a0received from Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Dr Micha\u0142 Rzeszewski Maps have always told a story.\u00a0 This has been a case from the beginning as it is a natural tool of spatial communication. The act of map-making started as a way to depict and describe the known world, transformed into a scientific discipline of cartography and in recent years became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"sam-single-post-1.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sam.maynoothuniversity.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}