All Streets by Ben Fry. An image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, yet the topography is so clearly revealed.Cartography is one of the oldest infographic (information design) forms. It combines both art and science, and our relationship with them is twofold; both as an instrument and an image. This is why we are all fascinated by maps.
Maps employ a wealth of information portrayal strategies: selection, classification, generalisation, simplification, exaggeration and symbolisation — realising both topographic and thematic forms. Developments in technology, science and graphic design have refined the graphic codes that maps employ, and their capacity for abstraction.
Today, our digital and virtual worlds are continually changing our perceptions of the urban and global landscape. Topology rather than geography has emerged as the new measure of social proximity. As such, mapping has evolved and continues to gain ascendency as a critical mode of inquiry, exploration and creative endeavour.
As well as environments and information, the practice also maps experiences—our emotive and physiological response to space. This is an area which is growing in significance; relevant to public and private spaces that once existed, yet to exist, or imagined.
“A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colours show the realization of great dreams.”
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