Exploring cartographic storytelling. Reflections on mapping real-life and fictional stories.
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Cartwright, W.; 2Field, K.
1RMIT UNIVERSITY Email: william.cartwright@rmit.edu.au
2ESRI Email: kfield@esri.com
Abstract
Conventionally, the map provides a graphic description of a selection of reality that shows an ‘excerpt’ (usually made by the cartographer) of reality. To work, it needs to be classified, generalised and scaled to show the relative positions of objects to one-another, and placed in an absolute pictorial ‘world’ defined by latitudes and longitudes that relate to a map projection (based on a certain mathematical description of the Earth). The resulting depiction is a compromised view of reality, but one that is accepted and used to define a mental image of a geography. But, whilst showing the correct position of geographical elements, they do not illustrate the true nature of personal experiences ‘in’ a geography – ‘personal geographies’. Maps can show ‘what is where’, or ‘where I am’, but they do not necessarily best represent personal geographies. Other ‘map-like’ or ‘map-connected artifacts (connecting to artifacts that are not maps) might be more useful mechanisms to communicate aspects of a personal geography. Our research here is focussed on seeking ways to approach ‘mapping’ that can draw upon artifacts and situate them in a place-based narrative. From a cartographic perspective, this research and development of prototypes resulted in the assembly of geo-placed information from archives, public on-line resources, official documents and literature to generate cartographic representations of a personal narrative – a true story of a personal geography - and a fictional story from literature. As, in many instances, the sparse availability of records for supporting the development of prototypes to tell: (i) a true story (the personal geography); and (ii) the geo-placed elements of a book provided interesting challenges. The records from which the personal geography was built and the book used as a mapping/narrative example sometimes lacked precise geographical information or even ignored completely certain aspects of geography. Looking at the geography in literature, from the author’s perspective, some areas of geography do not exist whatsoever in the storyline, or they may be inferred implicitly. From the cartographer’s perspective this demands a mapping which must work-around how sometimes the geography described in documentation or in the passages in a book may be vague, sparse, or even eliminated completely. For cartography, this research provides a most interesting challenge – to develop a design process whereby the nodes of information can be merged into one composite geographic narrative (three-space + time) – resulting in a representation of a geography that is true to the experience of an individual’s story or that of a fictional geography the author of a piece of fiction envisaged. These are more than likely linear narratives which maps traditionally have struggled to represent and which challenged this research to explore alternative and modified visual frameworks. The knowledge gained from developing and evaluating techniques for representation will provide a valuable insight about how to facilitate the mapping of ‘different’ geographies – those not defined by traditional geographical concepts, and thus demanding innovative mapping solutions. In this paper we report on the development of projects that use accessible, Web-delivered mapping applications to build cartographic storytelling applications, built around places, or geographical nodes around which the story may be told. It tells, from a cartographic perspective, how narratives of other geographies can be constructed through maps.
Keywords
Art; Narratives; multimedia