On the Map: Why the World Looks the Way It Does - Simon Garfield (2012) - «Maps began as a challenge of the imagination, and they still perform that role»

Extract

[...] Despite this technical aspect, cartography is, in a given extend, linked to personal appreciation. This way, subjectivity is so innerly connected to the map drawing process that some persons, like Peter Turchi do even regard cartographers as writers (Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, 2009). If the mapped topics have broadened, it has also largely questioned the limits of true representation. It is, for example, interesting to note that when it comes to social grades rather than translating quantities or facts, the mapping process shows predictable limits. [...]

[...] But some of these maps have also helped shaping the history of the world like the Silk Roads, whose patterns have become an important piece and reference of the world history. They did not only enlarge the initial visions of the world showing some invisible realities, but they also progressively get into a deeper analysis of its inner and invisible processes. This way, maps have given us a better command of our world. Most of the time, they have also helped to have a better comprehension of its many processes just as the Mappa mundi did during the Middle Ages, creating connections, for example, between geography and politics. [...]

[...] By the way, some others would even consider geography as an Art, which is to say a deliberate action to present a given and subjective sense of reality. (Tiberghien, Gilles, « Poétique et rhétorique de la carte dans l'art contemporain », L'Espace géographique, 2010/3). This last interpretation offers to end a circle in which maps' functions have reached the complete opposite of its initial target. If maps still represent a visual observation of a most abstract or mental idea, their acceptations have enlarged so much that they even tend today to focus on this last aspect in order to offer mental organization delivery with the current success of mind-mapping. [...]

[...] On the Map: Why the World Looks the Way It Does - Simon Garfield (2012) - «Maps began as a challenge of the imagination, and they still perform that role» « That map was a marvel. ( . ) It was late '67 now, even the most detailed maps didn't reveal much anymore; reading them was like trying to read the faces of the Vietnamese, and that was like trying to read the wind », here is how Michael Herr in Dispatches published in 2009, perfectly depicts one of the most unexpected aspects above all its functional aspects, the fascination maps have long performed upon any organization-skilled try. [...]

[...] This highlights the role but also the growing power of cartographers into choosing to draw or not and deciding to show one or another aspect of this reality. At that point, maps became a tool, whose goal and achievements are untaken to interpretating questions. We've come far from the initial purpose of depicting and helping comprehend reality. Map-makers indeed mostly deal with objections, choices and oriented-work. Despite their undisputable price, maps have also gained a controversial value as a direct consequence of their acknowledged influence. Nations became aware of their use and started playing a role into commanding or define expectations. [...]