Here are four  more cartographic ballads.-------------Johnnie
 
 
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              Fri, 11 Feb 94 22:23:27 PST
              Dave Gomberg <[log in to unmask]>
              Re: Cartographic ballads
 
Another ballad nomination:  Geologic map of the Grand Canyon NP,
don't recall the publisher but the visitor's center book store carries
them at a very fair price ($8?).   Dave
 
Dave Gomberg, role model for those who don't ask much in their fantasy lives.
GOMBERG@UCSFVM           Internet node UCSFVM.UCSF.EDU     fax-> (415)731-7797
For info on West Coast Live send email to [log in to unmask]
 
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      [log in to unmask]
      Sat, 12 Feb 94 22:23:00 BST
         Cartographic ballads
 
 
Reply:  Item #2207484 from [log in to unmask]@inet#on 94/02/09 at 09:17
 
Darius Bartlett's question comparing maps and ballads is, I think, right on
 target, but it opens up several cans of worms:
 
The assumption of scientific cartography is that one can accurately and
dispassionately record the earth or any other physical thing, by using strict
classification of information, and rigorous measurement. Any document created
faithfully under these guidelines will necesarily be, as Darius says, a
"fairly dry reference document." And maps not created under this set of rules
 are by necessity suspect.
 
There are, of course, extremely detailed AND beautiful maps. Swiss mountain
cartography comes to mind, and Portolan Charts. But in these cases, one can
easily separate the beautiful elements from those in which accuracy is
embedded. It's like in old Bartholomew 1/4 and 1/2 inch series maps, where the
black information was taken directly from Ordnance Survey Maps, and the color,
 which makes the maps so beautiful, was added by Bart's.
 
The problem in comparing a beautiful ballad with a map is that one comes out
of oral, fluid tradition, and one comes out of a modern, scientific corpus.
There is an belief, I think, that if you collected all the rigorously
collected data in the world, it could be recostituted into one, more-or-less
seamless GIS. That is, a topo sheet, a plat map, a navigation chart, and an
aerial photograph all show the same coastline, and any variation is due to
 inaccuracy and the need to generalize.
 
The same is not true for traditional information. There may be commonalities
(indeed much of 19th-century folklore studies, not to mention modern mythology
are based on finding the single Hero With 1000 Faces), but one of the things
that makes traditional information different from recorded information is that
it can legitimately change from place to place and person to person. It's much
harder to tell someone singing a ballad that they're singing it wrong, unless
 they are trying to learn it from you right there and then.
 
A good example of a ballad-map might be some of the maps made for white
explorers by indigenous guides, as explored in the history of cartography
conference last year in Chicago. In general, material on "Terrae Incognitae"
was collected from traditional rather than scientific sources, and reflects
this in its variety across time (and its often wide divergence from the
 finally measured reality)
 
I was going to suggest mappaemundi as a second example of maps as ballads, but
really these are more like anthems or hymns. One might embellish them, but
there is a religiously-based set of information one must adhere to: you must
 put Jerusalem at the center, regardless of were you may be.
 
Perhaps a better analogy for modern maps is classical orchestral music, where
there is a score, and one gets pleasure not from hearing the notes, but from
hearing how they are played. The information is constant, the interpretation
 is what changes.
 
 
I have a related question: is it possible to create a map as a SUCCESSFUL,
INDEPENDENT work of fiction? This has been bothering me for some time, and I
 don't have a definitive answer.
 
 
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              Mon, 14 Feb 94 09:28:33 CST
              jim coombs <JAC324F@SMSVMA>
 
I'd like to contribute *Pictorial maps*, a book by Nigel Holmes.  Its full
of maps as art, both historical and modern.  There's even a world map where
the continents are depicted as musical instruments (p.98).
Also, have Erwin Raisz's or Richard Edes Harrison's maps been mentioned?
 
 
Jim Coombs
Map Librarian
Southwest Missouri State Univ.
 
 
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      [log in to unmask] (Jim Carter)
         Cartographic Ballad selection
      Mon, 14 Feb 1994 14:45:27 -0600 (CST)
 
 
Sorry I did not get to respond when things were hot and heavy.   The map that
came to mind immediately is the USGS 1:62,500 shaded relief quad of Ashby,
Nebraska.   This portrays the sand hills of northwest Nebraska.   Every time I
see that sheet I was to start scratching my body.   There is something about
the visual texture of that map that makes me think of irritated skin.
 
My other choice is the Thelin and Pike Shaded Relief map of the US as generated
from 1:250,000 DEMs.   The version I have mounted on my wall is the Raven Maps
edition.   I have had people touch the map to feel the texture of the 3D
surface.
 
Jim Carter, Professor
Geography / Geology Department
Illinois State University