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|Alberta Auringer Wood, Map Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland, |
|St. John's, Newfoundland, CANADA  A1B 3Y1.  phone: 709-737-8892;           |
|     fax: 709-737-2153;     Internet:  [log in to unmask]             |
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          BARCELONA:   ICA WEEK (ONE WOMAN'S IMPRESSIONS)
 
                     By Alberta Auringer Wood
    Map Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
 
 
     The International Cartographic Association held its 17th
International Cartographic Conference and 10th General Assembly
from September 3rd to 9th, 1995 in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.
The conference venue was the enormous Palau de Congressos and Palau
Fira of the Fira Barcelona (conference center of the Barcelona Fair
and Exhibition).  The local supporting organization was the
Institut Cartografic de Catalunya which is part of the Departament
de Politica Territorial i Obres Publiques (Department of
Territorial Policy and Public Works), along with help from the
Sociedad Espanola de Cartografia, Fotogrametria y Teledeteccion
(Spanish Society of Cartography, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing)
and various government agencies.  Cartographers began arriving as
early as Thursday night for Executive and Committee meetings that
began on Friday.  On Sunday, Sept. 3, there was the first meeting
of the General Assembly which is held every four years.  At this
session, Canada presented a bid to host the 1999 conference and
next general assembly in Ottawa.  The competition for this event
was South Africa.  The Association of Canadian Map Libraries and
Archives is one of the groups involved in supporting the Canadian
proposal, and I serve as a member of the Advisory Committee.
     The opening ceremony for the conference on Monday, Sept. 4,
was presided over with elegance by Sr. Artur Mas i Gavarro,
Regional Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Works who spoke
fluently and sequentially in four languages (English, French,
Spanish, and Catalan).  There was a welcome from the President of
the Organizing Committee, Sr. Jaume Miranda i Canals, followed by
opening addresses by Presidents of the ICA and the Spanish Society,
Dr. D. R. Fraser Taylor of Canada and Dr. Rodolfo Nunez de las
Cuevas, respectively, and greetings from other professional
organizations.  Next was a keynote address by Joel Morrison, Chief
of the Geography Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census on
"Changing Borders and Shifting Frontiers:  Cartography of the New
Millennium".  He noted that everything is being subjected to change
with industry and government undergoing downsizing, reorganizing,
and reinventing.  The University of Texas at Austin was mentioned
as an example of a forward looking institution.  The Orquestra
Nacional de Cambra d'Andorra provided the musical beginning,
interlude and farewell for this ceremony.
     Following this, the exhibits were opened.  There was a
technical exhibition with about 45 vendors of cartographic
equipment and producers of maps showing their wares.  The
international map exhibition contained nearly 2,000 maps and
atlases.  There was a special exhibit of Spanish cartography
including government and privately produced maps.  The Canadian
exhibit has also been made available in image form via a World Wide
Web site accessible at:  http://www.geocan.nrcan.gc.ca/.  A
catalogue was published  that had descriptions of displayed
materials and was given to each registrant.  A special memorial
exhibit for Eduard Imhof on the anniversary of the centenary of his
birth was organized by his wife, Viola, which contained wonderful
examples of relief shading and rock drawing.  Another memorial
exhibit was for Barbara Bartz Petchenik and featured the 120
finalists from twenty countries in the second Children's Map
Competition.  A separate report on this event has already been
done.  "Cities, From the Balloon to the Satellite" showed how
cities have changed over time since about the mid-nineteenth
century by exhibiting views from the air.  In conjunction with the
exhibit "Philately and Cartography" registrants received postcards
and a philatelic document.  It was also possible to buy special
commemorative stamps and have postcards or envelopes hand cancelled
with a special post mark.  There was a catalogue for this exhibit,
too.  Perhaps the most striking of the exhibits was one that opened
on Tuesday evening at the Salo del Tinell with the title of
"Portolans procedents de col-leccions espanyoles, Segles XV-XVII".
This contained 52 portolan charts dating from the 15th to the 17th
century, including the Juan de la Cosa map of about 1500 that shows
some of the "New World".  It was most impressive in size and
appearance.  The Catalan Atlas that belongs to the Bibliotheque
Nationale de France was exhibited in the form of nearly full size
colour slides.
     Oral presentations of 148 papers were given from Monday
afternoon through Friday afternoon.  In addition, there were about
350 poster papers displayed over the course of the week.  All, or
almost all, of these papers were published in the two volume,
nearly 3,000 page, proceedings.  The papers covered a wide variety
of topics in the over 25 sessions ranging from the technical, such
as Clifford H. Wood's paper on "Do Map Readers Really Notice and
Use Generalization?:  The Perceptual Consequences of Line
Simplification in a Task-Oriented Thematic Map Analysis Experiment"
to the personal, such as mine on "Barbara Bartz Petchenik: Her
Works, Citations to Her Works, Works About Her".  It was impossible
to get to hear them all as there were three parallel streams of
sessions each day!  The session topics were National and Regional
Databases; Remote Sensing: New Systems and Capabilities;
Theoretical Cartography; Users, Standards, Distribution; Spatial
Data Handling and Cartography - I and II; Social Importance of
Cartography; Remote Sensing Applications, Education and Training;
Maps for the Environment - I and II; Cartographic Generalization -
I and  II; Maps for the Handicapped; Multimedia and Hypermapping;
Cartographic Design with Digital Techniques; Hydrographic Mapping;
Interacting and Visualizing Spatial Data; Strategic Programmes;
Atlas - I and II; Towards Automatic Data Capture; History of
Cartography; Desktop Technologies; and Women and Cartography.  In
addition, there were a few panel sessions organized by working
groups.  The working groups and commissions also held business
meetings scattered throughout the conference.  I attended part of
the meeting for the Working Group on Gender and Cartography.  The
release of the second edition of the directory of women in the
field was announced.
     Social events abounded during the conference with a number of
receptions during the evenings and a "gala dinner" on the Thursday
night which featured performances by local entertainers and a group
of human castle builders as well as a delicious meal served
beginning about 10:30 pm and ending about midnight!  Dancing
followed that with a live band.  There were tours to interesting
sites and sights in and around Barcelona for accompanying persons
and those others who could sneak away from the sessions.  One
afternoon was primarily devoted to technical tours during which I
visited the spot within the Institut Cartografic Catalunya where
the map library will reside in about a month.  During the past two
months, the Institut has been moving into a beautiful, restored
building originally built for an exposition in 1928 or 1929.  In
addition to the spacious reader and staff area, there will be two
storage floors for the collection of  over 200,000 maps.  The
building has numerous high ceilings and marvellous stone and wood
work.
     Attendance numbered 1,327 registrants and 129 accompanying
persons with about 35% being from Spain.  There were 71 or 72
countries represented.  Among the oral presentations, speakers were
from 28 different countries, while 12 countries contributed session
chairs.  The largest number of oral papers were from the U.S. with
19, followed by the U.K. with 14, France with 12, Canada and
Switzerland with 11, Russia with ten, Spain with nine, Germany and
Japan with eight, Australia and the Netherlands with seven, and
Sweden and the China Republic with five.   Those having less than
five were Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland,
Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Slovak
Republic, South Africa, and Venezuela.
     The city of Barcelona has both spacious avenues and very, very
narrow medieval streets.  The gentle climate is indicated by the
presence of Palm trees, as well as numerous Sycamores.  There is
much grand architecture, such as the Gaudi designed La Sagrada
Familia church, the Palacio Nacional currently under repair, the
Columbus statue, the Placa d'Espanya, and the Generalitat.  Many
streets have buildings close together and close to the sidewalk.
Some of the shops have fronts that roll up and down, depending upon
whether they are open or shut.  I did not get to see anything of
the suburbs or the subway, but visited one of the train stations.
We did a lot of walking and took a couple of bus and taxi rides.
We felt relatively safe, though we, and at least one other person
we talked to, had experiences with pickpockets in which we were
squirted with something that smelled like chocolate pudding by the
thief or an accomplice without our realizing it.  The thief then
offered to help clean up the mess with packet of tissue and water
bottles in hand, and in the process lifted one's wallet either from
a pocket or briefcase, under cover of a map or vigorous cleaning!
Fortunately, each was recovered without loss of contents.  Having
a safe in the hotel room was an indication that we should have paid
more attention to immediately.
     The last day of the conference was the second session of the
General Assembly and the Closing Ceremony.  One of the highlights
of the General Assembly was elections of new officers for the next
four years with Michael Wood of Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K., becoming
the new President.  Fraser Taylor, Ottawa, Ont., Canada, will serve
as the Immediate Past President.  There were seven Vice Presidents
elected:  Judy Olson (U.S.), Regina Vasconcellos (Brazil), Tositomo
Kanakubo (Japan), Milan Konecny (Czech Republic), J. Solis
(Philippines), Jaume Miranda i Canals (Spain), and Bengt Rystedt
(Sweden).  Jean-Phillipe Grelot was re-elected as Secretary General
and Treasurer.  It was nice to see two women on the executive!   I
was also elected as an Honourary Auditor for 1995-1999 along with
Vladimir Berk of Russia.  Another significant highlight  was the
selection of Ottawa as the site of the 19th International
Cartographic Conference and 11th General Assembly of ICA in 1999.
 It was somewhat of a close vote, as there was some sympathy for
South Africa.  The Canadian effort had included much organizational
and on the spot work by Dave Carney of Natural Resources Canada,
who will be the conference director, with support from Marguerite
Trindade, Denis Beaulieu, Neil Grant, Claire Gosson, Bruce
Richards, Michelle Grenier, Larry Li, Eva Siekierska, Cliff Wood,
and others.  We had a booth that attracted a great deal of
attention because it was very impressive.  Momentos, such as t-
shirts, were given away or drawn as prizes.  A reception, hosted by
David Wright, the Canadian Ambassador to Spain, and his wife, Ilse,
was held for Canadians, voting delegates, commission chairs, and a
few others.  We are all looking forward to participating in the
rest of the preparation for this meeting!
     During the Closing Ceremony in the afternoon, certificates of
commendation were presented to several countries in four categories
based upon materials in the international exhibit.  Canada received
one of "Highly Commended" for the Historical Atlas of Canada.  A
brief  background and summary of the judges work was given by me
along with slides of the ten winners in the Petchenik Children's
Map Competition.  This information is reported separately.  The
Past President said a few words, minus his written speech, which
had been left in his hotel room, but it was suitably eloquent,
nonetheless.  The new President gave a  direct, warm, and friendly
speech to start off his four years.  Sr. Artur Mas i Gavarro again
elegantly presided in four languages.  We were entertained by a
tenor accompanied by a piano.   Representatives of Sweden, the host
country for the 18th International Cartographic Conference in 1997,
gave a presentation outlining their program and received the
official ICA flag from Sr. Jaume Miranda i Canals of Spain.  With
the musical voice of the tenor, the conference came to a close.  We
had the evening for last words with friends before the long trip
back home.