The Poetics & Politics of Picturing the World
May 18, 2013 3:11 PM Subscribe
Also, the atlas book covers are as cool and fascinating as the maps inside!
posted by gwint at 3:26 PM on May 18, 2013
posted by gwint at 3:26 PM on May 18, 2013
I would like to kiss the person/people who digitized these.
posted by desjardins at 3:27 PM on May 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by desjardins at 3:27 PM on May 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
Indeed.
Notable that the upside-down map is produced by an Australian/New Zealand company ;)
posted by Jimbob at 3:27 PM on May 18, 2013
Notable that the upside-down map is produced by an Australian/New Zealand company ;)
posted by Jimbob at 3:27 PM on May 18, 2013
Cue clip of the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality.
posted by ceribus peribus at 3:37 PM on May 18, 2013
posted by ceribus peribus at 3:37 PM on May 18, 2013
Just browsing these maps for a few minutes, I stumbled upon a 1645 map (Blaeu 1645 I) with a curious name that may be interesting to any fellow Chicagoans. "Chilaga."
As a big local history buff, this is so amazing to find. Thank you for posting this!
posted by deathpanels at 3:43 PM on May 18, 2013
As a big local history buff, this is so amazing to find. Thank you for posting this!
posted by deathpanels at 3:43 PM on May 18, 2013
I need some alone time. With this website. And some alcohol. And some jazz. You know, to set the mood.
posted by clockbound at 4:27 PM on May 18, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by clockbound at 4:27 PM on May 18, 2013 [3 favorites]
Utterly amazing collection.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 12:09 AM on May 19, 2013
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 12:09 AM on May 19, 2013
As with others here, I think, this site is like crack cocaine to me. Thanks so much for posting this!
And I'll take the opportunity to mention Judith Schalansky's exquisite Atlas of Remote Islands (subtitled "Fifty Islands I have not visited and never will"), which I learned of from a short comment here by ITravelMontana last July. So far no one I've showed it to quite understands my love for the book. But I don't think any of them spent many, many hours of their childhoods pouring over maps, either.
Schalansky's book is wonderful because it nicely exemplifies how this kind of love of maps and atlases is all about a weird mix of inquisitiveness and imagination. Maps provide a outline to the unknown, revealing just enough to build imagination upon without spoiling the mystery.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:28 AM on May 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
And I'll take the opportunity to mention Judith Schalansky's exquisite Atlas of Remote Islands (subtitled "Fifty Islands I have not visited and never will"), which I learned of from a short comment here by ITravelMontana last July. So far no one I've showed it to quite understands my love for the book. But I don't think any of them spent many, many hours of their childhoods pouring over maps, either.
Schalansky's book is wonderful because it nicely exemplifies how this kind of love of maps and atlases is all about a weird mix of inquisitiveness and imagination. Maps provide a outline to the unknown, revealing just enough to build imagination upon without spoiling the mystery.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:28 AM on May 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
Ran across this interview at Books & Ideas that seemed germane.
Interviewer: You coined the expression “battle of the maps” (la bataille des cartes), by which you suggest that depiction of the other, as of oneself, can be a source of conflict as well as cooperation. How much have representations of the world changed since the end of the Cold War? Today, who wields enough authority, legitimacy and power to impose such a representation or discourse? In other words, who today possesses the key to the new collective geography?posted by spamandkimchi at 6:48 PM on May 19, 2013
Michel Foucher: ...globalization plunges us into representation games that we have no control over. The collective geography operates with no control tower.
Not sure if this has already been FPP-ed, but came across The History of Cartography; Volumes I, II (& III I think) can be downloaded for free from University of Chicago Press.
posted by spamandkimchi at 7:52 AM on June 3, 2013
posted by spamandkimchi at 7:52 AM on June 3, 2013
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posted by gwint at 3:23 PM on May 18, 2013 [1 favorite]