Loading...
problem loading posts
Typographic World Map

Typographic World Map

(via hipsterlit)

fishingboatproceeds: I was kind of hoping that my fascination with cartography would end when I finished writing Paper Towns, but instead it has become worse. Part of what interests me about maps is how many choices are involved in portraying the world: You have to decide which direction (if any) will be up, how you’ll distort the world to render it in two dimensions, and you have to decide where the middle is. (Most of our maps have Alaska on one side and Russia on the other, but why?) In some ways, mapmaking is quite a bit like writing stories, I guess. Here’s a map that places Mecca at the center of the world. (Mecca is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the site of many important events in early Islamic history; Muslims turn toward Mecca when they pray, and this map was created to show you which way to turn.) You could make a similar map radiating out from Jerusalem, or New York City, or your hometown, or whatever feels like the center of the world to you. And that map would become for you the only truly accurate one. This makes me ask myself which place is at the center of my world—what’s the starting point from which the planet spins out in all directions? (I can’t answer this question for myself, at least not at the moment; I just think it’s interesting.) 

fishingboatproceeds:

I was kind of hoping that my fascination with cartography would end when I finished writing Paper Towns, but instead it has become worse. Part of what interests me about maps is how many choices are involved in portraying the world: You have to decide which direction (if any) will be up, how you’ll distort the world to render it in two dimensions, and you have to decide where the middle is. (Most of our maps have Alaska on one side and Russia on the other, but why?) In some ways, mapmaking is quite a bit like writing stories, I guess.

Here’s a map that places Mecca at the center of the world. (Mecca is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the site of many important events in early Islamic history; Muslims turn toward Mecca when they pray, and this map was created to show you which way to turn.)

You could make a similar map radiating out from Jerusalem, or New York City, or your hometown, or whatever feels like the center of the world to you. And that map would become for you the only truly accurate one. This makes me ask myself which place is at the center of my world—what’s the starting point from which the planet spins out in all directions?

(I can’t answer this question for myself, at least not at the moment; I just think it’s interesting.) 

(via fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory)

Rufus Blanchard, 1890, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 

Rufus Blanchard, 1890, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 

badesaba: world map - albiruni Al Biruni [lived between 973 CE and 1048 CE] contributed to cartography, astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine and history.  TIL there’s a fuckyeahcartography. Not to lower the tone but FUCK YEAH.

badesaba:

world map - albiruni

Al Biruni [lived between 973 CE and 1048 CE] contributed to cartography, astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine and history. 

TIL there’s a fuckyeahcartography. Not to lower the tone but FUCK YEAH.

(via fuckyeahcartography)

bitteroldpunk: A nineteenth-century result of biblical literalism: the Bible tells us the Earth is square! More info. Via MetaFilter

bitteroldpunk:

A nineteenth-century result of biblical literalism: the Bible tells us the Earth is square!

More info.

Via MetaFilter

(via fuckyeahcartography)

please

please

(via cartophile)

(via fuckyeahcartography)

Happiness, Foursquare

Happiness, Foursquare

(via asthesurfacebreaks)

(1911) — one of my favourite places in London, the best for walking by yourself and then meeting up with friends for tea at the Kensington Palace Orangery. Such delights are a once-a-year affair but entirely worth it.

(1911) — one of my favourite places in London, the best for walking by yourself and then meeting up with friends for tea at the Kensington Palace Orangery. Such delights are a once-a-year affair but entirely worth it.

(via fuckyeahcartography)

twinandtwin:Viking by James Brown at Keep Calm Gallery.

Clearly mapping the waters surrounding Britain? MUST HAVE. Within my map obsession sits an obsession with how nations organise themselves around water sources.

(via fuckyeahcartography)

1 2