While listening to an NPR story this evening about Rush Limbaugh’s lack of concern over the possibility of losing sponsors, I had a thought: what would a map of all stations carrying his show look like? I had AM station contours sitting around from the Red Sox Radio Rivalry map I made last summer. 526 of these contours matched stations listed on Rush Limbaugh’s site. Only 53 (of over 100) FM stations were then added to the mix; these are based on the FCC’s licensing database. To give an idea of how many people have traditional radio access to his show, I’ve mapped these stations on top of population density.

Mr. Limbaugh claims that losing 28 sponsors to him is “like losing a couple of French fries from the container when they’re handed to you at the drive-thru.” Assuming some diversity in regional advertising, this map (despite being admittedly incomplete) pretty much confirms this analogy.

In honor of NACIS 2011 in Madison: A Bogus Art Map of the Lower 48 states inspired by the style of Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright. It turns out Wright was involved in the design of a number of wallpaper patterns, as seen in Schumacher’s Taliesin Line of Decorative Fabrics and Wallpaper. Yikes.

After my post on television broadcast areas as a proxy for population density, I thought I’d have a look at cellular service area boundaries. Here, lighter areas represent more (or, really, redundant) cell coverage. This data is also courtesy of the FCC.

I expected this map to more or less mirror the television map, with added coverage along highways. It does this to a degree, but there are some unexpected patterns too. Dallas befuddles me, for example (though this is probably an odd data issue, rather than an actual lack of cell reception in the 9th largest city in the US). Something that does seem interesting to me here is the clear state and county boundaries that appear. Notice how easy it is to see the Maryland-Delaware line, as well as Minnesota-Iowa and others. So, what’s going on? Is this a tax thing? Is there some benefit to building cell towers on state lines? Or is this simply a matter of small overlaps where cell towers are built to “just reach” state lines?

I don’t rightly know. But I’ll post it up, if I find out.

Part of my stab at addressing this question will be in the form of a session on Art in Modern Cartography. Does this sound like something else you may have seen on my blog recently? If it does, there is a reason. What started as a one-off cheeky Venn diagram created in Chicago O’Hare whilst coping with extreme sleep deprivation after a red-eye returning from AAG snowballed into a somewhat lively blogospheric debate concerning the placement of “art” in cartography on the Web. This debate snowballed so much, in fact, that I decided to pull together a NACIS 2011 session.

Now, I should explain that I am well aware that the art/science debate in cartography has been going on for decades. The number of books and articles on the subject is impressive (and constantly growing). But in the literature I have seen, very little discussion has taken place regarding art in cartography on the Web. So, my hope with this session is to fill that gap and have that discussion by addressing how art plays into modern cartography both on and off the Web.

What. NACIS 2011 Session > Art in Modern Cartography.

When & Where. October 12-14, 2011 > Madison, Wisconsin

Purpose. To investigate the ways art influences, drives, inspires and facilitates various forms of modern cartographic design (on and off the Web).

Participants. I am very pleased to be able to report that I have received some interest in this session already. So far, we will hear from cartographer-artists who have specialties ranging from mental maps to digital and analog art and information design to critical cartography, &c.

Call. I would love to hear from more carto-artistic folks who might be interested in participating in this session. If this seems right up your alley, drop me a line and I will fill you in on the details. The format of the session is going to be mildly nontraditional. So, if long papers and big crowds make you wince, don’t be shy.

Contact. twallace2 [at] wisc [dotty-dot] edu.

Promotional Venn (last one, I swear).

A Bogus Art Map of the Lower 48 states inspired by the style of Jannis Kounellis.

Question: Have the roles that art and science play in the creation of cartographic products shifted in recent years and over new media types?

In many ways, this is a silly debate that is predicated on a number of problematically subjective concepts. First among these concepts is a set of perceived definitions of broad terms. “Art”, for example, is a vague word, referring to anything from evil magic (Dark Arts) and military strategy (The Art of War) to food preparation (Culinary Arts) and walking while playing a saxophone (Marching Arts). “Science” is similarly difficult to pin down, and indeed can be taken to mean the same thing as “Art”. (OED definition I1 for Art: “Skill in doing something, esp. as the result of knowledge or practice.” OED definition 2b for Science: “Trained Skill.”) When considering pursuits in “computer science” and “web cartography” with respect to “art” and “science,” the definitions blur even more. After all, web cartography cannot exist without the science behind the web, right? And what on earth does “web cartography” really mean?

To clear up my opinions on this debate, I offer the following (admittedly idiosyncratic) definitions, each defined solely in the context of the field of cartography.

Art. The human element of cartographic production. Art enables the creation of maps with a personal, emotional, unique and (to varying degrees) unpredictable lens on the world. The implementation of art in cartographic production results directly in the subjective aesthetic appeal of the resulting image—and, by extension, the viewer’s impressions of the space it depicts. While artistic application in cartographic production may rely on some level of repetition or iteration, it does not blindly rely on templates or presets. “Artistic” maps may be influenced by “fine art” (which is increasingly conflated with and/or compressed into the technology-driven field of 20th century graphic design). Examples of maps that are likely to be influenced by art include one-off manuscript maps, cognitive and mental maps, psychogeographical maps, maps of emotional landscapes, &c.

Science. The mechanical element in cartographic production. Science enables the mass production of maps in all non-handmade media. Science in cartography refers to the technology behind the pen a cartographer uses, as well as his software, hardware and all of the formulas and algorithms that reside therein. Science drives the modern notion of “push-button cartography”. Humans cannot draw or walk in a straight line; the science in cartography “fixes” this (through simplification and generalization algorithms) and gives us the impression that we can and have walked routes straight as a (carbon-fiber) arrow. Examples of maps with high potential to be influenced by science include classed choropleth maps, maps based on remotely sensed data, maps of algorithmically interpolated data, &c.

Web Cartography. Any spatial representation existing on—and intended in some way for—the Web. The largest subset of maps which this definition excludes can be found in digital archives of analog maps, as they were not originally intended for the Web. Web cartography runs the gamut from custom and canned locator maps (and bizarre combinations thereof) to mapping platforms offered up by multi-billion dollar corporations and federal agency geoportals. While the concept of web cartography is often accompanied by images of animated and interactive maps, these are but a subset of all maps served up in this medium.

Spark. This debate (at least recently and insularly) was sparked by my somewhat pessimistic view of art and science as they relate to web cartography. I illustrated this view in a series of deliberately cryptic paper-bag style Venn diagrams, which I posted yesterday. My intention when creating these images was to offer a visual editorial on the way science (or, really, digital technology) has boxed out the ability for would-be cartographers to be truly artistic in the process of map-making for the web. The first diagram showed “hacks” overlapping with “science” and left “art” next to (but not overlapping) either; thus implying that “art” is still in the room, but slightly out of reach. To give this diagram a bit of context, I created another, where I showed the location of manuscript, print and web cartography on sets of two overlapping spheres of “art” and “science”. In this series, manuscript cartography resides near the center of “art” and on the edge of “science”; print cartography includes equal parts of “art” and “science”; and web cartography resides near the heart of “science” and on the edge of “art”. To clarify this standpoint for Venn-diagram-purists, I created a third version, where a circle of “cartography” is added to the mix.

After creating these diagrams and sorting through some much-appreciated feedback, I created yet another Venn diagram (above). In this version, it is not the influence of art or science on cartography that is changing; it is the natures of art, science and cartography that change from medium to medium. I have also removed the thick lines that bounded these three concepts, hinting at the lack of concrete definitions for each.

Before you dismiss this as a cop-out, consider the following: this entire debate is predicated on the assumption that cartography (in some form and at some time) was located at the intersection of art and science. But no matter what form or in what era, this assertion is problematic because there may be no such singular place. If it does exist, what does this intersection of art and science look like? Is it a fork in the road? Is there a blinking yellow light (White 2011)? To base a debate on a place and space that may or may not exist, and that is somewhat difficult to imagine (at least for me), makes the entire debate–if you’ll pardon the euphemism—pointlessly academic.

Opinion. I suggest that if we can agree that cartography existed at an intersection of art and science at some point, it may well still be “there” (or at least in the neighborhood). What has changed are the ways in which art and science are being employed in the creation of cartographic products. Therein lies the source of my frustration. As I mentioned in a reply to Daniel Huffman’s comments on the original Venn diagrams, it is clear that “artistic decisions” can be made quite easily while creating a map for the Web. (How much should I generalize this line? What colors should I use for this polygon? What typeface should I use for these water features?) But in other forms of cartography, the actions that follow these decisions are also artistic—hand v. algorithmic generalization, personal v. “brewed” color choices, hand-lettering v. selecting a preset font. In web cartography, the process is often complete when the initial decision is made.

Not to put too fine a point on it, in closing, I offer a final comparison. Imagine for a moment the analog art of painting a line. The paint colors are determined by the ingredients the artist mixed, the width of the line is relative to the artist’s brush and the amount of pressure exerted upon it, and the route the line takes is an artistic representation of a cognized concept of “line” (which, as mentioned above, will certainly not be perfectly straight). In the digital version of this scenario, the process of drawing a line has been distilled to a set of decisions based on software presets (digital brush, stroke weight, color, transparency, &c.), all accomplished with the click of a mouse. The choices made within these presets can certainly be “artistic”, but we have to admit that some of the “art” that was fundamental in the first scenario is unattainable in the second.

If the science behind the software we use makes these artistic choices possible, is the implementation of the choices more science than art? This is a difficult question to answer, and in the end, it may not be worth answering. Because ultimately, I believe that the intersections (as well as extent and influence) between of art, science and cartography are constantly changing. Perhaps the GeoWeb and new design tools will allow web cartography to move forward in increasingly artistic and personal ways. Or perhaps, we can bring more art back into the mix by refuting black-box, whizzbang tools and returning to manual techniques. Either way, I am not claiming that the art in cartography is “dead” (I’m not that inflammatory, nor do I believe it to be true). I am simply voicing my frustration with the amount of science masquerading as art in cartography.

Call. There it is, my opinion on the state of art in web cartography. And it is only that: an opinion. So, I call on anyone who happens to read this who has an opinion on the matter to write a response. If you have a blog, post it up. Or feel free to submit a comment to this post. Either way, I would love to hear from everyone who has thoughts on this. Heck, make your own Venn diagram or some other visualization.

————

Written responses: Andy Woodruff, Daniel Huffman, Daniel Reynolds. (thanks, guys!)

Venn diagrammatic responses: Tom Auer, Rob Roth. (thanks, guys!)

Stay tuned: I have also received some interest from Zach Johnson and Rich Donohue. I will post up links to their responses as they roll in.

Further reading: Cartographic Perspectives 53, special issue on Art and Cartography.

A bit of context (some recent thoughts via Bostonography): Boston’s Sketchy Appeal, Boston’s Designed Locations

Blatant art in web cartography: Stamen, Fathom, mta.me, &c.

A day later, I’m thinking something a bit more like this (for the historical perspective):

Or…

Addendum: I have received a bit of criticism regarding the clarity of these graphs. So, I have to point out that I have created them to be intentionally cryptic, as I believe these relationships to be unknowable beyond a vague idea or notion.

Now, if I am going to be honest about my feelings (cartographers have those?) with regard to this tool, I have to say I am torn. Sure, it’s great that you can “fix” images. But, I also think we should be careful about what we are “fixing”. There is a fine (albeit blurry) line between making something look “better” and changing its meaning.

That aside, I have to admit that I have been tempted, whilst making some of my Bogus Art Maps, to use this tool. After all, it sure is faster than the clone tool.

I am sure that will end up using it in some way soon enough, but so far I haven’t caved. I may not be a luddite, but it’s possible that I tend to question the new and the fancy a bit more than your typical cartoblogger.

One easy way to raise questions about new tools is by abusing them. So, without further ado, this is what Photoshop would do to noteworthy paintings if their subject were suddenly missing. Draw whatever conclusions you’d like from these images… or let Photoshop draw them for you.