Am currently planning the first formal Neocartography Commission session. It is set to start directly after the Society of Cartographers conference, and will be held from 3-45pm to 7-15pm at UCL (in London) on Wednesday 5th September. The themes chosen hopefully meet the commission’s aims – with speakers asked to think broadly, and be interesting.
UPDATE: The first speaker confirmed is Gary Gale of Nokia, who will be giving the keynote entitled “History Repeats Itself And So Does The Map“. Also confirmed are Dr Ben Hennig (University of Sheffield) giving a presentation entitled “From geovisualisation to neocartography: Maps in a digital world”, and Richard Fairhurst (OSM Foundation) giving a global update on OpenStreetMap maps and data, entitled “The unstoppable advance of OpenStreetMap“. There will also be a number of ‘lightning talks’, including: Chris Watson on “Hyperreal Augmented Narratives“, and Graham Hooper with “Drawing on Psychogeography”. JUST ADDED: Prof Ifan Shepherd talks on “Maps – GIS – Experiential Engagement: a near-future timeline for Neocartography?”
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/3930371848 to book a place (Free)
Abstracts:
Gary Gale: History has a habit of repeating itself and so does the map. From primitive scratchings, through ever more sumptuous pieces of art, through to authoritative geographical representations, the map changes throughout history. Maps speak of the hopes, dreams and prejudices of their creators and audience alike, and with the advent of neogeography and neocartography, maps are again as much art as they are geographical information.
Ben Hennig: This paper examines the state of the map in the digital world and the internet age about thirty years after digital technology has entered the broader cartographic practice. The main advances in most recent mapping techniques and methods of geospatial analysis are outlined. Based on that, suggestions for new directions of cartographic research and practice are made that take the implications of digital and internet technology into account. Based on the mapping techniques developed in this thesis, some examples are given of how digital and web technology could be used to improve the domain of cartographic practice for digital map publishing.
Prof Ifan Shepherd: Maps are a cornerstone of GIS, and a great deal of their future seems bound up with this more recent technology. An emerging direction for GIS – and thus of maps – is readily apparent in the alternative reality technology of videogames. In this presentation, I will propose a framework for the integration of GIS and videogame technology which seeks to extend the analytical role of the former by embracing the experiential engagement of the latter. In making this case, I will confront the supposedly ‘problematic’ issues of realism, fun, emotion and narrative which appear to be stumbling blocks in harnessing experiential engagement to assist the interpretation of virtual geographical environments.
Graham Hooper: My interest lies in the relationship between spaces (real and/or imagined) and their inter-relationship with emotional and behavioural states. I am operating from a semi-documentary stance, aware of the heritage of the American colourists and ‘New Topographers’ of the 1960/70’s. Increasingly I am experimenting with modes of realisation that utilise mixed-media integration – images with inherent sounds and smells, or incorporating hand-drawn maps, for example. Most of my work exists in series, as sequential studies, and as such exist as typologies. I then re-present my work in its original context.
Chris Watson: The borders between the real and unreal are blurred. The faith we put into a manufactured landscapes, the trust we place in a machine for everything we do, where we go, getting up with alarm clocks, people running their lives from phones, are absorbed
by media. Augmented reality offers a further medium to enhance and exploit this fantasy and reliance on the machine of technology. I intend to show how augmented reality can integrate aspects of this media machine-fueled reality, or hyperreality as I suggest it becomes, to further enhance the world outdoors through the Creative Maps project.
