Location based services & telecartography : proceedings of the symposium 2004

Map-making has been respected for centuries, and especially since the development of printing, for the skills of creating real paper maps.Today, however, with computers and GIS, cartography may have lost some status.Through a review of the history and nature of the subject this paper proposes that cartography is basically an internal, virtual process directed, primarily, at spatial problemsolving.As such it has an essential if informal aspect which everyone employs from day to day.In recent centuries, however, formal externalised cartography has grown through printing and now, computer assistance.With the latter the name may have been partially displaced by the technology behind it (notably GIS) but in truth the subject retains its fundamental identity and has continued to progress and mature with the aid of new technologies.The most recent -LBS and telecartography -are now contributing to the less formal branch of mapping, where cartography not only supports scientific investigation but also some of our daily spatial tasks.4. The traditional (technical) cartographer was, therefore only involved if the scenario required professionally designed and printed products.5.The process of 'using maps' has limited potential whereas 'using cartography' is a holistic procedure.It is a combination of map creation, manipulation through analysis, and spatial exploration of either visible maps or virtual databases.Much recent research into how people interact with their environments has been effectively based on the cognitive science approach of modelling the person as an individual with 'an interior intelligence, the conscious mind, enclosed by a physical container, the body' (Ingold 2000).But of equal interest are some anthropological approaches in which the individual is recognised as 'a centre of agency and awareness in the process of active engagement with an environment' (Ingold 2000).The latter was addressed by the author when investigating the significance of emotion and feelings (the 'somatic marker' -Damasio 1994) in the process of judging the effectiveness of map design (Wood 1996).Both approaches were considered in this essay. Fundamentals: the internal basis of cartographyAlthough this section offers some general themes and hypotheses, source material is quite sparse and some contrasting theories exist.Survival, one of the most basic of human instincts, is achieved from sustenance and safety, which in turn depend on human ingenuity and spatial awareness -knowledge and understanding of the spatial structure of the environment.This ability may extend far back into prehistory as our hominid ancestors are believed to have "achieved operational intelligence by 300 000 BP" or even before (Wynn, 1989).However the nature of human spatial knowledge and how it is acquired and stored for later use are far from clear and vary in character from person to person.The term commonly used for the spatial memory-store is the 'cognitive map' but its form and content may also vary.Anthropologists observe that our prehistoric ancestors, unexposed to the conventional maps of today, acquired most of their spatial knowledge by wayfinding, and stored it as personal histories of their journeys (Ingold, 2000).For Ingold this is a 'complex-process metaphor' with little or no explicit spatial structure, in contrast with the 'complex-structure metaphor', which would be required for a graphic map-like memory (Kosslyn, 1980).It could also be described as a 'cognitive collage', 'an ad-hoc collection of information from different sources' (Tverksy 1993).But if people also had the basic cognitive mapping abilities of rats, they could build up 'something like a field map of the environment' to help orientate and direct their movement (Tolman et al, 1946).'Mapping', fundamental to movement through space and to the acquisition and storage of environmental knowledge, may also be intuitive and has been defined variously as how "humans make and deploy mental maps" (Wood, 1992), the actual process of "getting around" (Wood, 1993) or "a kind of retrospective storytelling" (Ingold, 2000).The richness of detail that can emerge from the latter is immense, with reported descriptions by indigenous travellers (e.g. from Inuit communities) taking hours in the telling and frequently involving externalisations such as gesture-based performance 'maps' or sketch-like inscriptions.The latter may be incidental to the main account as when the story-teller lays out objects (such as branches or stones) to represent specific features of his journey, or when he creates linear sketches in sand, dust or snow, or even in the air, marked out by a finger.These temporary artefacts enhance verbal explanation by reducing the need for repetition of the layout of a place.Such externalisations are also used where spatial knowledge of specific locational features may be more complex and must be shared as part of interpersonal dialogue.However this form of incidental map-making should not be confused with attempts to create archival material for later reference.Considering the likely frequency of such verbal/gestural reports past and present, Wood observes that "most maps for most of the time have probably been ephemeral..... or, if committed to a more permanent medium, immediately crunched up and thrown away" (Wood, 1993).

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