MORPHING MEDIA

Surprisingly enough I'm not actually an avid follower of real-time media updates, but this could all change if the information could be communicated to me in map form. Like this vimeo example of a map of Hungary that dynamically distorts whenever the name of a Hungarian city or village is mentioned on a certain website - the result is a bubbling geography of data.

CHALK IT UP TO MAPPING

I remember the good ol' blackboard as being a soothing influence on me at school - perhaps subconsciously I was thankful there was a tangible presence in the room that could be responsible for, or at least sympathetic to, my vacuous stares. Any academic failings in subjects such as algebra, english or geography (surely not!) were all absorbed by an inky infinite abyss in the same way a black-hole nebula sucks in light. Fast forward to today >> in a digital world of information over-load, and one could be forgiven for assuming that there is now no need for an oldskool blackboard. But if there is still merit in pondering what one does not know (?) (including what one does not know about the world, the globe or even nz), a blackboard conduit, i think, represents a better metaphor for our imperfections and our awe than the ugly false-omniscience of the internet or indeed the sterile blankness of a whiteboard.

DESIGNER MAPS

Every now and again I stumble across a set of maps that have a cool design aesthetic.  I like the maps, and so I decide to reward the design company who made them by saying that I like them on my blogspot - its an organic relationship in a digital world... and I like it.

ANTI ANTIPODEAN

As a New Zealander who has just been on holiday to Europe for four weeks (have I mentioned that too much lately? oh well) I'm sick and tired of being referred to as another Antipodean - lumping me in by inference with those awful Australians and scallywag South Africans. So I say to them [in my finest Clint Eastwood voice] "who you callin' an antipodean buddy?" We get into a bar fight and thus ends a standard night abroad.  On the other hand, if the fine folk near the town of Ronda in Andalusia, Spain call me an Antipodean well then I shake their hand and say "how do you do?".  Why the different treatment? Well, 'Antipodean' by definition means a person from the opposite side of the world (or more amusingly in Greek; the opposite foot) and the Andalusians are on exactly the other side of the world from me - I know this because I've used this mapping applet ...and I'll fight anyone who disagrees!

SCRATCH THAT

Such is my commitment to Choice Map Tuesday, you may not have actually noticed that I have been on holiday in Europe for the last four weeks! Oh, the sights I've seen, the beer I've drunk and the maps I've used!  But how to keep track of all this? Well, the Scratch Map is one idea that offers the satisfying ability to literally scratch off the places that you visit.  Possibly not so good for you poor saps at work, but great for me!! :)  buy it here

WITH THIS MAP, I DO THEE WED

As a guy, weddings aren´t my natural topic of interest, but last week with the eyes of the world trained firmly on the royal wedding, I couldn´t really ignore the phenomenon altogether.  So, for the more female (and camp gay) readership of Choice Map Tuesday, this week, I´d like to remind you that maps do have a big part to play in these special events. If your´re interested (probably only if you're planning your own wedding) you may want to try out illustrated maps or DIY maps as examples of the many sites/ services available online.  For the guys, perhaps you could just imagine the cool maps that the snipers and security forces used.

MAPPING IN THE CLOUDS

Sometimes it feels like being a cartographer is like playing god.  A change of the terrain colour here, an insertation of a road there - its all very much like the first few paragraphs of the bible.  But we're not truely gods however, we do have our off days - sometimes we get mappers block and cant decide on an appropriate colour scheme for a map.  Fortunately for us we can turn to cloudmade.com who offer the ability to try out a few complex colour schemes at the click of a button. [It may appear confusing at first, but all you need to do is click maps (in the upper left corner), zoom to an area of interest, then click change style (upper right) to try out some cool  palettes]

KINECT ME

So, you thought that it was really cool the way that Tom Cruise's character used hand gestures to navigate around the computer in the 2002 film Minority Report?! but ever since then you've lived in a sort of waking-dream, yearning for the day that you too could have that ability. Well my nerdy techo-dreamer, Microsoft has now released the xbox Kinect which will allow you to do just this!!  Kinect utilises LIDAR (laser) technology [that mappers already use to create contours & terrain] but it has now been developed to be able to interpret our flailing limbs into digital commands!  People, the future is finally here and its yours for just $100 (US) !!!  Have a look at how it can be used in mapping (or specifically in google maps)

PUZZLING MAPS

It feels like maps conceptualise our world so effortlessly that we seemingly lose any sense that maps do actually take time and dedication to create. Perhaps that's the way it should be, or perhaps we're missing something by only looking at the bigger picture? Does something new reveal itself when one ponders the individual components of a thing? I dont know for sure, but perhaps you can try zoning-out for awhile with these jigsaw puzzle maps created by National Geographic and see what you come up with.

MAP PRODIGY

The NAZIs' had the Hitler Youth, Nike have got their sweatshops, but it has now become clear that insidious map zealots are also using freakishly intelligent and impressionable children to spread their cartographic doctrine. As you read this, sleeper agents in every country are busy populating the earth with map obsessed offspring.  The geographic revolution is underway comrades, rise up!!!