Art in cartography means much more than designing aesthetically pleasing maps, whether on paper or digital. Exploring the interaction at large between art and cartography involves rethinking the way we approach spatial expressions and how cultural, social and political dimensions are reflected in maps. This can be clearly observed in historical maps - in between art and science - ranging from beautiful geographical representations created in the Middle Ages to convey religious messages to the creation of modern maps showing the power of modern empires and nations. This particular relationship between art and maps entails: “developing an inclusive approach of artistic mapping expressions; facilitating and encouraging interaction between cartographers who work with the Art aspects of cartography and artists who produce cartographic artifacts; and developing conceptual elements about the relationships between art and cartography.” Besides ancient paper maps, a sum of factors led digital maps and geospatial visualization, a matter of interest to artists and designers. Thanks to powerful computing systems and with the advancements reached in computer graphics or image processing, or the rise of information visualisation, new forms of representing and visualising geodata have also appeared. Creation of digital maps are still a two-way relationship since artists have explored maps as a medium for expressing their art, and cartographers have approached art to provide more than just the representation of locations and geographic features with the intention to make maps more attractive to their audiences.
Discuss about the relationship between art and cartography
Illustrate with examples the relationship between art and cartography at different historical moments
Completed (GI-N2K)