"You can't always/just throw a map at a problem"
or the Map Mayhem
We see maps everyday, showing data at different levels, that tell stories of war, economy, bureaucracy, success, and corruption. There are maps being made for every reason but some of them lack the point, they misrepresent information, they lie, they undermine action or they fail to engage the audience.
This project is not to foster cynicism or skepticism but to encourage a healthy critical perspective on visualising information on maps. We are hoping to collect and discuss some ways to avoid maps mayhem as well.
1. Misrepresentation of data.
- CNN Map Fail - Hongkong is now in Brazil
- Wired Critique on the Bike Share map
- Map of civilians killed by Atlantic from the Wikileaks Warlogs
- The Guardian - Schools and Poverty Map
- Using maps when it's not required
- Fox News fails - ShibuyaEggMan
- Meteorite Map - Every Meteorite Fall on Earth
- SatNav accident
1.1 Trap Streets
2. Political Strategy
- Weapon of Mass Destruction in Al Asad Airfield, Iraq
- Finding Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora mountains
- J&K regional map is a mess
- Official Indian Map
- Two maps of the Kashmir conflict, whole story
- Postage Stamp of Pakistan, 1960
- A map for a map. Multiple legends, different layers
- This collection of 141 maps of US is overwhelming.
- Washington State University Parking Map
4. Self Promotion.
- This article in Wired talks about Map Kibera, but stresses on the point that the map was made a company called Spatial Collective. On the ground, it was not Spatial Collective but Map Kibera's volunteers making the map.
5. Mathematical challenges.
- Then you can consider the map of the world is a huge misrepresentation. True Size of Africa
- Your brain on maps
- Clip from the TV show The West Wing about Peters Projection
- Problems with rendering
- The Amazing iOS maps
6. The GPS is vulnerable.
- Civilian GPS doesn't have end to end encryption and no quality assurance. And like Todd Humphreys points out.
- These scientists took control of a ship
- Iran brought down a US drone in 2011
7. Maps are great, but what’s next?
- Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographic Information Systems
- How to Lie with Maps
- When Maps Shouldn’t be Maps
- Political Maps
- Latitude - French for attitude