NACIS 2018

Cartographic Pleasures
Presenter: Travis White, University of Kansas
Joy Division’s 1979 album Unknown Pleasures features one of the most recognizable data visualizations in popular culture. Designed by Peter Saville, the artwork has been subjected to countless knock-offs and derivatives. It also inspired a tutorial I wrote for my cartography students to teach them how to make “transect maps” using profile graphs of elevation data. This presentation explores the original art, the classroom exercise it inspired, the recent viral popularity of “ridgeline plots,” and my continuing attempts to map with the form without crossing that delicate line separating inspiration from mimicry.

The North American Continent: A Pictorial Map
Presenter: Anton Thomas, Anton Thomas Art
In 2014 I began drawing a pictorial map of North America by hand and, four years on, it is finally complete. With thousands of features, including 600 individualized cityscapes, it has been an odyssey beyond anything I envisioned. Inspired by the majesty of Earth’s third-largest continent, this map attempts to merge art with informative cartography. By utilizing the strengths of either discipline I hope to tell a geographic story that engages a wide audience. In this presentation we will follow up on the progress since last year, while journeying across a pictorial map of epic proportions: The North American Continent.

Hand-drawn Plausible Fictitious Maps
Presenter: David Nuttall
How my fictional map art has turned into an artistic business (Artimaps). I was trained as a cartographer by the British Government and have always worked in mapping and GIS in England and now Alabama. However, I have been hand drawing fictional maps since the age of five and in this session I will explore my fictional map drawing and how it has impacted my professional life. I will look at now my fictional cartography has progressed in detail and also variety of styles and mediums and how I became a professional artist creating real maps of fake places.

A Material World
Presenter: John Nelson, esri
The engaging aesthetic of a hand-drawn map has the tendency to stir memories of fantasy books and conjure a sense of adventure. I’ll share simple methods and resources to easily produce digital versions of these wonders in your own maps. Impossibly perfect vector paths and solid fills? Pshaw, break out the crayons! In addition to the general benefits of oh-that’s-interesting-ification, I’ll help you rationalize to your boss or customer why yellowed parchment and ink create a tangible-ish environment where your map can really communicate. Computers don’t make maps, people do!