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curating the terrain

a shaded relief narrative

Travis White, University of Kansas
Aaron Taveras, Map Design Studio
NACIS 2014

The authors have been invited to develop an exhibit on cartographic terrain representation for the University of Kansas Art & Design Gallery in the fall of 2014. Our goals for this exhibit are twofold: first, we wish to engage our audience in the processes used to transform “real” physical environments into cartographic depictions of those environments; second, we wish to challenge conventional notions about how the physical environment “should” appear on maps by comparing a variety of quantitative and artistic techniques for displaying topographic features. This talk follows the development of this exhibit from conception to actualization, drawing upon our own work and our key inspirations.

See presentation.


Abstract

If you enjoy maps then come visit The Art and Design Gallery at the University of Kansas from January 20th — February 2nd. The exhibit will be showing a selection of maps and terrain models that are intended to help attendees better understand terrain representation, given that it is often a crucial component of so many maps (including most online map services), and is one of the most attractive and useful cartographic tools.

The exhibit will visually take visitors through a brief history of manual relief presentation using a series of maps and a floor display of the famous Atlas of Switzerland from 1965. It will then fast forward to the present to show well crafted, digitally produced shaded relief maps accompanied by a seven map series showing one digital shaded relief production process. In addition, there will be a stereoscope set up to allow visitors to view stereo images of various places in 3D. On the other side of the gallery there will be a multitude of small prints to explain how various effects interact to create different 2D shaded relief perspectives. Lastly, an interactive floor display of foam relief models will help illustrate how lighting alters the look of relief.

This exhibit is intended to be educational and promotional of interdisciplinary interaction, as maps are an ideal blending of art, design, culture, and science.

Purpose

With the popularity of mobile and web map applications cartography is now more pervasive in our lives than it has ever been before, but with this technology the look of maps has changed to best serve a more ubiquitous and convenience-based purpose. It is now common to only imagine a map as a zoom-able, interactive, and reference heavy product that makes going from A to B easier, or as a tool that helps us locate a restaurant while on vacation. Although these maps are tremendously useful and are often well designed, they occupy only one area of mapping. The reality is that cartography is very broad, rich with ideas, and full of powerful and diverse designs and artistry. The overall objective in creating this exhibition is to show people not what maps are, but what maps can be. This is important for not just promoting the cartographic field, but for expanding public knowledge of how maps work and their inherent role in helping people to explore and explain the world.

Similar to those who may read National Geographic to travel the world from an armchair, maps are also a great way to explore different places and landscapes. One of the most helpful and dramatic ways that cartographers express the look of physical landscapes is using shaded relief, or illumination and shadow to capture the shape of a place, or maybe a representation of shape and elevation, which often breaths life and depth into a map. This is why shaded relief has long been one of cartography’s most indispensible and recognizable tools, and is the topic of this gallery exhibition.

Narrative

Shaded relief is not as straightforward as it sometimes looks. It is not just hills, valleys, and mountains as seem from an airplane, but is a complex process that involves the remote sensing of the Earth’s surface, various analytical calculations and models, and an artistic hand to create an attractive and understandable abstraction of some place. Not forgetting to also mention that the effects used to build the relief often create a mostly false representation of reality, which is something people have generally learned to accept or are unaware of. All of the science, art, and intentional falsity involved in shaded relief join to tell a unique story of shadow, light, color, texture, shape, and conception of place. This is a story that this exhibit intends to explain by visually taking visitors through the creative process and history of shaded relief, and spitting them out on the other side with a better understanding of terrain representation.