Better Mapping
http://www.cartography.org.uk/Pages/Latest/Better.html
Go if you can - it's free! But if you missed it, a lot of what was covered has been added to the openstreetmap wiki.
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November 19, 2006
November 18, 2006
The Map Designers
Held in Glasgow this last Friday 17th November, The Map Designers onference, organised by the British Cartographic Society brought together cartographic designers, and designers from the world of media and GIS, to discuss the present and future of maps and map-making. I'd decided to go along on a bit of whim, not sure quite what to expect but imagining that if Drew Hemmett had chosen to speak it it, it was likely to be good.
Whether or not you were interested in cartography, the conference was excellent because the speakers were passionate about their subject. Each spoke clearly, every presentation was beautifully illustrated and held to what seemed to be the cartographers rule of thumb that information should aspire to engage wonder, discovery or humour and always be aesthetically pleasing.
There was a curious mix of deeply traditional artisans and cutting edge new media artist/researchers, practical and theoretical sessions but it was clear that there was respect for all approaches and recognition that we could all learn from each other.
The fact that map-making is a rich, multi-disciplinary field, with a foot in both the sciences and the arts makes it a process from which we have a lot to learn and of particular signficance in contemporary life where the boundaries between the two, most clearly illustrated by new media, are progressively blurring.
However the strongest message of the day was that; with GIS, GPS, the growing proliferation of maps in our daily lives, and the democratisation of map-making, keeping our sights on good map design is even more important now than ever before. I am sure we'll see these kinds of events happening more frequently in the future.
There's little to be found on the web about the conference so here's a summary of the programme and links to the presenter information where availabe. I'll post further resources and thoughts that came out of the conference over the coming week.
Morning presentations
Charlie Beattie, Honorary Fellow of the BCS, Formerly at Ordance Survey- Welcome
Dr Mike Wood, Senior lecturere in Mapping Science, Aberdeen University - Introduction
Alan Collinson , Geo-Innovations, BCS Design Group Co-Convener- The Principles of Map Design
David Barbour, Stirling Surveys - Maps People Can Read - designing for recreation and orienteering
Mary Spence, MBE, Global Mapping, BCS President - The Qualities of Better Mapping
Susie Jones, Royal School of Military Survey, BCS Design Group Co-Convener- GIS and Cartography
Alan Collinson - From GIS to Map Art
Hannah Clinch - Green Mapping
Chris Freemantle - GreenHouse Britain chris@freemantle.org
Matthew Chalmers - Contextualising tourist maps
Afternoon sessions
Wendy Price, Wendy Price Cartographic Services - Mapping as an Art, Tourist Maps, Inviting and Inforamtive, maps@wendymap.co.uk
Dr Max Baber, Professor of Geography, Samford University, Alabama, USA - The Significance of Map Designfor Effective Analysis and Decision-Making in Public and Private Enterprises
Drew Hemment, Director, Future Everything - Collaborative Mapping and Locative Media
November 14, 2006
Game-on!
Game-on at the Science Museum claims to "Explore the history, technology and culture of computer games".
It has a really beautifully illustrated time-line snaking along one of the walls by Jon Burgerman but I didn't notice ANYONE take any notice of it over the four hours that i was there and other than that, content is limited. Instead, what makes this exhibition so worth visiting is the more than 120 playable games, allowing you to experience first-hand the history of computer gaming from arcarde games of the mid 1960's, through console games and the opportunity to play games from the many different genres, including the multiplayer games and revolutionary interfaces such as eye-toy that are making waves today.
My first viist was badly planned, coinciding with half-term so I barely got to touch any of the games and when I made it to the beginning of a queue, the pressure of playing in front of a crowd each dying for me to lose so they could have thier turn didn't make for a comfortable experience!
By luck, a friend offered me a couple of tickets for an evening viewing and I thought I'd give it a second try. What a difference! Leisurely playing my way through this history of computer games is surely the biggest buzz I've ever experienced. I couldn't sleep for two nights afterwards and the curators had to peel us away from the games at the end of the evening. There were also a number of suprising indie games such as Rez and Chillingham - with greater focus on the audio than the visual.
I was also fascinated by the SimCity visual designer Ocean Quigley's artwork which is inspirational but reminds me that the visual designers sould but the medium seems to suck it dry.
There's been a lot of excitement about improved computer graphics leading to greater "realism". In my mind that's a dead end. Let's instead get excited about the new potential for greater expression in games.
Play.tm have written a very good, detailed article on the exhibition.
The exhibition is open until February 2007. Main website http://www.gameonweb.co.uk/
November 07, 2006
Psychonauts
I'm so happy to find another game worth loving......I know I'm probably at the back of a long cue of people raving about Psychonauts, but I was truly surprised at how quickly I became engaged not only in the game-play but also the story.
Although there's an element of violence and the suggestion of gore....so far I haven't killed ANYONE. OK, the tale is not integral to game-play and at the end of the day, it still takes on the action - puzzle - story- action format that we've seen in the action/adventure since the start but the tempo has changed so that the irritating cut scene or puzzle in the middle of exciting action is gone. Instead story, puzzle and action rapidly interchange to give the illusion of being one and the same thing. It helps that the tale is so compelling, that you're as excited to know what comes next in the narrative as you are to complete the puzzles, and get on with the next challenge - so much so that although it's not a two player game, it was really fun to share the game controls with Ron. In addition, the characters and story are so sensitive and complex that you immediately feel emotional responses to your character, his friends and enemies.
Finally - it's feel-good, affordable, downloadable and episodic. I'd recommend this game to anyone. I'm going to see how many of my non-gaming friends I can convert with this one ;-)