Ray Apena — R3
§ 06  · ATLAS

ATLAS

EXPERIMENTS IN
REPRESENTING SPACE

How do humans and machines turn space into representations we actually reason with?

PLATESFIELD NOTESCABINETPROJECTIONTRACESCALELAYERWARPPLATESFIELD NOTESCABINETPROJECTIONTRACESCALELAYERWARP

PROJECTS/ CURIOSITIES

  1. 001

    THE WALKING RIVER

    Tracking the movement of The Yellow River Delta, 1984–2024 (it can't seem to stay put).

    METHOD
    Temporal surface-water representation
    TYPE
    TEMPORAL THEMATIC RASTER
    OPEN PLATE
    Four epochs of surface-water occupancy, Yellow River Delta, 1984–2024
  2. 002

    DISTORT A MAP ON PURPOSE

    Finding the thin line between optimising a projection and distorting a map using key trade routes.

    METHOD
    Projection mathematics/ optimisation
    TYPE
    CUSTOM DISTORTION-OPTIMISED PROJECTION
    OPEN PLATE
  3. 003

    LONDON IS BIGGER AT MIDNIGHT

    Measuring london by travel at different times rather than raw distance.

    METHOD
    Transport/temporal geometry
    TYPE
    TIME-SPACE TRANSFORMATION
    OPEN PLATE
    Radial time-space plot of London around King's Cross St Pancras

EXPERIMENTS/ CURIOSITIES

FN 001

DISTORTION MICROSCOPE

What does each projection keep, and what does it distort?

METHOD
Local scale/area/angular factors are computed with pyproj. The visual circles are finite geodesic circles and therefore illustrative rather than infinitesimal Tissot indicatrices.
TYPE
PROJECTION DISTORTION STUDY
FN 002

LONDON WITHOUT LONDON

What remains of London when geographic position is removed and only transport connectivity survives?

METHOD
Network topology/graph layout
TYPE
TOPOLOGICAL TRANSIT MAP
FN 003

ONE RIVER, THREE GEOMETRIES

How can one image use three geometries at once and still make sense? The Yellow River case study.

METHOD
The Met describes waterways as planimetric, mountains as frontal, and architecture/walled towns as isometric. Overlays mark representative analytical zones, not semantic segmentation.
TYPE
HYBRID PICTORIAL MAP
FN 004

100 LI

What does a 100-li grid actually do to a map? (Spoiler: makes it very easy to measure distance).

METHOD
Regular lattice fitted to the image plane of the LOC rubbing; consistent with 70 × 73 = 5,110 cells. Not modern georeferencing.
TYPE
GRIDDED HISTORICAL MAP

CABINET/ CURIOSITIES

My favourite spatial objects made by others.

C001

YU JI TU

禹跡圖

MAKER / DATE
Maker unknown; original stone engraved 1136. The LOC object is a later rubbing/reproduction.
INSTITUTION
Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
WHY I LIKE IT
The grid. It is so explicit: a measuring scaffold laid straight across rivers, coastlines and text. I like the tension between that regular structure and the uneven distribution of detail. Rivers and placenames carry huge amounts of information while other terrain stays comparatively spare. Measurement is visible, and so are the mapmaker’s choices (or OCD).

SOME ANNOTATIONS

  1. 1Regular square grid as an explicit measuring scaffold.
  2. 2Yellow and Yangtze river systems receive unusually dense linear attention.
  3. 3Coastline is disciplined by the grid without becoming a modern coordinate coastline.
  4. 4Placenames and waterways carry more informational density than generalized terrain.

IN THE ATLASMeasurement, gridding, and the danger of simply equating quantification with advancement of cartography.

RELATED IN ATLAS

SOURCE
Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division ↗LOC notes 5,110 grid squares, each approximately 100 li.Original stone engraved in 1136 and now in the Forest of Stone Steles Museum in Xi’an.
CREDITS/ RIGHTS
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division digitized collections are free to use and reuse unless a Rights Advisory says otherwise. Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
C002

DA QING WAN NIAN YI TONG TIAN XIA QUAN TU

大清萬年一統天下全圖

MAKER / DATE
Huang Qianren (active 18th century); 1811 edition based on Huang’s 1767 original.
INSTITUTION
Library of Congress Geography & Map Division
WHY I LIKE IT
What always catches my eye is how visibly the map allocates attention. China dominates through scale, continuity and density of labels, while peripheral regions are compressed and broken up (completely unbiased ofc). I find that more interesting than judging it against a modern world map. Every representation buys resolution somewhere, and this one makes that decision pretty unapolagetically. Also it's lengthways which is pretty cool.

SOME ANNOTATIONS

  1. 1China occupies the principal continuous field rather than one bounded state among equal peers.
  2. 2Peripheral regions are compressed and visually discontinuous.
  3. 3Label density is itself a measure of representational attention.
  4. 4Pictorial relief coexists with the map's political/world ordering.

IN THE ATLASRepresentation as allocation of attention.

SOURCE
Library of Congress Geography & Map Division ↗Woodblock print; relief shown pictorially; hand-coloured and mounted on eight scrolls.LOC describes China as occupying the centre of the represented world.
CREDITS/ RIGHTS
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division digitized collections are free to use and reuse unless a Rights Advisory says otherwise. Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
C003

HUANG QIN TING SHU GUANGXU ER NIAN BI JIAO YUAN NIAN QIANG XIU SAO GONG PING XIAN ZHANG CHI TU

黃沁廳屬光绪二年比較元年搶修埽工平險丈尺圖

MAKER / DATE
Historical maker not established by the catalog record; 1876. Arthur W. Hummel is the collection contributor/donor (thus is not treated here as the mapmaker).
INSTITUTION
Library of Congress Geography & Map Division
WHY I LIKE IT
This is one of my favourites because the river is already a perfect geographic tool. Embankments, measured distances, terrain and water all share the same working drawing. North sits at the bottom, which is a useful reminder that technical usefulness has very little to do with looking like a modern map. It feels built to inspect, measure, repair and maintain. One must admit it probably was confusing to use at first.

SOME ANNOTATIONS

  1. 1Embankment/flood-control works are represented as operational objects rather than background detail.
  2. 2Distance labels are pasted into the map, making measurement part of management.
  3. 3North is oriented to the bottom, separating usefulness from modern north-up convention.
  4. 4River, relief and engineered control system occupy the same visual field.

IN THE ATLASMap as operational infrastructure.

RELATED IN ATLAS

SOURCE
Library of Congress Geography & Map Division ↗Pen-and-ink and watercolor manuscript map; sheet 21 × 99 cm.North is oriented to the bottom; pasted labels show distances.
CREDITS/ RIGHTS
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division digitized collections are free to use and reuse unless a Rights Advisory says otherwise. Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
C004

HARRY BECK, THE UNDERGROUND

MAKER / DATE
1933
INSTITUTION
London Transport Museum
WHY I LIKE IT
Beck’s diagram is famous for good reason. It makes London easier to navigate by giving priority to connectivity, interchange and sequence over geographic fidelity. That choice sits behind a lot of what I am doing elsewhere in Atlas: when the question changes, the useful geometry can always change with it.

RELATED IN ATLAS

CREDITS/ RIGHTS
The 1933 Beck map is not safely public-domain in the UK (please don't sue me @TfL).
C005

CARTE FIGURATIVE DES PERTES SUCCESSIVES EN HOMMES DE L'ARMÉE FRANÇAISE DANS LA CAMPAGNE DE RUSSIE 1812–13

MAKER / DATE
Charles-Joseph Minard, 1869.
INSTITUTION
Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans
WHY I LIKE IT
What I love about Minard is that every variable is forced to share one dimension. Position, direction, troop count, date and temperature remain individually readable, but the utility comes from their alignment. Geography acts more as a spine that lets the other variables explain one another. Adding more data only helps when the composition creates a new inference.

SOME ANNOTATIONS

  1. 1Band width encodes surviving troop count.
  2. 2Colour/direction distinguishes advance from retreat.
  3. 3Geographic places and rivers anchor the flow.
  4. 4Temperature series below is synchronized to retreat dates/locations.

IN THE ATLASMultivariate spatial argument.

SOURCE
Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans ↗Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans; Gallica digital ID btv1b52504201x.
CREDITS/ RIGHTS
Underlying 1869 work is public domain. The browser derivative is from the BnF/Gallica public-domain scan; retain BnF attribution and observe BnF reproduction terms where applicable.
C006

MARSHALL ISLANDS NAVIGATION CHART

MAKER / DATE
Photograph by Thomas William Smillie, 1899; photographed chart collected by H. F. Moore at Jaluit Atoll.
INSTITUTION
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
WHY I LIKE IT
This may be the object in the Cabinet that most changed what I thought a map could be. The chart is organized around swells, wave interactions and island relationships: the things a navigator needed to feel and infer while moving across the ocean. It has very little interest in resembling an overhead photograph. The useful geometry comes directly from the task. Although it's definitely the most distant from a modern map.

SOME ANNOTATIONS

  1. 1Curved members encode wave/swell relationships rather than coastlines.
  2. 2Island points are nodes inside a dynamic ocean system.
  3. 3The object privileges relations and experienced phenomena over a Cartesian overhead surface.
  4. 4Knowledge represented by the chart belongs to embodied navigation and instruction.

IN THE ATLASCartography as embodied environmental model.

SOURCE
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives ↗Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 77, Image No. 13039.Navigator’s chart E206189-0; cyanotype, 8 × 10.
CREDITS/
RIGHTS
Smithsonian Institution Archives record states “No Known Copyright Restrictions.” Smithsonian object page also states Usage Conditions Apply and asks commercial users to consult Smithsonian terms. Metadata is CC0.

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