Abstract
Multidisciplinary research projects generate much non-physical/human geographic information. However, much of this information is collected and archived with no reference to geography. By mapping this type of information the communication of schemes and coherencies of complex data can be simplified. This can be termed “mapping informal geographies”, as the ‘geography’ of this information can be considered to be less rigorous than the ‘normal’ geography represented through maps. Products utilised to represent these geographies generally comprise maplike representations of non-geographic constructed spaces. Due to the fact that the resulting depictions lack the underpinnings of traditional geographical information they are mostly not considered to be maps in a common sense. These depictions do not represent geographies that map users are accustomed to, but these maps of other geographies are powerful tools with which to better understand the complexities of the geographies of other disciplines.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Benedikt, M., 1991, Cyberspace: First steps. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dodge, M., Kitchin, M., 2001, Mapping Cyberspace. Routledge, London.
Fabrikant, S. I., 2000, spatial metaphors for browsing large data archives. PhD Thesis, University of Colorado, Department of Geography. 138 p.
Fabrikant, S.I., Buttenfield, B.P., 2001, Formalizing semantic spaces for Information access. In: Annals of the American Geographers, 91, pp. 263–280.
Kohonen, T., 2001, Self-Organizing Maps. 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Kinberger, M., 2009, Mapping Informal Geographies In: Cartwright, W., Gartner, G. and Lehn, A. (eds), Art and Cartography, Berlin, Heidelberg. Springer Verlag.
Shiffrin, R.M., Börner, K., 2004, Introduction – Mapping knowledge domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol. 101. April 2004. The National Academy of Sciences of the USA. http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/∼katy/paper/04pnas-intro.pdf
Skupin, A., Buttenfield, B.P., 1997, Spatial Metaphors for Display of Information Spaces. Proceedings, AUTO-CARTO 13, Seattle, WA, Apr. 7–10, pp. 116–125.
Skupin, A., Fabrikant, S. I., 2003, Spatialization Methods: A Cartographic Research Agenda for Non-Geographic Information Visualization. Cartography and Geographic Information Science. 30 (2) p. 99–119
Slocum, T. A., McMaster, R. B., Kessler, F. C., Howard, H.H., 2009, Thematic Cartography and Geovisualization. Third Edition. Prentice Hall Series in Geographic Information Science. Prentice Hall.
Spence, R., 2001, Information Visualization. Addison Wesley. London.
Old, L.J., 2002, Information Cartography: Using GIS for visualizing non-spatial data. Proceedings, ESRI International Users’ Conference, San Diego, CA, July 2002. http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/proc02/pap0239/p0239.htm
Tobler, W.R., 1970, A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region. Economic Geography, 46, pp. 234 -240.
Wise, J.A., Thoma, J.J., Pennock, K., Lantrip, D., Pottier, M., Schur, A., Crow, V., 1995, Visualising the Non-Visual: Spatial Analysis and Interaction with Information from Text Documents, IEEE, Proceedings of InfoViz ’95, pp.51–58.
Acknowledgement
This research is undertaken within an interdisciplinary project called ‘The Cultural History of the Western Himalaya from the 8 th Century’ started in 2007 in Vienna. The National Research Network (NRN), founded by the Austrian Science Fund, includes cartographers, art historians, numismatists, Buddhist philosophers, and Tibetan and Sanskrit philologists. The main objectives of the NRN are to intensify research on the cultural history of the Western Himalayas as well as to develop a map-based Cultural History Information System (CHIS) for sharing the outcomes with other experts and the interested public.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kinberger, M. (2011). Spatial Metaphors for Mapping Informal Geographies. In: Kriz, K., Cartwright, W., Hurni, L. (eds) Mapping Different Geographies. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15537-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15537-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-15536-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-15537-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)