Análisis de Proveedores

There is a consent in Cartography that aside from technological and scientific approaches, the artistic approach has always played an important role as well (Cartwright, 2009; MacEachran, 1995). However, with the emerging of digital technologies and a resulting shift into the direction of scientific visualization, the aspect of art has been neglected in favor of technology (Cartwright et al., 2009). According to Field (2009), “a good map is a product of design and a pleasing map takes on an aesthetic appearance”. He argues that this originates from the experience people have with historic maps which were actually crafted by hand.

2.4. CARTOGRAPHY AND ART 15 Today, the use of maps has become ubiquitous and with it map art as a part of graphic media. As maps are a prominent part of the daily life, they are for example extensively featured in news- papers as a medium for information. The flood of maps has introduced many aspects that are not originally connected with the making of maps and many map artists have been influenced by different kinds of geographic data visualizations. As a result, various artists have engaged the map as an expressive medium. Thus map art was established that has itself detached from an university-educated elite of cartographers (Wood, 2006). Furthermore, maps have made their way into contemporary art as an evidence for investigations that are communicated from the artist to the user. This is influenced by a crossover in mapping techniques that is greater today than it was ever before (Watson, 2009). Therefore Cartwright (2009) addresses that Cartography is different from other scientific disciplines as it can create products with “an art a technology or a science ’flavor’”. How to make art as relevant as the other fields is considered important to be brought up in the discussion about the direction of Cartography. The dualism of scientific and artistic aspects of Cartography has been discussed and summarized by Krygier (2000). He demands a critical view on the automation of map design as well as as on the subjective view on Cartography as a craft which neglects the importance of methodologies that allows to create accurate and objec- tive maps. This requires a reconsideration that is demanded to be accounted for by cartographers today.

The process of map design needs to be reconsidered in terms of aesthetics and visual expression which is strongly interlinked with artistic aspects. Aesthetics have been ignored due to their minor role in the process of cartographic design and its existence independent from geographic informa- tion. Decreasing cartographic standards as a result of the reduction to the output of a Geographic Information System (GIS) have been subject to many complaints (Kent, 2005). Nevertheless, “the art of Cartography is in the doing” (Field/Demaj, 2012), in the process of creating a map for some- one. Therefore, what is really missing is the awareness for the human activity of design that is involved in map making. This is something that technology is not able to solve in the same way as a human being. Unveiling the purpose of a map product is communicated though the art of applying all elements of map design in a meaningful way. This can be summarized as map design being therefore the central aspect of cartography, comprising all scientific, technological and artis- tic aspects. Finally, this is embraced by the definition the International Cartographic Association has devised for Cartography. It is specified as “the discipline dealing with the art, science and technology of making and using maps”1.

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Figure 2.4: Artistic map abstraction and stylization by Isenberg (2013)

An example of a map design process that focuses on map abstraction with applied aesthetics is given by Isenberg (2013) who describes a process of artistic map alteration. It is supposed to be an experimental play involving map abstraction and no precise cartographic depiction. However, it can be seen as a symbiosis of a technical and an artistic claim. Scientific techniques of data generalization need to be combined with illustrative techniques of NPR to achieve a result that can be considered as appealing in terms of aesthetics and art. A watercolor-like styling was chosen based on a substrate-simulation technique. Figure 2.4 shows an example of geodata that was rendered using this approach.

Art in cartographic representations has always be evaluated in the context of the map. Sometimes it can support conveying a message from the map maker or map artist. However, sometimes the correct depiction of geodata is the main concern of a map and too much artistic styling can make it hard for the map user to focus on the actual content. Furthermore, abstraction always introduces an amount of uncertainty which might be desired but this effect needs to be considered seriously against the loss of information. With artistic abstraction being one of the aims of non- photorealistic rendering the application of art in Cartography can most certainly be considered as a rendering technique but Cartography by nature always includes abstraction that depicts the world as a non-photorealistic image.