Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

This paper argues, following Friedrich Nietzsche, that recent evaluations of Google Earth uncritically privilege the product’s Apollonian determinations at the expense of its Dionysian uncertainties. Specifically, when we understand Google Earth as a virtual globe composed of surveyed panoramas, sober rationalization, dystopic control, and transparent order – or, even, as a tool for participation and empowerment – we undersell its capacities as an alluring digital peep-box, an uncertain orb spangled with vertiginous paranoia, frenzied navigation, jubilatory dissolution, and intoxicating giddiness. We argue that the former interpretations not only risk foreclosing our theorizations about how Google Earth is actually used in various ways and different contexts, they also reproduce a one-dimensional and conservative reading of technology that can be traced back (at least) to the writings of Theodor Adorno. By drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin (Adorno’s critic and pen pal for more than a decade) we aim to ‘go beyond Apollo and Adorno’ by illustrating the extent to which Apollonian order and Dionysian love makes Google Earth go round. To do this, we examine Google Earth as a “digital peep-box” with an online collective that revels in its “Spot the Black Helicopter” competitions; illuminated profanities; alien and giant insect invaders; naked sunbathers; and crashed transport planes in Darfur.     

现代地图学的最新进展与新世纪的展望

本文第一部分国际地图学的最新进展,阐述了专题制图进一步拓宽领域并向纵深发展;计算机制图已广泛应用于各类地图生产,多媒体电子地图集与互联网地图集迅速推广;地图学-遥感-地理信息系统相结合已形成一体化的研究技术体系;计算机制图-电子出版生产一体化,从根本上改变了地图设计与生产的传统工艺;地图学新概念与新理论的不断探索。第二部分分析了中国地图学与地图事业近30年的发展与成就,论述了测绘部门完成了全国大比例尺地形图的测制,完成1:100万与1:25万数字地形图制作.在完成一大批专题地图的同时,广泛开展区域与部门的综合制图,编制出版了一大批不同类型的高水平综合地图集;遥感制图、计算机制图与地理信息系统已达到世界先进水平。第三部分是对中国地图学新世纪的展望:①抓住数字地球的机遇,创建地学信息图谱;②专题与综合制图进一步向纵深发展;③地图学、遥感制图与地理信息系统一体化,形成完整的研究技术体系与生产体系,发展地球信息科学;④为适应市场经济与社会发展的需要,应进一步扩大地图应用领域与范围,增加地图新品种;⑤加强地图学、遥感制图与地理信息系统基础理论及其应用原理与方法的研究。     

THE DATA,THE READER,AND THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER—A PARABLE FOR MAP USERS*

In 1977, I published a set of coarse-resolution dot maps that showed the general distributions of soil orders in the 48 states. Through a sequence of copies made by various people, one of those maps eventually appeared in a planning document as a shaded-area map with the title “Principal Peatlands of the United States.” Along the way a saline desert muck of conjectural extent and location was “transformed” into a documented energy resource for the nation. The history of this map offers a clear lesson for mapmakers: we have a three-fold duty, to the data, to the map reader, and to any third party who might be affected by a foreseeable misinterpretation of our maps.     

Design and Usability of an Enhanced Geographic Information System for Exploration of Multivariate Health Statistics*

The multidimensional nature of many types of data in modern geography calls for creative and innovative approaches to their analysis. Statisticians have recently developed methods for exploring and visualizing large, multivariate datasets, but cartographers and geographers in general have only recently begun to integrate these methods for use with spatial and spatiotemporal datasets that are multivariate in character. This article will present an example of such an integration—an environment for visualization of health statistics—as a case study to demonstrate the philosophical and practical advantages of geovisualization systems for the exploration of complex spatiotemporal information. Emphasis is placed on the encouragement of creative thinking about geographic phenomena through the use of such data‐rich graphical tools.     

数字地图生产中一些亟需补充和研究的问题

基于目前计算机地图制作与出版的主要生产模式，文中深入分析了当前地图生产过程中存在的问题，提出了应亟需补充和研究解决的内容，并着重讨论了计算机平台地图印前质量控制的新要求和发展方向。     

中国小比例尺卫星影象地图的设计与制作

利用数字化的NOAA AVHRR数据进行小比例尺、准同步宏观制图是一种低成本和快速的制图方法。笔者应用本文方法制作了第一幅小比例尺的、完整的中国假彩色卫星影象地图。它包含了全部的南中国海,这是使用其他的遥感数据(如陆地卫星或SPOT卫星)难以做到的。该图采用了热红外、近红外和可见光的红波段所构成的假彩色合成方案,提供了丰富的色彩和影象信息。本图制作时实施的数据处理内容包括:地图投影变换、影象反差增强和锐化、彩色平衡调整、去云处理和海陆分离处理、利用植被指数原理的影象时相修正和数字镶嵌操作等。根据影象地图的载负量和视觉效果,图上精心选取并设计了地理要素、地图符号和注记。该图是应用遥感新技术开发的地图新产品,被十七届国际摄影测量与遥感会议选为展示成果,并被该会评为获奖成果。     

迈进21世纪的中国地图学

本文较系统地概述了国际上近3O年来地图学的进展,同时,重点介绍了我国地图学的成就和发展以及21世纪地图学的展望.     

Toward green cartography & visualization: a semantically-enriched method of generating energy-aware color schemes for digital maps

ABSTRACT

We introduce a semantically-enriched method of generating color schemes for various types of digital maps that reduces the energy consumption of the display device while preserving the quality of the original design. Energy-aware design intersects two important trends in cartography. First, as more maps are viewed today on mobile, battery life has become a central constraint influencing design. Second, there is increasing need for green computing, which encourages the efficient use of energy to limit environmental impacts. This paper focuses on one important aspect of energy-aware cartography: color design. Existing research on energy-aware color adjustment methods apply broadly to images or websites. However, the colors used in maps have more structured semantic relationships than most documents viewed on mobile devices, and efforts to account for these relationships while reducing energy consumption are limited. To fill this gap, we mathematically formalize energy-aware map-color adjustment as a constrained optimization problem: we define energy consumption as the objective function and model the preservation of semantic relationships as the search constraints. We evaluate our proposed method against a common color dimming method using four maps with different semantic relationships. The evaluation suggests that our proposed method better preserves the original color semantics.     

日本国应用GPS、GIS和地图制图技术状况

本文介绍了日本国应用GPS、GIS和制图技术为防灾，城市建设、交通、教育等领域服务的应用动向，分析了我们在这个领域的差距。     

Mapping ethnic diversity in highland Northern Vietnam

In this paper we initially present a critical review of a range of ethnological maps produced over the last 130 years for highland northern Vietnam. In particular we illustrate the many difficulties faced when trying to represent mosaics of ethnic highland minority groups on two dimensional maps. Such historical maps included no attempts to bring topographic details into the picture, an idea that would have been virtually impossible anyway, given the cartographic technologies at the time. Yet by not including such details or not representing them clearly, a partial image of these populations has been created that, over time, has become a standardised representation. Therefore, as a more systematic approach to the analysis of these highland minority groups, we present recent attempts to create more functional maps and models for the northern Vietnam province of Lao Cai, using modern cartographic techniques and geographic information systems. Utilising tools such as digital cartography and digital elevation models a wealth of information can be gained which has the potential, amongst other possible uses, to allow for a greater understanding and sensitivity regarding ethnic minority groups in Northern Vietnam, and their use of the local environment. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.