Visionscarto spent the 30 days of November publishing daily map data visualisations for a variety of areas both geographically and mathematically. Here he explained why he is so fascinated by mapping algorithms:
Why am I so fascinated by the early computer mapping algorithms? Maybe another way of framing that question is to ask, what have we lost when geographic information systems (GIS) became dominant? Looking back at the research from the 1970’s and 80’s, it’s obvious that maps were not just the layering of tons of data on top of one another (if I can caricature what GIS does). Cartography was meant to be transformative, to show relations, movements, networks, structures of power. With the access we have now to fantastic new classes of algorithms, easy to plug in with data in notebooks that run instantly, there is a lot to invent, and we can iterate quickly, mix and match, try things out. We just need to do a bit of homework to learn and rediscover (and sometimes resuscitate) what the previous generation explored.
Some of the maps include guessing a map of Czechoslavakia, a bi-hexagonal projection of Earth, and oceans represented by dots. I couldn’t choose one to screenshot for this blog post so fill your boots with all 30 by visiting the Observable link.