Should this be a map or 500 maps?
In the 18th century, Spain's geographer, Tomás Lopez, tasked 500 priests with mapping the kingdom, resulting in diverse and unconventional representations. The failed project underscores the tension between standardization and creativity.
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The article discusses a story about Spain's official geographer in the 18th century, Tomás Lopez, who attempted to create an accurate map of the kingdom by delegating the task to 500 local priests. Each priest was asked to draw a map of their province, resulting in diverse and unconventional representations due to their lack of cartographic training. Despite Tomás' efforts to merge these maps, the project failed, highlighting the challenges of imposing a single protocol on individual creativity. The author reflects on the balance between standardization and expressiveness in various creative endeavors, emphasizing the trade-offs between efficiency and specificity. The narrative prompts readers to consider the implications of opting for generic solutions over tailored expressions in design and systems thinking. It encourages a critical examination of how standardized approaches may overlook the richness of individual perspectives and contexts.
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20 commentsfor what it’s worth i do agree with the one or two comments here that say that the line “modularity is inversely correlated with expressiveness” is a bit reductive. i did have a long section of caveats but removed them because i felt like they confused the matter more. ironically i’m butting up against the expressive limits of the english language, its own modular technology :p
html of course is another shared protocol that is so flexible that it does allow for immense expressiveness even while it makes certain core decisions that limit (arguably helpfully) certain forms of expression
squarespace would be the ur example to me of a frankenstein product whose exceptional modularity makes expressiveness a battle with the machine
which is all to say, i welcome more thoughts on this dynamic!
for those asking to see all 500 maps, i wish i could too! unfortunately as far as i can tell they haven’t been digitized. if you find them please (please please) let me know. happy to upload the higher res versions of the maps i do have later.
Similarly I suspect most of these different individual maps are just bad. Whimsy and idiosyncrasy are all very well in theory, but in practice they're mostly just annoying.
For any survey question, asking the participant “why did you choose that answer?” could reveal interesting information. Maybe they interpreted the question in a surprising way?
I have 7+ mapping apps that I use regularly. Usually I am using several at once and having to swap back and forth to figure out the information I need.
I really wish we had an interoperability protocol that allowed me to combine the data sets locked in each app. I would love to use only one map.
I think there is a strong argument that such a standardized protocol would allow people to currate and combine these datasets in their own way. While in one sense, it would mean there was just "one" map, but in another, there would be a plethora of maps, each tailored to an individual or purpose.
Lots of comments about literal maps and then web design. This generalization of the idea quoted above made me think of something I believe about technological convergence (putting everything into phones and tablets). We’re losing the way custom made devices for different purposes were able to optimize for one purpose. I was thinking of the alarm-clock/radio (which itself is a converged device, it loses benefits of a wind up alarm clock and the benefits of a dedicated radio) vs just using your phone as an alarm clock and music/news player. For one thing, the alarm clock has the time always visible. For another, the radio is instantly available with a single click. And that’s just one of a hundred things that have been converged into the phone (starting with the actual telephone).
I’ve been working on learning to build my own small computers. Part of it is that each one could be for a unique purpose and designed accordingly. (Circuitry, buttons, etc.) Thinking about it like thus article, one could go further and not limit each application to being “a computer” at all.
Standardization, like almost anything, has costs and benefits and tradeoffs and so on.
So when you're pushing to standardize something - consider what it is you're gaining and what it is you're losing, and decide whether that's a tradeoff you're ok with.
I would highly mitigate this statement. It’s more like some forms of expressiveness are out of scope once you settle for a set of constraints, be it through modularity requirements in precise specifications sent to people that all passed the same qualifying formation, or vague query to a set of random people who don’t held in common much more than ability to match your query with some mind representation of their own.
There is nothing that was either created by humans out of ontological constraints, even when nothing close to a mere wishlist was present. No one can instantly turns all its inconsistent dreams into shared reality just by turning its attention to whatever desire flows through their mind. And even dreams and desires and constraints by physical ability of brain mixed with psycho-social constraints.
For most people, the entire experience of using a map is constrained to this mediocre one-size-fits-all solution.
Personalisation in general is just gone too. Remember the crazy weird skins for Windows Media Player? Now you're lucky if you can pick the OS-wide highlight colour.
In the quest to build universal products, we ended up with a tech culture designed by committee. As software is eating the world, so does this culture.
A welcome change from this is OsmAnd, an insanely versatile and customizable map that can be adjusted to your exact needs.
For people with aphantasia: yes, there are actually people that can make/see pictures when eyes closed. Or even use their brain as CAD software.
As for us, sorry, can't do it.
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