Truly modelling reality…? – Let’s improve our cognitive maps with a bastard mix of algorithms to “undo” pictures, isometric mapping, highdensity diagrams and comic culture as integral sign posts for software development in cartography

Abstract

Throughout the history of man, a distinction has been made between 2d drawings and 3d models. The rift extends into art forms and software families. Prospective cartographic tools will have to provide fluent navigation between two- and three-dimensional data on top of their native software branches. The tools will have to use a bastard mix of projection forms, information displays and customization features. I suggest a revival of isometric projection to provide a bridge between maps and models, the cultivation of high-density diagrams to convey complex data and the rediscovery of the comic art to narrate complex stories in relation to the “augmented reality” cartography always has constituted.