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Exam 1: Total of eleven pages.
1. The Power of Maps and GIS: 2 pages + illustrative maps
To start off the course, I provided examples of five reasons maps might be considered powerful and interesting objects:
Please select one of these reasons, and find a very good example that illustrates it - something different from the examples discussed in lecture (Introduction to Course) and in the Making Maps book (chapter 1). You can use any sources you want, make sure to properly cite the source you find. You need a good example and a good explanation of why the example illustrates whichever reason (of the five) you chose.
2. Propaganda Maps 2 pages total + illustrative map
I mentioned "propaganda" maps in a few lectures and Monmonier devotes a chapter to them. Take a look at Monmonier's chapter, ponder what I have talked about in lecture regarding the nature of maps - all the lectures up through the History of Mapping lectures - and answer the following questions. Please include at least one illustration of a map you use as an example.
In Exercise 3 you use the Delaware on-line GIS web site (DALIS) to "spy" on a Delaware County property owner. If you have not done that section of exercise three yet, do it! All of the information included at the site is, by law, public. Deb Peoples, our Science Librarian, has a succinct explanation of Ohio Public Records law. Also in Exercise 3, I ask you to reflect on the public records law and your experience with the DALIS web site.
Similar public records laws apply to political contributions in the United States. The McCain Feinegold Act (2002) requires all contributions of more than $200 to be disclosed by political candidates. This data is maintained by the Federal Elections Commission. If you want to tangibly shape public policy in the United States, you should not object to public transparency, or so the argument goes.
One source that tracks donations to campaigns is FundRace. You can search and find all sorts of interesting details using this site. Try searching the Delaware OH zip code (43015) to see who donated to the 2008 presidential campaign.
Some people think access to such information is "creepy." Just like access to property information. Other people think this is all vital to avoid corruption and the excesses of privilege.
Curiously, public access to such "personal" information is seldom controversial until it is mapped. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes a controversial. Why would a map of such data be controversial, but a list at a web site or access to the data in a courthouse not be?
Take a gander at Prop 8 Maps, a controversial web site that maps out contributors who monetarily supported the campaign for California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in California, on the Fall 2008 ballot. You can see who, where, and how much was given to the various groups supporting the same-sex marriage ban.
The contributions came from within California and around the country, despite the fact that this law only applies to California. Take a look at the Salt Lake City Utah area, for example. You have to pan and zoom in to find contributors: more show up as you zoom in.
For this question:
4) Maps & Fiction: 3 pages
The review article by Muehrcke and Muehrcke on Maps in Literature and the two fictional short stories by Munby and Borges suggest a curious map paradox:
It is possible that such "map stories" are a really important way to make sense out of maps and their power. In other words, the "power of maps" is not only about how well maps show "reality" but about something else.
For example: in the Munby ghost story we can see how the power of maps in part derives from our trust of them, our trust that they show "reality" accurately, and won't lead us astray. Thus we tend to not be very critical of maps.
In the Borges story, which is somewhat more challenging, we can see how the power of maps in part relates to their ability to simplify, generalize, and vastly reduce the complexity of reality. Too much information is a problem!
With all these deep thoughts and the Munby and Borges stories in mind, write a 3 page short story - yeah, fiction - that gets some important characteristic of the power of maps.
Potential "big" ideas for your story may come from:
Concocting a fictional story may seem a bit peculiar but I know you guys are good at creative fiction (witness your excuses for late exercises, missing class, etc.).
The key here, I think, will be picking the right idea. Can you make up a story that gets at any of the issues raised by the indigenous maps in part 1 of this exam? Imagine the reaction of a European to an Indigenous map, or visa versa? Or a story that gets at what you think may be some consequences of the public records laws and mapping in part 2? If you are a paranoid that can't find any evidence that mapping "personal" data wreaks havoc, then write a fictional story about your worst case scenario Relate this all to stuff you know. If you are a rock climber, how might maps play into that activity? If you would like to be a pilot, how might maps play into that activity? If you are into science fiction, how might maps be the focus of a scifi tale? What about fictionalized stories based on your own (or other's) experiences? A child's fantasies about maps? Birds reading maps? Map tatoos that cause trouble, maps made of scrambled eggs that change the world. Anything goes.
The style of your story can be realistic, or fantasy, science fiction, horror, or mystery, or whatever.
Just be creative and try to have more fun than stress.
Feel free to bounce ideas off of me. Good luck!
E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu
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