xkcd: Bad Map Projection
Kertis Henderson
Surveyor
There's a webcomic, xkcd, that sometimes has comics about maps. I enjoy these a lot. The latest one is a crazy projection with the US state of Kansas as the outer edge of the map.
Have any of you experimented with projections in unusual ways? For example, the maps I saw in primary school use Mercator projections that made Greenland look much larger than it really is. It gave me a skewed idea of what the world looked like. Has anyone used this kind of effect in a map or game? I think it could be fun.
Arriving at a new kingdom, the travelers step onto the small island. "This island is tiny! Let me see that map again..."
Comments
It could possibly be fun in a game, but I am struggling how it can be accomplished without feeling forced/artificial. After all, people use map projections to best represent the area they want to map, the artifacts (like Greenland in Mercator) happen outside the "main purpose" of the map.
One could argue some deliberate effort to throw people off, but that requires that all the maps even remotely concerned with the area in question are all controlled/moderated by a single coherent entity.
"... a single coherent entity"
like Ralf? I am starting to see the truth here. :)
This might be an idea for a live mapping session: one or more different projections. FT imports, etc. Has this been done?