Wokabaut_Meri
somewhere along the Way
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Camino Francés 2015
Pilgrims Way 2018
Via Francigena #1 Canterbury-Dover 2018
Having been born BC (before computers and calculators) I learnt to navigate with paper maps and they are still my preference even though I am an avid user of modern technology. One of my first careers was as a Drafting Officer with the Lands Department hand painting maps of the State. My last was designing and managing websites and databases.
Recently I came across an article about Tom Harrison who makes wilderness paper maps by hand and this paragraph really resonated for me:
When we look at a paper map, Harrison told me, we see more of the surroundings and less of ourselves, whereas digital is the other way around. A digital map, downloaded onto a phone or found on an app, can be revised quickly and cheaply but eliminates the need to locate yourself in the landscape. The premise is that you are the center of everything; there is no map without you.
Isn't this a really interesting point of view - locating/losing yourself in a landscape as opposed to being central to the map. It was one thing I really missed on the Camino - a map with enough detail and distance to satisfy my curiosity in the surrounding vistas. We bought a relief map of the entire Francés in Santiago which gave our journey the deeper and added perspective described in the article.
Recently I came across an article about Tom Harrison who makes wilderness paper maps by hand and this paragraph really resonated for me:
When we look at a paper map, Harrison told me, we see more of the surroundings and less of ourselves, whereas digital is the other way around. A digital map, downloaded onto a phone or found on an app, can be revised quickly and cheaply but eliminates the need to locate yourself in the landscape. The premise is that you are the center of everything; there is no map without you.
Isn't this a really interesting point of view - locating/losing yourself in a landscape as opposed to being central to the map. It was one thing I really missed on the Camino - a map with enough detail and distance to satisfy my curiosity in the surrounding vistas. We bought a relief map of the entire Francés in Santiago which gave our journey the deeper and added perspective described in the article.