It's common to go to Mapquest or Yahoo maps to get directions. Just think of how many people have recently received an electronic directional computer for their cars as a holiday or birthday gift! Fantasy maps came back into popularity with Tolken's Hobbit map or Captain Jack Sparrow's treasure diagram that charted how to find The Aztec Gold. Maps are everywhere. From guiding yourself around a mall to charting your life goals, you need maps! Indeed, maps have come back into popularity and into common daily life.
The idea of a map or drawing a map is a very special ability that humans have. It is called spatial reasoning. How does one develop this? Abstract thinking is involved. Very much like when a child first draws a house that shows flat two dimensional lines and later changes to show the perception of three dimensions, understanding a map has its spatial or visual requirements. It is a cognitive and abstract thought. You see flat yet think in round terms. You see shading with upside-down V-shapes and you visualize height and length in mountains. In a book talking about spatial reasoning, psychologist Rudolf Arnheim calls it Visual Thinking. Rudolf Arnheim asserted that "perceiving and thinking are indivisibly intertwined" and he argues for an "intelligence of visual perception" (Arnheim 2-3). Arnheim also gives us his definition for spatial reasoning:
Specifically, what is visual and spatial thinking and reasoning? By visual and spatial reasoning we mean the ability to:
- Make graphical and three-dimensional representations of problem situations.
- Manipulate these representations (project, rotate, reflect, and invert figures, fold and unfold three dimensional objects and surfaces, etc.).
- Reason about spatial properties and relations within these representations (identify relative positions, shapes, fill in missing information that can be logically derived) (Arnheim 2-3).
Spatial reasoning is not a common topic yet it is included in most math, science, geography and art curriculums. It's an objective that is commonly combined with some objective goal that involves working with patterns, shapes, lines, and geometric forms, algebraic or symbolic formats. The deeper that scientist and behaviorists study the brain and its functions, the more they need to confront and understand spatial relationships.
Recently, researchers in psychology, artificial intelligence, and design have begun to seriously explore the role of diagrams in representation and reasoning. The goal of research in this area is to examine whether diagrams support thinking, and if so how and under what circumstances. Methods of inquiry range from protocol analysis of people solving problems with diagrams to computational modeling of diagram based reasoning; the task domains range from mathematics and physics to design (Arnheim 2-3).
The ability to think and reason visually and spatially plays an important role in Fine Arts. For an artist, the use of spatial reasoning becomes a game as well as a challenge to create a sense of space within a 2 dimensional plane. The process of using Art's element Space to create the illusion of room or space within a painting or drawing is quite an amazing feat that also involves skills of perspective, mathematics, scale and visualization. To generate a facsimile of reality on a paper or painting, one must use spatial reasoning in order to make it convincing.
We are called on constantly throughout our intellectual life to exercise spatial and visual reasoning. As children we play with shape and color blocks and intelligence tests ask us to see spatial analogies among configurations of geometric shapes (figure A is to figure B as figure C is to?). Then there are the visual brain challenges to solve spatial configurations or the impossible spatial drawings of M.C. Escher's famous woodcuts which work only on paper and make perfect sense in that space and scale. It is the play with conventions of projecting three dimensions into the only plane that challenges our visual imagination (Schattschneider 66-71).
Middle school children are at the point of expanding his visual sense of spatial reasoning. To think of angles, transparency, parallels, and the like makes their introduction to abstract thought, geometry, algebra, and other concepts easier to grasp. That also leads to being able to display understanding of patterns, relationships and use problem solving with more of a systemic ease when needing to use measurement and formulas. So what does that have to do with making and learning about maps? Map-making is one of the oldest and least talked about skills, historically. Additionally, the beauty of mapmaking hasn't been presented as an art skill, at least to the majority of the public.
At the Yale National Institute this summer, I chose the seminar Maps and Mapmaking. It intrigued me and my sense of always seeking another connection to Art and the World. Students of middle school years have often taken geography in a repetitive manner by coloring their world maps and memorizing names of places that mean little to them. I find myself thinking about old maps that I've seen in Spain. These ancient maps were intricate, impeccably drawn, beautifully illustrated and incredibly comprehensible. What these people had to go through to create these charts I can only imagine! My recollection of paper making, creating the inks, and gold laminates with egg yolk are some of the memories of past classes in Art history that I have experienced would work into the understanding of creating these beauties. It would be interesting to see a class that would go to such lengths in middle school to make their own maps, yet it would be a way to have them realize and envision the hardships of making a map. . ..not to mention the adventures in going to sea and land in order to chart these places for the cartographer. I hope my students can learn to admire maps and get beyond the rote memorization they associate with the subject.
What types of maps could we investigate? What skills could we learn?
Cartography is the skill of map making. The knowledge of using the compass, charting, measuring and all other tools of the trade must be understood by the map-maker. My unit will provide discussion, research, writing, science, geography, history and art to surround the students with ways in which to enrich their spatial relationship skills. Another consideration for spatial knowledge would be the knowledge of the concept of "north." The concept of "true north" has many references. It is a direction to keep track of when traveling, camping, driving, hiking, or looking at the stars. It is also a reference to staying true to one's self, following your goals, staying centered:
A value-based map may provide some useful description, but the principle-centered compass provides invaluable vision and direction. An accurate map is a good management tool, but a compass set on "true north" principles is a leadership and empowerment tool. When pointing true north, the needle reflects alignment with natural laws. . . (Covey 20)
Children of middle school age are very idealistic and start thinking about what they'd like to do in life. They reject goal setting and are irreverent with regard to rules, especially when they don't see these as logical. Middle school children are very opinionated and want to grow up fast. Curiously, without knowledge of Man's own history, or know any laws of nature, these students can often sense what is a good direction for someone's life or not, but they cannot tell you how to get home or tell much about their surroundings or city they live in. It would be advantageous to expose my students to discover what types of mapping are available, and to gain the skills to read them. What would they be able to do if they had experience in making them?
Geographic space is large-scale space. Spatial reasoning is what is beyond the human body and that may be represented by many different geometries at many different scales. (Kuipers and Levitt 25-47)
I can imagine my pupils creating maps that are developed by their new found interest. From factual to fantasy and from historical to current, there is much to research and present. My students can gain appreciation for the finer skills of drawing, mapping skills, and technology. While practicing spatial reasoning activities, my students can increase their math knowledge and vocabulary as well.
Map Beginnings
Since the Iron Age, the oldest recorded maps that have been discovered demonstrate a purpose in their society. These maps were made by drawing or engraving lines into baked clay, stone or metal. Some of the earliest maps were found in Mesopotamia, in the area now known as Iraq. These maps were made in about 2400 B.C. showing property boundaries and were made for the purpose of land taxation. A Roman map dating from about 335-366 A.D. showed such topographical features as roads, cities, rivers, and mountains (Cavette). Another much earlier contender as one of the earliest maps found has been found on a wall in Ankara, Turkey, of an ancient city called Catal Hyük. This map-form is a wall painting that is approximately nine feet long depicting a town plan with a live volcano behind it. It has been determined from radiocarbon dating as early as 6,200 B.C. James Mellaart1, the archeologist who excavated and discovered the artifact, speculated thatthese local volcanic mountains were important to the inhabitants of Catal Hyük as a source of obsidian used in the making of tools, weapons, jewelry, mirrors and other objects. Further, from graphic embellishments around the mountain, Mellaart has considered that the depiction of the volcano in an active state is accurate since volcanism in this area continued for some 4,000 years later. This early version of a map may not be what we would consider in today's description of a map, but it does have the beginnings of pictograms that show symbolic use or cartouche-like markings to represent the village with the volcano in action. Descriptions in Mellaart's notes regarding this early rendering mentions that the (map-form) wall painting appears to have purpose and land mark positioning that without a written language (timed in the Neolithic era) is quite remarkable (Mellaart 17-177).
Clearly, the Catal Hyük "map" is still not the beginning of cartographic history. Investigation into the earliest beginnings of cartography will continue with a fair probability of further successes. This optimism is warranted by the fact the materials used during these periods to record such geographical spatial concepts were more durable elements such as stone, clay, metal, earthenware, etc., unlike later cartographic artifacts made of more fragile materials such as paper and wood (Henry-Davis 100).
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