12/23/2023 0 Comments Cartographica copy between maps![]() “I’m not sure why that is,” Mode says, clearly bemused.Īnd surely, whether superhero smart or evil, a bland beige octopus is conceptually wrong.This final chapter discusses a number of cartographic innovations from the middle of the twentieth century onwards that exploited the ability of photographs to capture data - from developments in aerial photogrammetry, through multispectral satellite mapping and surveillance imagery, to the digital map platforms of today. Persuasive cartographers have painted Russian CLOs red when it was the Soviet Union and, Mode says, a 2008 map drew Russian President Vladimir Putin as a CLO, a beige one. “It would have been in Japan’s interest to promote some wedge between Russia and other European nations,” says Matsumura.ĭepicting Russia as a CLO did not stop with this map. Russia, France, and Germany had already ganged up against Japan when it sought-like the imperialist West-to claim Chinese territory, Janice Matsumura, a historian at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, says in an email. And Japan quickly showed its superiority over Russian forces, launching a successful surprise attack on the Russian fleet in February 1904, in Port Arthur, Manchuria (now the Lüshunkou District in China).įor Japan, winning was crucial to its identity as a colonizing force in its own right, an imperial rival in East Asia. “War brings out, in a very organized and direct way, the need to persuade,” Mode says. Photo courtesy of Cornell University Persuasive Cartography Collection “A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia,” the map’s official title, is a geographic extension of some other CLO maps in Mode’s collection that use octopuses to illustrate the military tensions among the European imperial powers of the time.Ĭoastal cultures often had stories about scary, octopus-like monsters, creatures of evil, the reason the cephalopod probably became a symbol of bad intentions by imperialist nations. Any help from Britain would threaten to draw Russia’s ally, France, into the war. The cartographer emphasizes the two nations’ shared hostility toward Russian expansionism, but adds that the “little fish” can take on the black octopus alone. The English text is a shout-out to the Brits, Japan’s ally. The black octopus represents Russian rapacity. “And the octopus works well with island nations like Japan because it’s conceptually right.” “Visually, it’s compelling and the English text makes it intriguing,” he says. The heyday of this particular cartographic style was from the late 1800s until about the First World War. Mode, who has collected the maps for over 30 years, donating his collection to New York’s Cornell University in 2015. In this case, Japan directed the missive at Britain.ĬLOs have been a staple of persuasive maps, says P. This satirical map is an example of persuasive cartography, maps designed to make a point beyond a spatial one-to send a message to a targeted audience. Land octopuses were especially evil, like this particular cartographic land octopus (CLO) penned by Japanese university student Kisaburo Ohara in 1904, when his country was at war with Russia. Before technology could expose their talents as an idea worth spreading for all the world to see via social media, octopuses often personified evil in coastal cultures, what with their eight-limbed grasp, secretive lives, and beaks that could go mouth-a-mano with a Masamune blade. A cephalopod, animals considered the most intelligent of invertebrates, the octopus and its brethren shine on camera, where their shapeshifting, color-morphing, jar-opening, and other superhero abilities are regularly captured and fêted by researchers and the media. The internet has been good to the octopus. Septem| 550 words, about 2 minutes Share this article Photo courtesy of Cornell University Persuasive Cartography Collection Attack of the Cartographic Land Octopus Far from just a way to avoid getting lost, maps have also been used as a means of persuasion. Mode’s collection housed at Cornell University. Octopuses are popular among makers of persuasive maps, like this one from P.
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