9 replies to this topic

[woneil]

I recently traveled to Japan to interview more than 40 high-level people in politics, government, and academe for a project. My Japanese colleague suggested some souvenir sorts of items to give as thank-you gifts, but this did not appeal to me and I resolved to make something a bit more personal. This cartogram is the result. I printed up copies on high-quality paper and my wife had them finely mounted before wrapping them exquisitely. My colleague was somewhat skeptical, but agreed that they seemed to go over very well.

 Storm_tossed_seas_cartogram.jpg   719.3K   231 downloads

I used Tom Patterson’s wonderful Natural Earth III, projected with Manifold 8.0 and edited and finished with Photoshop CS3.

[P Riggs]

I really like the unusual viewpoint. I'm so used to seeing views of the earth centered either on a continent or the Atlantic Ocean, it's interesting to see one centered on the Pacific. Lot's of blue!

[Jean-Louis]

It looks great but I must admit I dont understand the message. How do storm tossed seas smooth distances?

[natcase]

Lovely picture. How were the clouds rendered?

Looks like a map rather than a cartogram to me.

Japanese gift-giving customs are hard to get Western heads wrapped around, but from what little I know, I suspect these would go over quite well...

[woneil]

It looks great but I must admit I dont understand the message. How do storm tossed seas smooth distances?

It's a verse more or less in the Japanese haiku style. Haiku generally have nature topics and very frequently are somewhat enigmatic or ambivalent. One way to read this one is that the United States and Japan are separated by a large stretch of particularly tempestuous ocean and yet are close friends and allies.

Lovely picture. How were the clouds rendered?

The clouds were very simple -- for me. That is, Tom Patterson did all the heavy cloud-lifting. See
http://www.shadedrel...ges/clouds.html

It was the easy availability of the storm clouds that suggested the poem.

[MapMedia]

Very nice! I think this is really an original gift, and a great message. Did you write the haiku yourself?

[woneil]

Very nice! I think this is really an original gift, and a great message. Did you write the haiku yourself?

Yes, I wrote it. It was an interesting process, because the map and making it did so much to suggest the verse itself.

Nice to hear that you like it!

[Matthew Hampton]

Very nice piece! I am sure it was well received.

It's not quite a Cartogram - not quite a Haiku (5-7-5)...

Perhaps it could be the first Cartaiku?

[woneil]

not quite a Haiku (5-7-5)...

The question is 5-7-5 of what? In Japanese haiku the answer is 5-7-5 morae (or on), not sylables as usually stated. The Japanese on is a finer division of sound and a Japanese will often hear more on in a word than sylables as would be counted by an English-speaker. Moreover, for technical reasons, English on average has singinficantly more information per sylable than Japanese. As a result, translated Haiku usually come out with considerably fewer than 17 sylables unless deliberately padded.

For this reason, those who wish to duplicate in English the lapidary concision that is at the heart of the Japanese haiku often use a meter of 3-5-3 sylables. To my ear, an English verse with 5-7-5 sylables always sounds far too prolix for real haiku.

Several people with literary tastes and fluency in both languages immediately identified it as a haiku and called it as such without prompting.

[MapMedia]

not quite a Haiku (5-7-5)...

The question is 5-7-5 of what? In Japanese haiku the answer is 5-7-5 morae (or on), not sylables as usually stated. The Japanese on is a finer division of sound and a Japanese will often hear more on in a word than syllables as would be counted by an English-speaker. Moreover, for technical reasons, English on average has significantly more information per syllable than Japanese. As a result, translated Haiku usually come out with considerably fewer than 17 syllables unless deliberately padded.

For this reason, those who wish to duplicate in English the lapidary concision that is at the heart of the Japanese haiku often use a meter of 3-5-3 syllables. To my ear, an English verse with 5-7-5 syllables always sounds far too prolix for real haiku.

Several people with literary tastes and fluency in both languages immediately identified it as a haiku and called it as such without prompting.

Well said! And the cart-o-gram is a great pun