Philippe Rekacewicz — mars 2009, Monde Diplomatique

I came across this headline for a map – la Géographie des savants accompanied by the following article La guerre des idées this morning. I also discovered a treasure trove of global issue thematic cartographic representations.  There was also a great article that reinvoked that age old debate around visualization, art, objectivity, truth in La cartographie, entre science, art et manipulation.  It is very refreshing to see and read this material since in the non-French world we rarely use the word cartography in any popular sense anymore, and with the advent of google and mashups we are also seeing mapping, and GIS – which of course have their merits but do lack in the aesthetic communicative rigour. Cartography is a wonderful scientific art that both delights and informs, and what a pleasure to find a rich visual narrative of the world here at le Monde Diplomatique this morning.