Cartographies of Time (Chapter 1 & 4)

The historical charts presented in the book are quite fascinating to look at. I especially like the diagram of Napoleon’s march. The chart is clear and informative, with no redundant information, and even has a sense of the modern minimalism aesthetics. It’s certainly difficult to precisely represent history with time and space in a single graphic. Some attempt to do that may have been limited by the tools and technology at that time, but some are conceptually innovative and effective to look at even now. It must have taken elaborate efforts for the original authors to calculate and draw the graphics all by hand, and to build the supplementary tools for examining the charts. It would be interesting to think about how we can utilize the ideas and rebuild the concepts digitally with contemporary tools. Seeing the layouts of the charts, I can almost imagine the intention of the original authors and visualize some of the interactions that I find strongly indicated by the charts. The New Chart of History presented at the last part of chapter 4 is a great concept to represent the world history as a ‘whole’, yet I wonder if the accuracy is enough for actual reference at such condensation. The area occupied by different empires seem to be disproportionate to some extent. But such layer of subjectivity also makes it interesting in the way of interpretation.