Comments on: Tactile maps of Greenland

Tactile maps of Greenland

stonepharisee — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:17:29 -0800

The maps, carved from wood, were held inside the users' mittens, and read by feel, rather than visually.

By: rtha

rtha — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:24:42 -0800

That is so cool. Thank you for the post!

By: carter

carter — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:33:04 -0800

Fascinating, thanks for this!

By: Stonestock Relentless

Stonestock Relentless — Tue, 09 May 2017 13:19:22 -0800

Amazing.

By: RolandOfEld

RolandOfEld — Tue, 09 May 2017 13:36:00 -0800

So, they're 1D / linear maps of a particular route / line on a non-Inuit map? Or they're representative of a 2D space (like a traditional map)? I'm probably overthinking this due to my somewhat recent read of Flatland.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Tue, 09 May 2017 13:45:10 -0800

I just saw an ad yesterday for vibrating shoes that give GPS directions and thought "What a time to be alive!" then it turns out tactile directions are not a new thing at all.

By: Alensin

Alensin — Tue, 09 May 2017 13:51:35 -0800

Speaking as a blind person, vibrating shoes seem to fall into the category of "gadget made for us," not by us. Tactile maps, on the other hand, are awesome.

By: ethansr

ethansr — Tue, 09 May 2017 13:54:56 -0800

They represent the coastline as a scaleless 1 Dimensional sequence of features (like fjords or bays). Greenland's inner coast is organized in a way that fits this representation pretty nicely. According to the article the map runs along one side then continues on the other.

By: tavella

tavella — Tue, 09 May 2017 14:27:53 -0800

Interesting that they are carved from wood, which presumably was extremely rare and only obtained by trade or driftwood, and I'd think driftwood would be very rare at those latitudes. Though googling a bit, perhaps not as rare as I thought?

By: acb

acb — Tue, 09 May 2017 14:35:09 -0800

By coincidence, Tactile Maps of Greenland is the name of my new neoclassical post-rock project.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Tue, 09 May 2017 14:57:15 -0800

This is exceptional.

By: yueliang

yueliang — Tue, 09 May 2017 15:42:22 -0800

This might be a silly question, but how do you actually navigate using a map like this? I grew up with a GPS, so I'm not actually sure how you are supposed to use maps actually (besides memorizing streets and intersections), especially for natural landscapes.

By: bookmammal

bookmammal — Tue, 09 May 2017 15:52:19 -0800

Simply amazing. I had no idea this existed--thank you for posting!

By: TheCoug

TheCoug — Tue, 09 May 2017 16:19:27 -0800

That is just the damn coolest!

By: larrybob

larrybob — Tue, 09 May 2017 17:06:33 -0800

See also this article on the maps which includes the wooden maps and their relation to a modern map of the region. According to the Wikipedia article Ammassalik wooden maps the maps were carved by a native of Umivik named Kunit, and they may be unique. However there are copies made by Europeans, such as the ones in the British Library.

By: turbid dahlia

turbid dahlia — Tue, 09 May 2017 18:25:10 -0800

This is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

By: schwa

schwa — Tue, 09 May 2017 19:14:30 -0800

"it's just like a paper map but we've made it even harder to fold"

By: Oyéah

Oyéah — Tue, 09 May 2017 19:47:24 -0800

This is a great find. It might be a start on understanding other mystery objects we thought were detritus, elsewhere on other shores.

By: ethansr

ethansr — Tue, 09 May 2017 20:09:09 -0800

This might be a silly question, but how do you actually navigate using a map like this? I am no expert, I only know a bit from my distributed cognition classes, but roughly: Coastal maps are one of the oldest types of maps because they are relatively easy to make. One creates a map that shows useful landmarks on the coast in their correct order as if you were sailing by, without neccisarily capturing other spatial relationships between them. You fix your location relative to the "length" of the coast by looking to shore and identifying the landmarks you are facing. Navigation similarly proceeds by moving parallel along the shore within visible range or just beyond it. You can't leave visual range for long for fear of getting lost. This means that you often take a non optimal route because you only move parrelel to the contour of the coast. Moving away from the coast generally requires taking advantage of the stars orientation in your area.

By: XMLicious

XMLicious — Tue, 09 May 2017 21:19:58 -0800

Coastal maps are one of the oldest types of maps because they are relatively easy to make. A periplus was a written list of landmarks in the order you would encounter them in while traversing the coast, even pre-map.