A Tissue Of Lies

Maps are one of the greatest illusions known to man and yet we instinctively put our faith in them.

Disregarding the evidence of our own eyes, we assume, when using maps, that they are a substitute for reality. But there is no way in which they can be in all respects. Not even the biggest maps can reproduce absolutely everything about the area they depict while the most precisely surveyed map, created using the latest technology, cannot capture all aspects of the globe's roundness on a flat surface.

Far from being objective portrayals of the world around us, maps have often served to lend credibility to aspirations, theories, and, quite frequently, misunderstandings. Indeed some maps have been more or less pure fantasy, even if they use cartographic conventions, while others have largely or completely ignored the visible world in order to depict features - physical, social, political and religious - that cannot be seen. Sometimes, particularly for security reasons, map-makers will intentionally suppress or distort information.

The cost of making maps has also exerted a negative influence, leading sometimes to outdated or even incorrect information being reproduced over the centuries or to depictions of groups of features which have never existed together at the same time, creating phoney images of what appears to the uninitiated to be 'reality'. The fact is that map-makers have no alternative but to choose what they want us to see and how we are to see it. Mere social convention often unconsciously dictates what they insert and how we react. Some maps reflect the objectives of their makers by playing down the narrowly geographical features in favour of cultural ones.

Ideology has influenced the selection and through the centuries the content of maps has been manipulated to add authority to every cause from militant Christianity to advertising. In order to add clarity to the selected message, whether it is geographical or more broadly cultural, the map-maker will mix pictures and symbols, disregard natural colour, alter the true relationship of places and distances between them and play false with relative size.

Yet to map is a total illusion. However ill-surveyed, untrue or fanciful, it contains some elements of reality and mirrors its creator's views and cultural background in a way that frequently transcends the simple representation of the physical world. In this way, so-called 'inaccurate' or 'crude' old maps can be of immense importance to students of history because they can reveal the mentalities of past societies, civilizations and even individuals, such as Elizabeth I's great minister, Lord Burghley.

Because of its very artificiality, a well-constructed, purpose-linked modern map will also be far greater assistance to the contemporary user than any simple duplication of reality, whether they're in search of specific answers to important spatial questions or just trying to solve problems with spatial element to them.