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The Spectacular Lies of Maps

The Spectacular Lies of Maps

Slides from a talk given at Camp Digital in Manchester on July 3, 2025.

» Web page with references and more information.

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Per Axbom

July 03, 2025
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  1. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements.
  2. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. I have lied.
  3. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. I have lied to someone I care about.
  4. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. I believe I will continue to lie in the future.
  5. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. I’ve made design decisions with insufficient data.
  6. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. I will continue to make design decisions with insufficient data.
  7. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. I trust maps to give me accurate information.
  8. Raise your hand and keep it raised as long as

    you agree with my statements. The Earth is flat.
  9. Earthrise. December 24, 1968. Taken by astronaut William Anders during

    the Apollo 8 mission, the first crewed voyage to orbit the Moon. The three astronauts were William Anders, Frank Borman and James Lovell.
  10. Anders: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there!

    There's the Earth coming up. Wow, that's pretty. Borman: Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled. (joking) Anders: (laughs) You got a color film, Jim? Hand me that roll of color quick, would you… Lovell: Oh man, that's great!
  11. 18 months after the Apollo 8 astronauts took this photo,

    20 million people took to the streets across the US to protest environmental destruction in the first ever Earth Day.
  12. “It shows the Earth that we all live on, a

    little blue sphere set within this black expanse. It suggests everything from fragility to our uniqueness.” – Michael Pritchard, programmes director at the Royal Photographic Society in the UK
  13. Imago Mundi 2,600-year-old Babylonian clay tablet mythology, astronomy, geography discovered

    in Sippar, an ancient Babylonian city along the Euphrates River, housed at the British Museum
  14. Geographically, there’s very little ‘east’ in the Middle East. The

    region known as 'the Middle East' actually encompasses some of the most northern parts of Africa and South-West Asia.
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  16. “Really interesting visual information is a little bit like a

    puzzle. You’re solving it.” Rebecca Solnit – Author of “Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas.”
  17. W o r k s p a c e s

    l The True Size Of ... @ thetruesize.com/ The True Size Of ... eg... Australia About | Clear Map | Privacy Policy © 2022 The True Size. A l l rights reserved. U n i t e d States Mexico C u b a P u e r t o R i c o Guatemala Nicaragua Venezuela Guyana Colombia Brazil Bolivia Paraguay Argentina ruguay L a b r a d o r e N o r t h Ocean Google Q- Search DuckDuckGo Finland Ireland Kno D e n m a r k . Poland) _Germany Belarus A u s t i a Ukraine France KN italy Spain Portugal Greece Tunisia Morocco Western Algeria L i b y a Egypt Mauritania M a l i Burkina, Guinea- C h a n g Niger Chad Sudan Nigeria Gabon DRC Angola Z a m b i a M o z a m b i q u e N a m i b i a Z i m b a b w e B o t s w a n a ~ Madagascar South O c e a n S o u t h A f r i c a Russia traq tran Saudi Arabia Kazakhstan K y r g y z s t a n Afghanistan P a k i s t a n Omar N e p a l C India Y emen Mongolia China South Korea Japan North Ocean| Malaysia Indonesia Papua New C e o l Australia Z e a l a n d Keyboard shortcuts M a p data © 2 0 2 5 Google, I N E G I T e r m s
  18. 6400 km 7200 km Chad • Layers United Kingdom Germany

    Austria B e l a r u s U k r a i n e Egypt Türklye Sudan Syra trag R u s s i a Ethiopia Saudi Arabia SomaliaYemen Turkmenistan Iran Oman Afghanistan Kyrgyzstan 89. Path or polygon u Click points o n the map to draw a path or polygo Length 6,401.59 k m Heading 10.67° ⼜Save to project J a p a n South Korea
  19. ① W o r k s p a c e

    s - * The True Size Of ... Google Earth © thetruesize.com The True Size Of ... e g . . Germany About | Clear Map | Privacy Policy © 2022 T h e T rue Size. A l l rights reserved. r e e n l a n d North Western m a u r i t a n i a Google S w e d e r France C B o l a r u s Poland, Germany Austria R o m a n t Turkiye Algeria L i b y a Egypt Saudi Arabia Niger Chad Sudan Nigeria Ethiop D R C anzanie A n g o l a Z a m b i aM o z a m b i g u r Namibia Z i m b a b w e B o t s w a n a » Madagascar K U S S o China South Korea Myanma Burma)_ alland Vietnam m P h i l i p p i n e s Malaysia I n d o n e s i a Q - Search DuckDuckGo A T C H I C U C e 0 l Japan Papua New ロ - 100 % | 1 4 : 2 2
  20. ⼜ A Workspaces h e The T rue Size O

    f ... © thetruesize.com • Google Earth The True Size Of ... e g . Germany About | Clear Map | Privacy Policy © 2022 T h e T rue Size. A l l rights reserved. r e e n t a n d Iceland North Google s w e d e r Norway United D e n m a r k Ireland •Kingdon P o l a n d B e l a r u s , Germany Ukraine Austria rance r o m a n i a Portugal Türkiye Western Algeria L i b y a Egypt Saudi Arabia m a u r i t a n i a Niger B u r k i n Chad Sudan Nigeria Ethiop D R C inzani Angola Zambi, Namibia M o z a m b i q u Z i m b a b w e B o t s w a n a Madagascar Kyrgyzstan China South Korea Thailand Vietnam a m P h i l i p p i n e s Malaysia Indonesia Q - Search DuckDuckGo A r c t i c o c e a n Papua New ⽇ - 100 % 14:23
  21. Layers Path or polygon ? Click points o n the

    map t o draw a path o r polygon Length 8,423.46 km Q Save to project
  22. I % The Irue size Of. G o o d

    l e z a r t h earth.google.com/web/search/Kaliningrad,«Kaliningrad+Oblast,+Russia/@-48.89853083,177.47120488,-3923.87071485a,12728343.21976662 Q * S e a r c h DuckDuckGo V P N Tools I H e l o K a l i n i n g r a d , K a l i n i n a r a d O b l a s t , F ⽬ " P a t h o r p o l y g o n P a p u a N e c l i c k points o n the map to draw a path o r polygon L e n g t h 20.711.47 km s a v e t o p r o j e c t " L a v e r ' s G o o g l e . D a t a a t t r i b u t i o n
  23. “The problem was approached as a purely mathematical exercise. The

    authors do not recommend sailing along the found paths.” Disclaimer.
  24. The video is without sound. A Strange Map Projection (Euler

    Spiral) - Numberphile, with Hannah Fry
  25. R E C E N S I N T E

    G R A O R B I S D E S C R I P T I O 2 E R T O R O N T I V S F . DELPH. REGT- HEMATIC® FACIEBAT
  26. C L I M A , Q U A R

    , F AV O SVESOLANVS A F T I C V S V I T U R A N S E V R O N G I V S N O T V S
  27. The Authagraph Hajime Narukawa worked for 6 years on this

    map, and won the 2016 Good Design Awards - Grand Award. https://curiosity.com/topics/the-authagraph-is-the-worlds-most-accurate-map-curiosity/ made by equally dividing a spherical surface into 96 triangles, transferring it to a tetrahedron while maintaining area proportions, and unfolding it in the form of a rectangle: it is a polyhedral map projection
  28. From the short-lived Globehead! Journal of Extreme Cartography: Catherine Reeves’

    Equinational Projection, allocates each nation the exact same amount of space by reducing them all, equally, to a simple square. The UK is 178 The US is 179
  29. Map by Ken Myers American ESL teacher, 2013 Radius: ~4,000

    kilometres Center: South China Sea Winkel-Tripel map projection with a Valeriepieris circle
  30. Map by Ken Myers American ESL teacher, 2013 Radius: ~4,000

    kilometres Center: South China Sea Winkel-Tripel map projection with a Valeriepieris circle What is the spectacular lie in this map?
  31. Map by Riaz Shah professor at Hult International Business School.

    Radius: ~3,300 kilometres Center: Mong Khet in Myanmar includes the Himalayas, desolate regions of Siberia, and Mongolia, the world’s least densely populated country A proper circle.
  32. [W]e strongly urge book and map publishers, the media and

    government agencies to cease using rectangular world maps for general purposes or artistic displays. Such maps promote serious, erroneous conceptions by severely distorting large sections of the world […]” Resolution adopted by seven North American cartographic societies in 1989:
  33. The Web Mercator adopted by Google in 2005 also known

    as Google Web Mercator, Spherical Mercator, WGS 84 Web Mercator or WGS 84/Pseudo-Mercator Spatial systems: EPSG 900913, 3857, 3785, 3587 Used by virtually all major online map providers
  34. Globe Ellipse EARTH Ellipse Geographic coordinates (longitude/latitude are defined on

    curved a 2D surface. This can be an ellipsoid (most data) or sphere (very rarely). Both projections can have an equation. + ellipsoid + + sphere sphere = Conformal (correct angles) = Conformal (correct angles) = Non-Conformal (wrong) PROJECTION/EQUATION
  35. “The Web Mercator is a mistake that got out of

    control. It distorts everything*.” *shapes, angles, areas, distances, directions, rhumb lines, compass bearings, etceteras… – Bojan Šavrič – cartographer, PhD in geography, author of projectionwizard.org
  36. Not accepted by standardisation orgs "We have reviewed the coordinate

    reference system used by Microsoft, Google, etc. and believe that it is technically flawed. We will not devalue the EPSG dataset by including such inappropriate geodesy and cartography.” Geodesy subcommittee of the OGP's Geomatics committee
  37. The unofficial code EPSG:900913 came to be used. EPSG Geodetic

    Parameter Dataset (also EPSG registry) is a public registry of geodetic datums and spatial reference systems. EPSG 1024–32767
  38. The unofficial code EPSG:900913 came to be used. EPSG Geodetic

    Parameter Dataset (also EPSG registry) is a public registry of geodetic datums and spatial reference systems. EPSG 1024–32767
  39. “[I]magine if all of Google's data and programming ability was

    suddenly in the hands of a Namibian agriculturalist, a Sahelian nomad or a Senegalese fisherwoman – the maps they would conjure up would be completely different. They might well prioritise soil types over Starbucks, wells over Walmarts and the state of land degradation over panoramic street views of American towns.” – James Wan, The Guardian
  40. With better ways to visualize the world humans are better

    equipped to address Earth’s challenges. What would it take to do better?
  41. Please pay a LOT of money to make the “top”

    world look smaller. AND to confuse your constituents. It’s a tough argument to make.
  42. A cartographer is also… a designer. with deadlines, insufficient data,

    cultural biases, a budget – and an agenda. Can be an agent of power.
  43. Who made this tool, why and under what constraints? Whose

    power is being wielded? What is the data source and is it the right one for the job? What is being left out, added or distorted? For all maps, please ask… What assumptions are being made and/or conveyed? Who stands to lose from the use of this tool?
  44. Who made this tool, why and under what constraints? Whose

    power is being wielded? What is the data source and is it the right one for the job? What is being left out, added or distorted? For all maps, please ask… tools What assumptions are being made and/or conveyed? Who stands to lose from the use of this tool?
  45. Hera Hussain – participatory design, how do we give people

    more power over the maps they use? Matt Jukes – working in the open, be a superhero fan Alex Blandford & Katherine Wastell – change is hard,but you have the tools to make it happen Dr Zeynep Engin – it’s super important that we understand trustworthiness in human-machine collaborations Ignacia Orellana & Clara Greo – map the pain points to understand the costs Claire Dellar – imagine the potential of the 100% perspective to mapping! What did we learn today?
  46. "We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered

    the Earth." William Anders – Astronaut who took the Earthrise photograph in 1968 together with Jim Lovell and Frank Borman
  47. I have acted as if the Earth is flat when

    I have underestimated how much flat maps distort the world.
  48. Choosing new lines when you talk about the world can

    help you talk about it differently.
  49. You can start changing the world today. Truly and literally.

    Thank you. Slides, links, videos, references and more: axbom.com/cdmaps