NACIS 2024

Visualizing Multidimensional Climate Data on the Web with Zarr and @carbonplan/maps
Kata Martin & Shane Loeffler, CarbonPlan
Climate data (and many other scientific datasets) are often massive, multidimensional, and challenging to get into desktop GIS and cartography tools, let alone a web map. @carbonplan/maps is an open-source tool for efficiently visualizing this complex data on the web by leveraging the emerging Zarr format and WebGL. Here we showcase its use in a recent project exploring a new dataset simulating the efficiency of ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), a carbon removal technique. The OAE Efficiency Map allows exploration of nearly 700 global ocean simulations, allowing scientists and system actors to get a better sense of where and when the most effective carbon removal is possible.

Felt in Action
Mamata Akella, Felt
Felt is a powerful tool for data exploration, spatial analysis, cartography, and collaboration. It enables more people in your organization to work with maps and collaborate in real time through its modern, easy-to-use interface packed with powerful features. Join this talk to learn how to work with a variety of data formats, advanced filtering and search capabilities, robust spatial analysis tools, and intuitive cartographic controls that together, simplify the data exploration and mapmaking process and are uniquely Felt. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, see how Felt improves workflows, enhances team communication, and enables informed decision-making through practical examples and a live demo.

Integrating Use-Specific Styles into a Generalized Map Hierarchy
Lauren James, Apple
Apple’s Maps app is constantly evolving as we create new offerings for our users. Our latest undertaking necessitated integrating new data into an existing hierarchical structure, with emphasis on a considered and balanced redesign of layers. This challenging puzzle included needed technical advancements across several codebases and a cross-functional effort. Maps’ Cartography team will present the design and data decisions behind this undertaking.

A New Tool For Interactive Flow Mapping
Paulo Raposo, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Drawing cartographically-refined origin-destination (OD) flow maps in automated or semi-automated digital contexts remains difficult. This research presents a new, interactive and semi-automated tool for OD flow map creation. Realized in a free and open-source application that runs using Python scripts and web technologies, this tool allows users to adjust the shape of OD flow arrows either universally or on a per-flow basis. A preview of the output flows is rendered live to the user as they make flow path adjustments. Output in georeferenced vector formats is exportable from the app for use in other settings, such as geographic information systems (GIS), web maps, or graphic design software.

Mapping Black Women’s Independence: Uncovering Hidden Homeowners
Mia Nigro, Department of Geography at University of Nebraska Omaha
The process of researching and mapping historically disenfranchised populations can be challenging. As part of research with the Omaha Spatial Justice Project, we began investigating historic Black homeownership in Omaha. In the process, we discovered that this included a previously overlooked population of unmarried women homeowners. This paper will discuss the work to identify, locate, and map these homeowners and acknowledge their contributions to the Omaha landscape. This work represents an effort to use cartography to represent “women’s geographies, spaces, and experiences through maps.”

Park Slam Dunk: Scoring with StoryMaps
Eliana Macdonald, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
Park Slam Dunk isn’t your average StoryMap—it’s a full-court press of excitement! We’re talking alley-oops of data, crossovers of community engagement, and three-pointers of storytelling. Playbook highlights include:
Full-Court Data Drive: We’ll break down how we dribbled through spreadsheets, slam-dunked project timelines, and bounce-passed budgets. Our secret weapon? A heatmap that shows where we need more dog parks.
Fast Break Narratives: Imagine weaving project updates into halftime pep talks. “Team, we’re down by two swings, but the seesaw pivot is coming in hot!” We’ll share how we kept the crowd engaged with play-by-play narratives.

Branching Out: Navigating Kentucky's Urban Tree Canopy Grant Adventure
Rebecca Ramsey, Kentucky Division of Forestry
In February, the Kentucky Division of Forestry (KDF) launched a $1.8 million Urban and Community Forestry Grant Assistance Program to enhance urban tree canopies in underserved communities. To help applicants, KDF used an ArcGIS Online Web Experience Build featuring an interactive Eligibility Map (based on Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and Tree Equity Score data), a StoryMap detailing the methodology and grant specifics, Survey123 for initial contact, and a dashboard to track applications. Join us in exploring this Web Experience Build and see how we communicated this groundbreaking grant program and its eligible areas.

Cutting for New Openings: Alternative Representations of a Railway Line
Àlex Muñoz Viso, University of Kentucky
In this paper, I draw from Bergmann and Lally (2021) to explore the possibilities of cutting the map to represent (1) distance in non-mathematical terms and (2) urban space as a human experience. The paper reflects on the process of mapping urban railway infrastructure in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, emphasizing the disruption it creates to both the urban landscape and social life. Thus, the cut disrupts the map replicating how the railway disrupts urban space, opening new blank spaces in the canvas that offer new possibilities for cartographic representation. In my case, it allowed for the creation of a reflective space where testimonies narrate personal and community experiences and stories about life in an urban landscape ripped in half.

Census Maps for Public Knowledge
Jia Zhang, Center for Spatial Research, Columbia University
The census is a data-centric method of governing in theory only. In practice, as with most technocratically designed processes, it is a perfect storm of politics and bureaucracy. To visualize census data for public knowledge is to, on the one hand, show where and how people live, and on the other it is an opportunity to expose some of the hidden infrastructure surrounding how the data is made. This talk will cover a series of 8 maps that attempt to provide new entry points into and build more intuitive readings of large public datasets like the Census. Topics include the structure of census geographies, utilizing satellite imagery for comparisons, and the afterlife of census data in products like the Social Vulnerability Index.

Raster-to-Vector Heat Maps: Multiscale Visualization Approach to Mapping and Interacting with Big Geospatial Data
Yanbing Chen, University of Wisconsin - Madison
This project is an ongoing project that aims to create a multiscale visualization approach for rendering big geospatial data on the web. By seamlessly transitioning between raster and vector heat maps based on zoom level, the project will enhance the utility and performance of interactive web maps. Using tools like Datamaps, Tippecanoe, and MapboxGL JS, the project will develop a prototype to evaluate optimal transition points and visual consistency techniques. This approach will make geospatial data more accessible and usable, benefiting fields such as urban planning, transportation analysis, and environmental science.

Who Owns Massachusetts?: A New Interactive Map or Identifying Institutional Ownership
Eric Huntley, Asya Aizman, & Milan Chuttani, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Institutional ownership of residential properties is a matter of urgent concern, but one that is obfuscated by the difficulty of identifying shared ownership given the common practice of creating a different LLC for each property. This presents, among other things, a data science problem, in that identifying the scale of shared ownership requires entity resolution approaches that are dependent on access to multiple large datasets. We will present a new interactive map, Who Owns Massachusetts, that attempts to make discover of institutional ownership possible throughout the Commonwealth. We will introduce the tool's functionality, novel datasets we are making available in building the tool, and future directions for development and research.

All the Joys of Mapping (and Seeing!) the Total Solar Eclipse of 2024
K.K. Rebecca Lai, William B. Davis & Josh Katz, The New York Times
The total solar eclipse of 2024 captured the attention of millions as it crossed North America on April 8, 2024. To help readers get the best experience possible, our team created a cloud forecast map to help readers find the best spots. We will share our design and development process, the lovely reader feedback we got and our own experience of seeing a total solar eclipse for the first time. On eclipse day, we also published a video of satellite imagery showing the shadow of the moon as it passed across the Earth.

Unidrome: Mapping Every Aerodrome Worldwide with Cloud Native Data
Alex Polvi, Barbless Maps
Building on our backcountry aviation mapping journey, the Unidrome project expands to a global scale, unifying all known open datasets to map known place to land an airplane in the world. We'll explore the integration of cloud native data, geospatial analysis, and aviation software, highlighting the innovative methods and challenges encountered. This project also serves as a case study for constructing and organizing cloud-native geospatial data, offering insights and best practices for similar large-scale endeavors.

A Complicated Wilderness: Mapping Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Becca Holdhusen, U.S. National Park Service
Guadalupe Mountains encompasses complex cultural narratives that extend well beyond the park boundary. In this talk, I provide background about the park’s geology, ecology, and cultural history and the ways these pieces have shaped the story of a lesser known park. I review a series of 3D and planimetric maps I made for the park and invite the audience to speculate about ways to include interpretive clues that would give map readers a deeper understanding of the cultural context of the park.

Exploring Intra-Annual Variations in Urban Effects on Precipitation in the Atlanta, GA, USA Region
Olamiposi Fagunloye, Georgia State University
This study investigates the intra-annual variations in urban effects on precipitation in the rapidly urbanizing Atlanta, GA region. By analyzing over two decades of precipitation data from 70 stations, along with land cover, imperviousness, and atmospheric reanalysis data, the research aims to determine the spatial variability and seasonal differences in urban impacts on precipitation totals, frequency, and intensity. Geostatistical techniques like kriging will generate high-resolution precipitation surfaces, while correlation analyses will assess the relationship between upwind urban land and precipitation characteristics. The findings will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of urbanization's influence on precipitation patterns, informing urban planning and water resource management strategies.

Maps as Poetry
Richard Bohannon, Metro State University—Saint Paul
Maps tell a story, but tell it slant. While they have long been used as narrative aids (such as in Esri’s Story Maps), most maps do not have a linear, narrative structure and the story-telling aspect of mapping is often metaphorical – maps have agendas and perspectives. This paper proposes a complementary, alternative metaphor -- maps as poetry – using historic and contemporary maps to show how poetry might be a helpful model for the work of maps and the map-making process. Both poetry and maps are sparing and restrained – poetry in its use of language, maps in their selections from the landscape. Both also use rhythm and balance (aural for poems, visual for maps) to evoke a particular mood, feeling or tenor. Poetry is a particularly useful metaphor because, like most maps, it can be non-linear, conveying ideas through images without walking the audience directly through their meaning.

Revitalization of a University Building Interior: Abstracting Geographies Through Cartographic Public Art Installations
Cynthia Brewer, Penn State Geography
Public art fits within a broader discourse of university renovation, undertaken to attract and retain students, enhancing the appearance and functionality of campus environments. We describe cartographically inspired floor and wall designs for a renovated space within the Department of Geography at Penn State. Hallway floor designs used pentagonal tiles, creating a coarse rasterization of local physical features and historical movement paths. Back-lit wall panels have a global emphasis. High-contrast shapes were chosen from six continents. They show human (building footprints, parcels, and indigenous land claims) and physical patterns (major rivers, lagoons, and ice). A local panel shows the ridge-and-valley terrain of central Pennsylvania.

The Cartographic Art of the Opposite of Bespoke
Nicholas Bauch, Esri
Pixel-perfect detailing, custom tracing, nudging hex codes: all marks of the artistic precision we adore in powerful cartographic design. But how might we maintain adherence to strong spatial storytelling when creating a large number of maps for an audience who, on average, won’t spend more than 8 seconds reading them? Frequently absent of legends and even text, geographical representation goes to new places when designing maps “at scale.” From the perspective of MapX—the carto team for Esri’s public-facing website—I outline challenges, and share design system strategies that help answer the question: “how to show the beauty and elucidative capacity of cartography when there are nearly 2,500 web pages calling for new, cutting-edge maps?

Drawing Participation: A Real-Time, Peer-to-Peer Tool for Participatory Planning and Design
Carlos Sandoval Olascoaga, Northeastern University
Drawing Participation (DP) was created to increase accessibility and to provide a scalable and open platform for shared planning and design. DP is a peer-to-peer, collaborative Geospatial Computing System tool that integrates drawing, mapping, spatial analysis, version-control, and algorithms for design synthesis. Drawing Participation is a model for collective and collaborative planning methods and interfaces that enable large groups of people to work together in ill-defined design problems. In this presentation we will present, first, the conceptual and technical background of DP, second, the technical implementations of the tool, and third, a case study of the implementation of the tool to collaboratively develop parcel maps in informal settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A Pop-Up Book: Visualizing the Spatial Sensitivity Analysis
Seda Salap-Ayca, Brown University; Zhu Gaocanyue, Emma Hogarth & Georgia Rhodes, Rhode Island School of Design
Sensitivity analysis plays a crucial role in deepening our understanding of models and facilitating clearer communication of their results by accounting for variations in output and their dependency on inputs. When applied spatially, sensitivity analysis generates individual maps for the effects of each input as well as for their interactions. However, the challenge lies in simplifying the visual presentation of spatial sensitivity results. This project is a fusion of art and science designed to address this multidimensional visualization challenge by leveraging a pop-up structure to convey mapping information. The first layer of the book cover features graticules representing latitudes and longitudes, providing a foundational framework. The second layer, constituting the main body of the map, utilizes vibrant color zones to distinguish between regions, while blank spaces denote missing data. These colors, produced through a marbling technique, symbolize the intricate relationship between input and output in spatial models, illustrating how variations in input can yield diverse outputs. The third layer employs Turkish map folding, incorporating paper mechanisms shaped like collapsible houses, which cleverly obscure internal information, necessitating audience interaction to unveil insights. This folding structure transforms the map from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, adding depth and complexity while retaining visual appeal. By integrating artful design with scientific rigor, this project offers a novel approach to conveying spatial sensitivity analysis results, making them more accessible and engaging to a wider audience.

Atlas in a Day: Imagining a Black Counter-Atlas of Abolition
Kela Caldwell, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Building on critical cartographies of African American freedom struggles (Alderman et al, 2001), I explore the political potentials of producing a Black counter-atlas of racial violence in an effort to challenge and re-historicize how anti-black violence is defined and categorized. In this paper, I draw on participant surveys, mapping creations, and my reflections from a Design Challenge workshop hosted by the UW–Madison Cartography Lab to explore visualizing and re-historicizing anti-black violence through atlas co-creation. Here, I share lessons from the Design Challenge as an opportunity to imagine what futurities might emerge from producing and placing cartographic visualizations of abolition in relationship with each other.

Mapping the Future of Food in Climate Change With VACS Earth Genome
Caroline Carter & Kelsey Taylor, Stamen Design
In support of the US Department of State’s Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, Stamen Design teamed up with Earth Genome to create VACS Explorer, an interactive cartographic tool that allows users to compare the modeled viability of different crops in Africa in 2050 depending on which UN climate change scenario unfolds. Climate change will test agriculture practices across the globe in ways humans can’t fully predict. We built the VACS Explorer in attempts to make these agricultural decisions more data-driven. Hear how we use features like small multiples, supplementary sand & soil and nutrition data, a navigable minimap, and more to build out this experience for all users.

In the Hot Seat: Acquiring Kernel Density Heat Map Design Guidance Through Delphi and Survey Methods
Lauren McKinney-Wise, Portland State University
Kernel density heat maps have emerged as a new, popular thematic map type. Yet, unlike other thematic map types, little if any published guidance exists for effective heat map design. This is significant because maps are highly persuasive objects that are often utilized to communicate important information. To address this literature gap, I conducted a Delphi experiment with cartographic experts to gather heat map design guidance and then tested the effectiveness of the expert-informed heat map design guidance among public reference librarians in the US using an online survey. This is a shortened version of my master's thesis presentation.

Cheap and Pricey: NPR Leveraged Free Tools To Build and Host Our Own Slippy Maps. Was It Worth It?
Daniel Wood, NPR
This year, NPR published an extremely detailed tool to help gardeners around the country understand the updated USDA plant hardiness zone map. To do this, we built our own slippy maps, utilizing all free and open-source tools: Maplibre GL JS, Protomaps, OpenMapTiles, Tilezen, OSM data, and more. The final product was so cool. It is extremely cheap (in $) and extremely costly (in time, if you're a n00b like me). Come and weigh the costs and benefits together. You will learn about the recent (re)explosion of open source tools for making detailed, performant, and pretty maps online, how ChatGPT helped me understand documentation I didn't want to read, and what I'd do differently next time.

Creating a 3D Map of the Haleakalā Volcano on Mauii
Jim Eynard, U.S. National Park Service
The summit in Haleakalā National Park, at 10,023 feet (3,055m) , is the tallest peak on the island of Maui in Hawaii. This map uses high resolution aerial imagery and elevation data in a 3D perspective view to show the the dramatic summit area including the road to the top, the visitor centers, viewpoints, and the many trails in the nearly 7 mile wide steep sided depression, often referred to as a crater.

Bringing Transparency to Freelance Mapmaking
Daniel Huffman, somethingaboutmaps
Freelancing mapping can be a lonely business. Without regular insight into our peers, we're left wondering if we're making the right business decisions. Should I make everyone sign a contract? Should I charge a flat rate or hourly? And the biggest one: how much should I charge my clients? It's easy to be uncertain about what we're doing if we don't know what's typical for our peers. Since 2018, Daniel Huffman & Aly Ollivierre have been conducting a biennial survey of freelance cartographers in order to bring transparency to the business, and help all of us thrive. In this presentation, we'll have a look at some of the results of the last several years, both the expected and the surprising.

Discussing Current Limits and Future Opportunities in Mobile Map Design
Lily Houtman, Penn State University
Designing maps for mobile devices is increasingly important in our modern work. Following a preliminary study focused on mobile thematic maps in the context of data journalism, I highlight a few key limitations in this area of research: types of interactivity, time constraints, simultaneous design, and ability to conduct user testing. In addition to presenting conclusions from my previous work, I describe potential avenues for future work on the same subject. I plan to make audience engagement a significant portion of my talk, gaining knowledge from currently practicing data journalists and others who work on mobile thematic maps to help inform my future research questions.

Digital Diary: Writing Down Your Notes and Your Process
Rachel Stevenson, Colorado - Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management 
When writing code, one can often add comments about their process as they write their script or program.
When developing a map product, there lacks this inability to track comments throughout the map-making process.
While yes, task tracking exists in ArcGIS Pro. I find it lacks the ability capture my thought process.
One of my best practices is to track my process through details notes.
In this presentation, I'll share with you how I track my map-making process and why you should consider making this practice apart of your workflow.

Defining a Brand of Cartography
Lee France, onX Maps
In late 2022, onX maps, a company focused on mapping recreational pursuits for millions of outdoor enthusiasts, decided to invest big into cartography. They formed a team dedicated to defining the look and feel of their foundational product: the map. In this talk we'll dive into that team's journey to discovering what it means to define a brand of cartography, and how to anchor around that brand to create beautiful map designs that are highly functional and tailored to the needs of specific user groups.

Are You Mappier than a 5th Grader?
Dave McLaughlin, Penn State University
Building on a Career Day presentation about the life of a Geospatial Data Visualization Software Engineer, I developed and facilitated a 90-minute mapping workshop for thirty-five fifth graders. Working with colored pencils and paper, and using Beescape (beescape.psu.edu) as the model, we started with some creative cartography, learned how to encode research data from biologists onto our maps, then investigated the landscape to determine the most beneficial areas for pollinators. See photos from the session, and hear about the process and lessons learned from putting together a reusable lesson plan to inspire the next generation of cartographers.

Evaluating Beescape NexGen
Anthony Robinson, Lily Houtman, Dave McLaughlin & Christina Grozinger, The Pennsylvania State University
Beescape NexGen makes it possible to visualize pollinator health metrics across landscapes. As part of an iterative user-centered design process, we evaluated a Beescape prototype and found many areas for improvement. This work led to a comprehensive re-design. In this talk we report results from a recent usability and utility evaluation with beekeepers and the re-designed Beescape NexGen. Our findings make clear that our iterative design process has benefited its usability and utility, and we have clear directions now for how to support its continued evolution.

Untangling Rhode Island’s Forest Habitat: Interactive Mapping at the Confluence of Art and Cartography
Quinn Cowing, Brown University
In designing a final project for my cartography course, I scoured journals and grew enamored with embroidered maps. Specifically, I was inspired by colcha embroidered maps from the San Luis Valley. These maps weave geography with cultural sights and rich history to make accurate representations of local areas. While these artworks heighten the cultural significance of maps, I wanted my embroidery to elevate map interactivity. Therefore, I embroidered the different layers of my map of Rhode Island forest types on separate sheets of tulle. The map viewer is thus able to interact with the map by selecting which layers they would like to view. This work ultimately melds art and cartography to provide an exciting aspect of user interaction.

Teaching Atlas Project Management: Lessons and Reflections
P. William Limpisathian & Alicia Adelle Iverson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
In the dynamic landscape of cartographic education and project management, how do we effectively prepare students for the multifaceted demands of modern map production? Beyond mastering cartographic techniques, students must also acquire the skills to take ownership, manage concurrent tasks, and collaborate seamlessly—a blend of competencies often overlooked in traditional cartographic curricula. This talk reflects on the challenges and insights from developing and teaching an exploratory atlas production and project management course. Drawing from our in-class experiences, we explore strategies that bridge the curricular gap between cartographic excellence and effective project management. Our discussion encompasses practical tips, pitfalls to avoid, and successful approaches to modeling and managing a complex atlas project in the confines of a classroom.

Understanding Lhasa through Declassified Spy Satellite Images
Tsering Shawa, Princeton University
Lhasa is the spiritual and political center of Tibet. It is believed that in around 633 AD Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo moved his capital from the Yarlung valley to Lhasa. Before it became the capital of Tibet, it was a desolate and swampy valley. Today Lhasa is one of the largest and most vibrant cities in Tibet. In this talk I will use declassified spy satellite images and maps to understand the extent of old Lhasa and identify important historical sites that do not exist now.

Where Did They Go? Mapping Out-Migration From Mammoth Cave National Park, 1920-1940
Collins Eke
The 52,830-acre Mammoth Cave National Park, located in the karst region of south-central Kentucky, was formally established in July of 1941, culminating a nearly three-decade process of park creation that displaced several thousands of residents of the proposed park area. Based on a sample taken from the 1920 U.S. Census, the residents’ migration destinations in the 1930 and 1940 censuses were mapped in a geographic information system. The data collected was represented through chloropleth maps and graduated circle maps. Maps were also constructed to identify destinations of specific sociodemographic subgroups of migrants — Black, White, homeowners, and renters.

Mapping Archaeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai Mountains: Transitions in Cartography from 1994 to 2010
James Meacham, University of Oregon
The high valleys of the Altai Mountains of Mongolia contain some of the richest concentrations of rock art and ancient monuments in North Asia. Starting in 1994, an international team assembled to study these complexes. During a 16-year period of annual field work, rapid advances in available geospatial base data and mapping technology allowed the team’s cartographers to radically improve the mapping of the region’s landscape and archaeology. This presentation covers the evolution of the maps and data visualizations from the research, which ultimately contributed to the complexes’ designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mapping Vulnerabilities: Projected Extreme Heat Risk for Southern Mobile Home Residents
Laura Diaz-Villaquiran, Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance
Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related death in the United States, and Southern communities are particularly vulnerable to it. This research examines the geospatial relationship between projected heat increases in the U.S. South and the prevalence of mobile housing units. Preliminary findings indicate that counties in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi are highly vulnerable. Mobile home residents, who often face concentrated disadvantages such as high energy costs, low incomes, and rural isolation are particularly at risk. This research highlights the need for targeted interventions to leverage hazard resiliency and energy efficiency in these communities.

Time Travel with Cartography: Mapping Philadelphia’s Urban Landscape Evolution Across Two Centuries
Emily Zhou, University of Pennsylvania
In this presentation, I will delve into the process of reproducing old maps and rendering the early streetscapes of Philadelphia from an urban design project of mine focused on historic preservation. Drawing from historical land use maps, photographs, architectural data, and oral histories, we will compare the characteristics of maps and urban landscapes spanning three distinct eras in Philadelphia. Through this comparative analysis, I will discuss the various design decisions made at each stage of the project, which include choosing the texture, color, line-work, patterns, and typography. I will also outline the overall workflow from McNeel Rhino 3D to Adobe Software and share eight hands-on tips and tricks for designing historical maps in Illustrator as well as incorporating vintage effects into your work in Photoshop.

The Impact of WWII on Cartography
Judith Tyner, CSU Long Beach, emerita
Prior to WWII, cartography was a “mere tool” for geographers, not a discipline. There was only one American textbook, and few universities and colleges offered courses in cartography. There were also no courses in air photo interpretation and map reading. During and after the war, the number of universities that offered cartography classes increased dramatically and the subject had morphed from a tool to a discipline. This paper examines the impact of the war on the field over a short period of time.

Will-o’-the-Wisp, Map Collection Tours, Hauntology and Deep Time Spectres
Larry Laliberte, University of Alberta
In renewing ways to navigate institutional spaces of maps, and their containers, recent William C. Wonders map collection engagement workshops incorporated tactile ambience, aurals, and experiential movement to open up ways to re-read cartographic renderings as apparitions, situating their re-inscription, and retention in the spectres of deep time. By beckoning maps through hauntology – a praxis that disrupts the fabric of the normalized and operates in the fault lines of authorized histories, in-person tours construct terrains that interrogate and counter settler cartographies inhabiting a spatial corpus of colonial history. A history that continues to confer power, and haunt the landscape.

Mapping History Using Digital Tools
Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen
It's easy to think that our current maps represent a 1:1 relationship with the world as it is now; Google and others have given us tools to be able to navigate so effortlessly that the problem of mapping seems solved. Going back in time, though, presents a different set of challenges. Historical maps and spatial representations operate according to a different set of rules than our current maps do, and much can be lost in translation. Using examples from Stamen projects for the Alan Turing Institute, Columbia University, the Getty Institute, the University of Richmond, and Densho's maps of Japanese-American internment camps, among others, this talk will offer an overview of the problem space of historical mapping in a digital context, as well as provide examples of solutions arrived at through hard-won grapplings with sometimes difficult histories.

Join the fun in a longstanding NACIS tradition -- our own very mappy version of Jeopardy! Contestants can sign up for a team at the registration desk. Winners take home prizes and we all leave having learned more than when we arrived. If you prefer to watch from the sidelines, join the audience to cheer on (and heckle) the contestants in this highly entertaining show of geography trivia - with a special new twist in honor of Dennis McClendon.