Dominique Taléghani is a French scientific journalist by day, a designer of imaginary cartographies by night. On his or her (Dominique is one of those unisex first names) blog, several examples are listed, among which is this one, Territoires occupés
Dominique mailed me to explain his/her fascination with maps – a fascination that most mapophiles understand, if not share:
« I’ve always loved maps of all sorts, for their inherent beauty but also as a starting point for intense daydreaming – I remember a map of the Yukon that I scoured for its smallest details for hours on end. »
Some of Dominique’s imaginary cartographies can be found on his/her blog, aptly titled Cartomane.
Much of Dominique’s artwork (for I would hardly call them maps) is based on Michelin’s 1:200′000 maps of France, though not the one reproduced here. It looks like Dominique uses both snippets of original Michelin maps, as well as the same iconography (yellow lines for regional roads, red for state roads, orange and yellow ribbon for “autoroutes,” and the black and white blocks for villages) in his own creations. For example, “Ville à la campagne” (City in the countryside: http://cartomane.blog.lemonde.fr/2006/08/05/2006_08_ville_la_campag/) uses the symbols for scenic country lanes (narrow white road with green border) and various small towns and chapels inside and outside the outline of Paris, keeping the “Périphérique” (ring road) as a highway. Other maps also use snippets of the French topo maps produced by the IGN (Institut Géographique National).
I like Dominique’s artwork because it illustrates the beauty of those map elements, and recombines them in visually and intellectually appealing ways. I’ll go out on a limb and say it makes a statement about our relationship to the terrain through the abtraction of maps, or maybe our relationship to maps through the abstraction of terrain.
I thank you for sharing this link, because I love those traditional Michelin maps. Not only did I grow up with them on our family vacations, I find they are still the most complete and readable representations of a road network. I followed our routes and scanned the French countryside the way Dominique explored the Yukon. I later used those maps for bicycling, because they show every type of road, significant grades, as well as every curve of the road. The clear lines, slight exaggeration of roads and towns, and accurate coloring and shading of the terrain have never been matched by any North American map maker that I’ve seen (Rand McNally et al.). National Geographic comes the closest, and I’d be willing to bet Dominique’s map of the Yukon is one of theirs.
Comment by Andy K — July 9, 2007 @ 8:36 pm
извините, не понравилось
Comment by Светко — October 19, 2008 @ 1:14 am
thanks for this map..
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:44 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:30 am
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 4:37 am