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The journey from textual descriptions and valiant guesses to the exceptionally accurate maps of today was a millennia-long enterprise of small steps. However, as the US graphic designer and video producer Jeremy Shuback explores in this brief history of mapmaking, the endeavour took a somewhat giant leap with the project that would later become known as the Catalan Atlas (1375). The ambitious project, which was assembled mostly by Jewish cartographers, combined the mapmaking expertise of the Muslim world and the nautical prowess of the Christian world. And, as Shuback details, in addition to being perhaps the most accurate and important map of the Middle Ages, it was also quite beautiful, with detailed illustrations of ancient rulers, Christian mythology and more woven into the landscape.
Via Open Culture
Director: Jeremy Shuback
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
video
Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
video
History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
video
Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes