Cartography in Cinema and Children's Literature

Vicky Johnson (https://twitter.com/hurricanevicky) will guide us on an adventure all about cartography and maps in movies and fiction! Between adventuring, we'll have some time for networking/talking, light snacks, and drawing our own maps or thinking about how to map your favorite movie, children's book or TV show.

No laptop is required for this meet up - come and listen, learn new mappy things, and meet new mappy people.

From Vicky, cinematic and literary map extraordinaire:

📖 Beloved books like The Phantom Tollbooth, The Hobbit and The Princess Bride all feature engaging maps that serve as gateways to imaginary lands. "Here," say these maps, "leave your cares behind. You’re in this other world now." From the Hundred-Acre Wood to the Land of Oz, maps have enchanted young readers and enhanced their reading experience. In this presentation, I will cover a selection of maps found in classic and popular children's literature, delve into their origin, design process, and impact on the story, then compare each map to examples of real-world cartography.

🎥 From the dotted line journeys of Indiana Jones and the traveling by map shortcut of The Muppet Movie to Lex Luthor's model of New California in Superman and the treasure map at the heart of Romancing the Stone, on-screen cartography has played a memorable role in these and many other classic adventure movies. This talk will examine the way maps are represented in these films, both as plot drivers and as decorative elements, as well as the carto-centric tropes, in-jokes, and mistakes contained therein.