Installation artist Luke Jerram’s past work includes large reproductions of the Earth, Moon, Sun and Mars. His latest is Mirror Moon, a touchable stainless steel globe of the Moon created with NASA topographic data.
A one-metre version of Mirror Moon debuted at the Royal Society last year. A larger, two-metre version is coming to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich next March to mark its 350th anniversary. Jerram discusses the project here.
The exhibition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s maps at the Architectural Association Gallery in London (previously, previously) wrapped up last Saturday. The Library of America has an interview with Sarah Shin, who co-curated the exhibit and co-edited the accompanying book (which comes out in North America next month). A sample:
I’ve always loved how Le Guin describes writing as translating, asking “What is the other text, the original?” Similarly, I think that drawing maps, for Le Guin, was a way of making visible what already exists elsewhere in the source: “the deep sea where ideas swim, and one catches them.”
Thanks to Zvi for the tip.
The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin ed. by So Mayer and Sarah Shin. Spiral House, 21 Oct 2025 (U.S. 10 Jan 2026), £23. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop.
John Nelson’s near-annual globe ornament blog posts are always a revelation. With the exception of the one time he went to 3D printing, they’re paper craft exercises that show just how many ways you can run card stock through a printer1 and end up with a reasonable approximation of a globe. This year’s, which uses spiralled vertical strips instead of gores, is no exception.
See also the ArcGIS Blog mirror, the modifiable ArcGIS Pro package, and a roundup of his past craft ornaments.
NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday had a segment on the Osher Map Library last Sunday.
Engineers of Map Art, a book on the history of Swiss cartography that focuses on work done at ETH Zurich, came out in English last September. (The German edition, Ingenieure der Kartenkunst, came out last January.) “This publication provides a comprehensive overview of 170 years of cartography at ETH Zurich and pays tribute to the personalities who have contributed to the development of the discipline. It is published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation and highlights its contribution to science and practice.” Eduard Imhof is covered in chapter 4. It’s available for free download as an open-access PDF; a hard copy can be ordered for CHF 50. Thanks to Peter Wrobel for the tip.
Two more books from Belt Publishing came out this week, both part of their “50 Maps” series, each focusing on an Ohio city: Cincinnati in 50 Maps, edited by Nick Swartsell and with cartography by Andy Woodruff; and Columbus in 50 Maps, edited by Brent Warren and with cartography by Vicky Johnson-Dahl. They join Cleveland in 50 Maps (2019) and other books in the series that aren’t about Ohio cities. Columbus-based independent news outlet Matter has a feature on Columbus in 50 Maps.
Related: Map Books of 2025.
Linda Stevens believes that the GIS industry is showing signs of enshittification: “Coined by tech critic Cory Doctorow, ‘enshitification’ describes how once-great platforms decay under the pressures of greed and control. They begin as open, user-centered systems but gradually morph into closed ecosystems optimized for corporate rent-seeking rather than public good. GIS, long built on ideals of openness and shared data, now shows many of these symptoms.” In a second piece she says GIS, “with its specialized user base and high switching costs, is particularly vulnerable,” and lists some warning signs to watch out for (price hikes, degraded featurs and service, lock-in, upselling). She neither names names nor specifies specifics, mind.
Previously: Reimagining GIS.
Alabama’s state senate elections will now use a map drawn by an 18-year-old student. The judge chose the map over options put forward by the court’s special master because it changed the existing map less (see the court decision). The new map was necessary after the judge found the previous map violated the Voting Rights Act. [Glyn Moody]
National Rail’s All Stations Interactive Route Map is only nominally interactive, in that you can pan and zoom, but clicking on lines or stations doesn’t actually do anything. That said, it shows every operator, route and station in Great Britain down to subways and tram lines, and unlike the static PDF version it’s actually legible when you zoom out. More rail network maps of Great Britain here. [Richard Fairhurst]
