“An Account of the Origins of Conceptual Models of Geographic Space” – Oleg McNoleg (1996)
A humorous writer under the pen name, Oleg McNoleg (of Noplace, USA), provides an amusing pseudo-history of the origin of geographic space. According to the author, the pigcells and poly-gone conceptions of space laid the groundwork for the pixel and polygon. The imaginary Tessellati and Vectules pay homage to the tessellation-like, uniformly-shaped cells of raster data and the “freeform spatial unit” of vector data (2). This narrative illustrates how raster and vector data types emerged through different needs and subsequently fulfill different spatial requirements. I am unfamiliar with the actual origins of the pixel and the polygon but I imagine they were not conceived under the same research conditions.
This may be stretching the allegorical meaning of this parody, but perhaps the narrative’s absurdity is meant to draw attention to the weird ways in which people conceptualize, use, and are dependent on space. McNoleg mentions that the Vectules’ ‘poly-gone’ industry made it “possible to sell somebody absolutely nothing and get away with it” (2). We now live in an age where mapping technologies are sold for millions or even billions of dollars e.g. Apple’s acquisition of Embark and Google’s purchase of Waze.
On a side note, I believe this article may set a record for oddest list of keywords.
– BCBD