escutcheon

Atlas of Remote Islands

Atlas of Remote Islands

This book is an interesting artifact - I hesitate to call it an “atlas” at all, though that is very much the form it takes. In reality it is more a manifestation of the author’s own love of geography, maps, history and the nature of isolation. And these subjects just so happen to be personal interests of mine…

The maps are visually attractive and all at the same scale, which provides a certain consistency. The accompanying text for each subject island though is more an attempt to convey a sense of “remoteness” through bits of historical narrative. It goes for mood rather than raw information, which is the romantisized, artistic concete behind this whole approach to an “atlas.”

Out of my own desire to group more information about these places - and because it’s so easy to do so - I put together a “Companion Guide to an ‘Atlas of Remote Islands’” using WIkipedia’s “create a book” service. I was pretty surprised at how well it actually works. There is very little that can be done to configure the book other than to rename and group sections, but the default layout is nice.

» Posted: Saturday, March 19, 2011 | Comments (0) | Permanent Link