Four Thousand

 I thought I'd show you one of the university projects I've been creating for the past 6 months. The hand-in for this project is tomorrow and I think this is my favourite one so far. I chose the subject of cartography and then we had to create a book based on the subject. Because I'm on a creative course, this project acted as our dissertation and had to include atleast 2000 words. The book focuses on the changes of cartography throughout history, particularly focusing on the Ordnance Survey (the national mapping agency for Great Britain). My parents used to work for them and my Uncle still does, so I had great links and content from their knowledge. Cartography is no longer what it used to be, and has changed from being a artform to completely digital based which I think is a shame. I find the idea of drawing a map painstakingly by hand is so fascinating and although it's inevitable with modern technology, I do think it's a shame it's done entirely by computers now. 

The main argument in the book is the idea that paper maps are dying out. What with sat navs and smart phones with GPS, the paper map is being used less and less, and many people think the paper map will be gone in years to come, with people using the internet to print one off, or their phone, instead. I found this project so interesting, and I'm really proud of it. I got it hard bound in a gorgeous blue and the pages are a mix of tracing paper, cartridge paper, cutouts and actual maps. Only one more week and one more hand-in next Wednesday, and I've officially finished university!

P.S. It's called 'Four Thousand' because in the 1970s, the Ordnance Survey employed 4000 staff. Now there's only 1000!