BA4 : Contextual Studies - Maps -

The first presentation we had was all about maps and how they evolved throughout history and they way maps in games now still take influence from maps made centuries ago.

What I am interested in is how maps are used in different forms of popular culture such as movies, games and even artwork and how they influence each other and take aspects from a variety of maps produced several years ago.

The Map of Skyrim from Skyrim (Video Game) - Released 2011 - 

The Map of Wilderland from The Hobbit (Book) - Released 1937 -

Map of Middle Earth - 1954 -

These maps have a lot of similarities for obvious reasons, the maps used in the Hobbit and all of Tolkien's work has become the standard style that most fantasy genre's look to while trying to create a map for their game or book. Yet the style Tolkien used must of been greatly influenced from the maps made in the middle ages. Such as this map called; Map of the Holy Land by Heinrich Bünting made in 1581.

This map and the other 3 maps have many things in common such as the way mountains are displayed and the absence of colour, as well as the very scriptive typography and how the main areas are in a much larger and bold text while the remaining areas are in a standard size.

Bünting also made real places seem magical with the use of mythological creatures in his illustration of the world, if the names of the continents where not there this world map could be easily conceived as a fantasy world created by Tolkien or Bethesda.

This use of creatures is reminiscent in many fantasy maps including the map for The Hobbit which shows the dragon Smaug, which somehow adds more believability to the world as people really would mark down where a dragon lived.