From For the Hearts

One of my current end exam projects is an algorithmically generated map of Wikipedia. Thus the name: cartography + wiki = Wikiography. It won’t be a map of the whole of Wikipedia though, as the English language section now contains more than 1.5 million articles with an estimated 80+ million inter-article links.

I’m working with the Wikipedia Laboratory data mining department at the University of Osaka, Japan. They are helping me program the algorithms that will form the basis of the map.

To limit the scope of the map I have chosen to focus on what I call an ‘American Power Structure’. It will be a map of current connections between people, events, places, ideas, philosophies, organisations, and companies that all have a position of power in the current American sphere of influence.

The Wikipedia database will be traversed for articles and links that meet the pre-set conditions, and the results are compiled in a file that can be rendered as a graph without user intervention. The design decisions regarding typography, size, colour and so forth are pre-set by me, and are applied in relation to each node and connection.

Finally the finished map will be printed in very large format, so that it holds the many nodes and connections, and so that they remain readable. Finally the print will be installed at the graduation show in a manner fitting to the final size. The finished map will be rendered in a way that automatically tries to avoid overlaps and other undesirable effects.

The map will be using the Kulby family of typefaces I’m designing. It’s space saving properties and high legibility at very small sizes are ideal for a map of this kind, where a lot of content have to be displayed.

The project is concluded and has materialized in a 20m long map about current American Power Structure.