When i enrolled onto my degree in cartography in 1989 there was literally one immovable entry requirement – normal colour vision. I’m not even sure if that stipulation would even be allowable these days but that was the rule back then. And imagine the surprise we had when, in the third year, it transpired that one of our cohort had somehow got through the course with a colour deficiency that only became obvious during our final year project work. We wondered why all his colour choices were, well…brown. He hadn’t even been aware. So we helped him through without letting our tutors know, and no-one ever found out.

These days there’s far more awareness, and software and the web has plenty of tools to allow the checking of colour choices so they meet a wide range of colour vision situations.

A decent tenet is to ensure there’s variation in the value of a greyscale version of the colours across the map to ensure distinctive map elements. So i wondered what we might do to illustrate this. I decided to ask for a map made with poor colours to compare with a decent colour range so let’s see what we can muster.

Oh dear. I mean – it does a great job of showing the problems of a rainbow colour scheme and how it’s impossible to make any empirical sense in a greyscale version which shows similar value and saturation (a key mechanism to differentiate colour for colour-blind people). But it uses rainbow colours for a choropleth which is also useless for normally sighted people because there’s no sensible order to show low-high. Someone wrote a book that includes this in way more detail. I recommend it. And then there’s the map projection.

Ugh! I guess I didn’t really specify these aspects of the image so it’s kinda my fault – but also an important lesson that without squaring off everything in your prompt you could easily get unintended consequences. I could have iterated to correct the problems but I thought it a useful lesson so just left it as is.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

I want a map that reflects on colour blindness awareness day. In cartography, maps sometimes use colour palettes that simply do not work for different colour deficiencies. The map should be of a theme relevant to colour blindness such as the proportions of a population that are colour blind, but i want the map to be made as if it represents the very worst of colour palettes as if a colour blind person was viewing it. This means that virtually every colour on the map, while fine in normal colour will look like virtually the same shade of grey. Please colour half the map as if viewed by a person with normal sight, and the other half as if viewed by a colour blind person. Please also indicate on the map the different major forms of colour blindness.

I was going to post this on Sunday, late. But I figured that would be just plain silly and as you know Ian and I are taking this mapping experiment incredibly seriously every single day. But what a day this is! A celebration of taking things slowly, appreciating life’s unhurried moments, and generally slowing down. That can’t be a bad thing in today’s ridiculously hurried world.

In fact, if I were to make an analogy with the world of cartography my big critique of all the technological impacts that have brought about new ways to draw maps rests squarely with time. Time, in the sense that technology compacts the time taken to make maps. What used to take months or longer now takes minutes or less. But the thinking time required to figure out what you want to show and how hasn’t really changed. it’s still critical to do the thinking. Figure the map out. Then, and only then commit the ideas to page or screen using the tools of your trade. Thinking in cartography is fast becoming a lost art, and possibly the most important loss of the squeeze in cartographic production time.

So…whilst today was instigated by the Procrastinator’s Club of the US in 1956, just slow down and give your map the time it deserves. Or not, in the case of this rather hurried effort with some very odd examples of tardiness.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

Can you create a map showing the locations of famous incidences where someone was late for something. Style the map with various timepieces. Please make a geographically accurate map of the places first, then style it.

What would the world be like without the Spice Girls. No, wait, I read that wrong. Today is a day to celebrate actual spices…not a crazy mix of scary, sporty, baby, ginger, and posh (though that sounds intriguing – maybe there’s another day for that?).

The silk road was a network of roads and sea routes that traders used from the fourth to fifteenth centuries. So the map i want is broadly to show the approximate routes used, adorned by colourful spices. Since I’m short on time to make this map I’m going to cheat by asking the LLM to specifically not label places. This will avoid the possibility of having to spend too long correcting misplaced labels. Cheating, yes. Sensible. Yas, also (in this instance because of other constraints).

Spice up your life!

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

Can you make a map of the traditional historical spice trade routes and the Asian silk road. This map should be colourful and show different spices from across the world and their origins. Please keep labels to a minimum and ensure they are accurate if you’re going to use them.

Cheese-on-toast Sir? No! nothing as mundane. This is a day for the delectable Welsh Rarebit (Rabbit). Now, I’m already going to annoy purists because I can’t stand mustard so I go with the version that demands Worcestershire Sauce but if you’ve never had Welsh Rarebit then today is a good day to tantilise your taste buds.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

Let’s celebrate Welsh Rarebit Day. The irony being that there’s no recorded evidence of the dish being invented in Wales. I’d like a map that illustrates the different variants you get in England, Wales, and Scotland with recipes for the different versions. Don’t use a geographical map. Instead, use a stylized version with three pieces of rarebit and cheese oozing across the borders. Please adorn the map with facts about the dish, and please ensure the title block is horizontal, not curved. Please also not the spelling options with some versions using the word rabbit, again ironically given there’s no rabbit in the recipe. Finally, please illustrate the map with tasty images of a classic Welsh Rarebit.