Deconstruction of fractals and its implications for cartographic education

The research reported here was designed for two reasons:firstly, to involve anyone with an interest in cartographic visualization to participate in el iciting cartographic knowledge and to provide them with the opportunity to contribute their practical knowledge and opinions: and secondly, to inform the design of algorithms for line generalisation. In the past, there has be en some resistance to such mining and codification of expert knowledge. how ever, many cartographers now welcome highly interactive computer graphics, computer mapping and virtual reality systems as providing them with new opp ortunities for launching cartography into a new creative age. Despite nearl y thirty years of research on line generalisation algorithms, the available algorithms are somewhat simplistic. This research, undertaken under the au spices of the BCS Design Group, explored the behavioural tendencies of cart ographers engaged in line filtering. The results show that a carefully cont rived, even if obviously artificial, exercises on the deconstruction of lin es into meaningless forms can prompt cartographers to observe, record, and discuss their own cognitive processing.