Stereotype maps: Is that what they think of us?

[Generic Other]

The World According to Americans, from Yanko Tsvetkov’s Mapping Stereotypes project.

There is nothing quite as obsolete as an out-of-date map: untrustworthy, suspect, politically incorrect. An atlas that still has Czechoslovakia on it may be historically interesting, but it illustrates a world that no longer exists. Change is constant: new countries spring into being, population centres shift, capitals are shunted from one place to another. With every adjustment, another map is rendered useless.

Why not map ignorance instead? In a fast-changing world, national stereotypes remain remarkably stable. View the globe from an American perspective and you can still get away with labelling the whole of Russia "Commies". If nothing else, it saves you having to spell Tajikistan.

The Mapping Stereotypes project is the work of Yanko Tsvetkov, a graphic artist who also goes by the name Alphadesigner. Tsvetkov has lived all over Europe, but back in 2009 when he got the idea to produce maps charting prevailing stereotypes, he was still in his native Bulgaria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/feb/17/stereotype-maps-tsvetkov#_

[leveymg]

1. A keeper.

[HopeHoops]

2. I saw the site a while back - the Italian one is great.

All about "pussy".