Map design and selection of artisan artefacts
Colombia has often been cataloged as a ‘megadiverse’ country. It is currently ranking first worldwide “in bird and orchid species diversity and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fishes, and amphibians” (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2015). However, it is also a multicultural country with more than 100 indigenous ethnic groups and about 65 different spoken native languages. Its geographical richness has allowed Colombia to be geographically divided into 6 distinct natural regions, each with its very distinctive climate, fauna and flora, customs, and people. It is important to understand that the areas that these different groups of people inhabit inform their use of materials, techniques, colours, and ultimately artisan artefact patterns.
For this project, I will focus on the 5 mainland regions:
- The Andean Region
- The Caribbean Region
- The Pacific Region
- The Orinoquía Region
- The Amazon Region
- The Insular Region (offshore islands and not included for this project)
In deciding which communities (out of the many) would be represented in the interaction, the number of visual and written information played an important role. Since one of my main objectives is to communicate the original meaning of an artefact’s pattern, I needed access to enough veridic information. Every community can be found online, but not all of them have gone through an exhaustive documentation process.
In a chart, I have grouped the artisan artefacts, the maker community and the precise location under the main region they belong to. These communities were found through a collection of resources, such as books (Villegas & Jiménez, 2000) and online government archives (Artesanías de Colombia SIART, 2014).
Chosen Communities and artefacts
After grouping different communities, I chose one artefact per Region. This selection will ideally cover a well-distributed area within the Colombian map. Finally, these five Case Studies will be used as a proof of concept for what could be a bigger interactivity project.
| Region | Caribbean Region | Andean Region | Orinoquía Region | Amazon Region | Pacific Region |
| Community | Zenú | Guacamaya | Sikuani | Cubeo | Kuna |
| Artifact | Sombrero Vueltiao | Cesteria en rollo | Banco Ceremonial | Ceramica | Molas |
| Location | Córdoba | Boyacá | Mulitple locations | Vaupés | Chocó |
| Sample | | | | | |
Mapping the communities
After choosing the communities and their main artisanal artefacts, I have located them on the Colombian map. The distribution between the location points will be of special importance for the interaction process, not only because I want to cover an ‘even’ visual area, but also because of the current functioning of the code. The Processing sketch (the output) will map those location points, and it will use them to create ‘states’. Those states will allow for more information to be displayed once a region is reached. Click here to learn more about the Code States.
Map Style and variations
As explained earlier, the Colombian map is divided into Regions, and for the visual aspect of the interaction I wanted to communicate the richness of the country according to them. For each region, I chose representative fauna and flora, buildings, or industries, and placed them within their corresponding place of origin. I used some icons and I kept the geographical division clear through the variation of colous and clear division lines. The different variations below show some of the different colour decisions made, with version 3 being chosen for the interaction as it allowed for a better visual legibility.
References & Bibliography
Convention on Biological Diversity (2015) Colombia – Main Details, Convention on Biological Diversity. Available at: https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=co (Accessed: 20 December 2023).
Villegas, L. and Jiménez, B.V. (2000) Artefactos: Colombian crafts from the Andes to the Amazon. Bogotá, D.C, Colombia : Villegas Editores.
Artesanías de Colombia SIART, – Sistema de Snformación para la Artesanía (2014) Artesanias de Colombia, Artesanias de Colombia – Artesanías de Colombia. Available at: https://artesaniasdecolombia.com.co/PortalAC/General/template_index.jsf (Accessed: 06 December 2023).