Here’s a new visualization technology I created in 2021. This is the Luminous Cartographic Display: a physical 3D map with internal illumination that creates realistic renderings of terrain, day
and night cycles, environmental phenomena, and data visualizations.
The physical 3D map display renders ‘pixel art’ animations created in blender, combining GIS data, lighting specific to days of the year, satellite images, and animation created with physics sprites and manual pixel-by-pixel editing. The piece was designed and fabricated
by Tactile Terrain (me, James Tyrwhitt-Drake) with assistance from Metrographics Art + Design. It features the area around Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, and is on display at the Waterton Visitor Centre if you want to visit it. It is the most complex 3D map I have created to date. If you are curious about this piece or my other cartographic artwork, check out TactileTerrain.ca