Motro Article Reflection

Overall, I thought the Shari Motro article about the Swiss Cheese Map was very interesting. Even though I didn’t know much about the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks prior to reading the article, I think Motro did a great job of going into detail about the talks and the influence that mapmaking can have on negotiations. I especially liked the point Motro made in the middle of page 47 on how everything you put into a map will affect the viewer’s interpretation, such as color and cropping. I also enjoyed the fact that Motro pointed out that the hardest part of mapping the agreement was how to map Area C and Motro proceeded to provide us with four different maps on how area C could be mapped. I thought this emphasized the point that as a mapmaker, your interpretation of data and the colors and symbols you use to portray that data can heavily influence the way the map is seen by the viewer. All in all, I enjoyed learning how maps can be used in peace talks and that even though it may be difficult, it is very important to make sure that those maps are designed properly.