A place for the work to live.
Mapanaut began with a simple wish: to take a love of old maps and make something people could explore. A scan is a beginning. Read carefully, it can become a collection of names, lines, assumptions and stories.
The first project follows a chart of the Arctic as known in 1845. Digitizing it raised a question that now connects everything here: what is the difference between the world, and the world we think we know?
One map. Several lives.
In the atlas, a chart becomes something to look at closely. In the workshop, it becomes structured linework and readable text. In the expedition simulation, it becomes the surface on which a player makes decisions without the benefit of hindsight.
These are different ways into the same subject. They share their source material and their curiosity, while each keeps its own purpose.
Keep the source in sight.
We want to preserve the character of a map, including its errors. To make it clear which marks belong to the original chart, which were added later, and which are our interpretation. To name sources, explain uncertainty, and publish work when it is ready.
This is the beginning of that effort. The atlas has one map. The game is a prototype. The workshop is still finding its shape. There is plenty left to discover.
Start with the first map