On the third of July I delivered the closing keynote at Camp Digital 2025, a conference at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester organized by Nexer Digital. This was a brand new talk I put together specifically for this event, and this is the companion page for the talk – for anyone looking for a recap or to completely nerd out.

The premise is this: What you see in a map can never be the complete truth. Many choices are made in their making, based on intent, values, real-world constraints, bias and budget. I used the world map to bring home these points, highlighting how we deceive and are deceived, and emphasising the inherent responsibilities of designers.

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If you were there, thank you for your attention, and do let me know your impression of the talk. Find me on LinkedIn if you want.
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Note: Thanks to the generosity of Nexer Digital, recordings of all the talks from this year and previous years are published for everyone to see.

Slide deck

Download

The Spectacular Lies of Maps
Per Axbom's slide deck from Camp Digital 2025
axbom-spectacular-lies-of-maps-camp-digital-2025-slides.pdf
35 MB
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Full talk on YouTube

Videos in the talk

These were the videos embedded in my presentation. As there was a bit of sound trouble, you can enjoy them with sound here.

0:00
/2:32

Earthrise reconstruction of photo moment (Source)

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/0:18

Imago Mundi 3D model

0:00
/0:30

Hannah Fry peeling an orange. No sound on this one (Source)

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/1:19

Short, trimmed clip from West Wing season 2 episode 16.

This was the first time I delivered this talk and I'll likely do a write-up within a few months. Do subscribe to my newsletter for updates on this and more related to human rights in technology and design. And let me know if you're interested in having me present the talk at other venues.

Audience photos from the talk

If you have any high-resolution photos that you feel comfortable sharing with me, I'd really appreciate being able to use them on my website. You can send them to per@axbom.com.

Photos of Per speaking by James Winstone, Joanna Czutkowna, Megan L., Aleksandra Sielaff, May Viratikul & Becky Colley.

Reactions

"I won’t trust maps from today. I will peel an orange and try flattening it out. I know it won’t work 🍊"
– Nataliya Mykhalchenko
"Per Axbom’s talk on maps […] was incredibly intriguing."
– May Viratikul
"For Per Axbom to then return to our lovely community event after a few years, and calmly blow our minds in such a scholarly but weirdly accessible way topped off a day of double-takes for me."
– Hilary Stephenson
"What an absolute treat it was to hear from Per Axbom on the nonsense that is trying to map a sphere and the weird, wonderful, and sometimes worrisome consequences of mapping the world."
– Megan L.
"I thought Per Axbom's session on the spectacular lies of maps was the perfect way to end the day, with something interesting, a little different, that still made you think - in this case, about how any representative illustration and design you might do is inherently going to distort the truth. But there are ways to minimise that, and ways to ensure the audience understands the trade off."
– Amanda Tribble
"Per Axbom’s closing keynote holds a special place in my map-loving heart 💕🌍 it was a real treat to learn so much from him."
– Eleanor Hamed

Video source material

  1. NASA Earthrise: The 45th Anniversary. Recreating the moment when the crew first saw and photographed the Earth rising from behind the Moon (youtube.com)
  2. Clip from The West Wing season 2 episode 16. CJ Clegg hosts the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality. (vimeo.com)
  3. A Strange Map Projection (Euler Spiral). Hannah Fry talks about map projections and peels an orange. (youtube.com)
  4. Google Earth clip of the longest distance you can travel in a straight line across water (vimeo.com)
  5. Use Literally Anything but Web Mercator (youtube.com)

References

Photos

Unless otherwise specified, photos are from Freepik.com where I have a paid subscription. I always select photos that are marked as not AI-generated.

Further reading and watching if you can't get enough

Podcasts

What’s Your Map?
From historians, scientists and writers to creatives and cultural custodians, people have used maps as a source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration for centuries. Join award-winning expert Professor Jerry Brotton, as in each episode he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart - and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. So if you’re fascinated by history, art, adventure and culture, why not become part of a global community of fellow explorers as we ask - What’s your map? What’s Your Map? is brought to you by Oculi Mundi (‘eyes of the world’), the online home of The Sunderland Collection of antique maps and atlases. For a fully immersive experience, visit Oculi-Mundi.com/podcast to explore each of the maps as you listen.
Pocket CastsPocket Casts
Unfolded: The Harvey Maps Podcast
‘Unfolded’ is an informative mix of cartography and map-related chat, practical advice and real-life stories from the team at HARVEY Maps. Coming up on 50 years of map-making, we dive into why we do what we do and why maps still matter. Listeners will get hands-on advice from map makers on map reading, planning trips, and choosing the right map for their adventure.
Pocket CastsPocket Casts
Ep. 12. Naomi Oreskes: Climate Science, Fiction, and the Fight Against Denialism
Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world’s most powerful podcast player.
Pocket CastsPocket Casts

Books

Five book covers: Mapmatics, A History of the World in 47 borders, Prisoners of Geography, The Phantom Atlas, How to Lie with Maps