l’intérêt de l’usage des cartogrammes: l’exemple de la cartographie de l’élection présidentielle française de 2002

Computers are not only used in cartography to produce electronic versions of conventional manual methods. Some types of map projections also draw on their computing power, which makes it possible to produce extremely useful innovations, such as anamorphic cartograms. The method described consists in transforming the surface of geographical entities depending on a chosen variable. Using a topographic base transformed in this way to map the population, the analysis focuses on the municipalities of the Pays de la Loire and the Centre region, then changes scale with a map projection of the results of the presidential election of 2002. While disorganising the usual geographical points of reference, cartograms have a place in semiotics and warrant special attention for their contribution to our knowledge of space.