We are grateful to Emmanuelle Hingray at the University of Luxembourg for the fantastic design of the quadtrees logo!
Do you see the cube or the hexagon? Both maybe? (and the Q of Quadtrees*, obviously!)
Sometimes we geographers have a flat x, y understanding of space. A useful simplification for sure…. sometimes. But space comes with many z dimensions: physical height, time, socio-economic, or environmental dimensions. A quadtree is a manner to compress a 2D (x,y) based information (z usually being a color code on a map) within a nested structure.
Measuring and modelling in geography is in all case a mental projection and a kind of scientific compression of what is happening. They are insufficient and do not pretend to bring up truth, but they are helpful simplifications and scientific constructs.
…all this wrapped up in a sleek logo!
* Note that the name, Quadtrees, chosen for our virtual grouping of quantitative geographers in Lux, was suggested by Kate Jones within a brainstorming effort with Geoffrey Caruso who struggled to find a catchy and sensical name.