ˈmap1
Maps
What does it mean to map something? What does it show, and more importantly, what does it leave out? What even is a map? How could that dot represent a sheep, that line a river?
Maps seem, at first glance, to be objective. They show roads and forests and houses in the places where you find those roads and forests and houses. How can you argue with a map that seems to be just a representation of where things are in the world? How can you argue with a map that helps you get where you’re trying to go?
Maps are political, mythical, positional, perspectival. They are representations that prioritize certain types of information. They contribute to the belief that the world is finitely measurable, and infinitely so. They emphasize borders and delineations. They contribute to a worldview where there is an omniscient, objective perspective, and a frequently utilitarian one at that.
In the Badlands, Ranger Christian walks the fence separating US Federal land from Oglala Sioux Reservation land. He walks a line that is sharp and clear on a map, but crumbling and vague in person. A fence deteriorates into the horizon, becoming after a while just some posts and barbed wire tangled in the grasses: “So, right here, I’m in Badlands National Park off the reservation, now I’m in the South Unit on the reservation. So completely different laws and rules. It’s kinda weird how simple pieces of wood and wire can make such a difference. And it’s not even a difference in the landscape. I think that just shows how these are manmade borders, cause it’s not stopping the animals or anything from going back and forth. It’s just signaling whose land is where.”
- a representation usually on a flat surface of the whole or a part of an area
- a diagram or other visual representation that shows the relative position of the parts of something
Maps
What does it mean to map something? What does it show, and more importantly, what does it leave out? What even is a map? How could that dot represent a sheep, that line a river?
“The practice of mapping is fundamentally anchored to the act of representing places, peoples, species and the less tangible elements that inhabit the spaces where human and non-human life circulate. These acts of representation transmit worldviews that can ultimately lead to material consequences, be they just or unjust. Just as a map can provide perspective and insight into the otherwise unseen, it can also become a tool that tracks, disciplines and distorts the represented ecosystems and peoples.”2
Maps seem, at first glance, to be objective. They show roads and forests and houses in the places where you find those roads and forests and houses. How can you argue with a map that seems to be just a representation of where things are in the world? How can you argue with a map that helps you get where you’re trying to go?
“The naturalization of the map takes takes place at the level of the sign system in which the map is inscribed. A double coding ensures this (it is at least a double coding). No sooner is a sign created than it is put to the service of a myth (this is that the world displayed in the map is... natural). It is thus not merely that the native Americans were left off maps made by the Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, but that the resulting surface - of trees, rivers, hills - took on the appearance of a window through which the world was seen... as it really was.”3
Maps are political, mythical, positional, perspectival. They are representations that prioritize certain types of information. They contribute to the belief that the world is finitely measurable, and infinitely so. They emphasize borders and delineations. They contribute to a worldview where there is an omniscient, objective perspective, and a frequently utilitarian one at that.
In the Badlands, Ranger Christian walks the fence separating US Federal land from Oglala Sioux Reservation land. He walks a line that is sharp and clear on a map, but crumbling and vague in person. A fence deteriorates into the horizon, becoming after a while just some posts and barbed wire tangled in the grasses: “So, right here, I’m in Badlands National Park off the reservation, now I’m in the South Unit on the reservation. So completely different laws and rules. It’s kinda weird how simple pieces of wood and wire can make such a difference. And it’s not even a difference in the landscape. I think that just shows how these are manmade borders, cause it’s not stopping the animals or anything from going back and forth. It’s just signaling whose land is where.”
1. "map." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2021. Web. 7 December 2021. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/map ︎︎︎
3. Lutz, Eleanor, and Darin Jensen, PRACTICAL CARTOGRAPHER’S CORNER. Cartographic Perspectives, no. 94 (2019): 82. https://www.guerrillacartography.org/blog/atlas-in-a-day-challenge-a-global-real-time-collaboration and https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=519014038672294 ︎︎︎
2. Denis Wood and John Fels, The Power of Maps. (New York: Guilford Press, 1992), 2.