Mapping Ideas Abound...

Denis Cosgrove's deconstructions of mapping and maps offer a refreshing and challenging perspective on a topic that is so subtly ubiquitous yet ephemeral. To me, his critical lens on authorship, power, culture and intention in mapping do two things: One, he shatters the idea of objectivity in mapping, and deconstructs the embedded, inherent power structures that mapping requires, stating that "the map as an inescapably classificatory device...selection is aesthetic and moral as much as it is oppressive and exclusionary."(Cosgrove 11). However, in doing so, he inaugurates the ubiquitous power that mapping wields, professing its true power. "Mappings inaugurate as well as trace poetics of space." (Cosgrove 17)

Some of the most interesting parts of his essay:

"Maps are thus intensely familiar, naturalized, but not natural..."

"authorship-once critical to, yet obscured within, its final product, the map itself." (Cosgrove 7)

"the map as a determined cultural outcome...an element of of material culture." (Cosgrove 9)

"Kinetic Cartography"
This term made me think of mapping processes....like google earth, or GIS, where information is layered over time, attempting to defy the dishonest stasis inherent in traditional mapping.

This also made me think of the time-lapse portraits by artists posted online in video format. Such as this one:



This provocative essay brought to mind SO many ideas about how we record and communicate ideas and space. One artist that came to mind is Francesca Berrini. She appropriates map pieces to collage into her own maps, utilizing the traditional map aesthetic which we so blindly trust, while creating her own virtual landscapes which only exist in her mind. Her appropriation of data that we know to be "true" to create something the is 'imaginary' is a powerful act. You can find her work here:
http://www.viveza.com/artist_portfolio.asp?artistid=10


As I get back to work in the laser lab, I can think of one last quote from Cosgrove.
"Mapping begets further mappings."