Crossing the line between mapping and map making: Artistic approaches to cartography

Bulletin of the Society of Cartographers

Volumn 38, Issue 1-2, 2004, Pages 41-44

  Albert, Saul ^a  

^a University of Openess   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CARTOGRAPHY; MAPPING METHOD;

EID: 14344256592     PISSN: 00361984     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (8)

1. Dennis Wood, 'The Fine Line Between Mapping and Mapmaking', "Cartographica", 30.4 (1993), p. 50.
2. Michel Serres, "The Parasite", (Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1981), p. 227. Quoted in Brown, 'Michel Serres: Myth, Mediation and the Logic of the Parasite'.
3. Steven Brown, 'Michel Serres: Myth, Mediation and the Logic of the Parasite' (Loughborough University unpublished draft, 2000), see: http://devpsy.lboro.ac.uk/psygroup/sb/Serres.htm (04/02/2003).
4. A short list is available here: http://uo.space.frot.org/ ?node=RedDotFever (25/11/04).
5. This service is actually under development at this address: http:// locate.irational.org/cgi-bin/bristol_map/bristol_map.pl (25 /11/04).
6. On an artistic level, soliciting participation in this narrative layer on top of a fixed base-map achieves a similar effect for the artist as for the corporations who sponsor them. By slightly shifting the determinism of the map, allowing it to be re-centred and contributed to in a 'red dot' mode, the activity and creativity of anonymous 'contributors' bolsters the credibility and value of the artist's work. The artist can the use this reputation value to seek remuneration in various academic and commercial contexts. The destabilisation of one deterministic practice (that of cartography) can be seen as leading to another (that of Art).
7. They are using the Open Guides system (see http:// london.openguides.org), a 'wiki' type website that any visitor can edit, but enhanced specifically for spatial references, with latitude and longitude markers for each item on the site.
8. This term has been popularised by Intellectual Property lawyer Lawrence Lessig, who has recently published a book titled 'Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity'. It is free to read and reuse and is available for download here: http://www.free-culture.cc/