Domus 908 November 2007
My personal interest in drawing and mark-making has always made me intrigued by the making of maps; so when I was reading a recent edition of Domus that focused some of its attention towards to this very topic, I was motivated to make a note of its relevance to studio six work. In the foreword to November’s edition of Domus, the editor Flavio Albanese starts his foreword by quoting Bateson: “the map is not the territory” (Gregory Bateson, in “Form, Substance and Difference,” from Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)) This short but succinct observation has many connotations in the realm of ‘mapping’.
Albanese expands by describing the map as: “…not a real place… [but as] …an image of the world” A simple observation, but one that would appear to have been blinded by the expansion and increased use of satalite navigation and google earth. These ‘new’ ways of seeing our planet are throwing up certain attitudes towards maps, ones that in my opinion make for passive spectatorship rather than more reciprocal relationships, that could throw up questions rather than ‘answers’.
This point demonstrated most clearly in a local news article that revealed Sheffield’s recently opened inner ring road will not feature on any in-car sat nav system for at least 2 years. Due to the company who program the digital maps not being able to update the system anytime soon. (i.e. too many other new roads to update). The company will have to send a special mapping van to drive the new road in question and record/trace the new highway.
Road to nowhere?….
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