Rethinking the Power of Maps

by Wood, Denis; Fels, John; Krygier, John

• ISBN13: 9781593853662
• ISBN10: 1593853661
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-16
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

A contemporary follow-up to the groundbreaking Power of Maps, this book takes a fresh look at what maps do, whose interests they serve, and how they can be used in surprising, creative, and radical ways. Denis Wood describes how cartography facilitated the rise of the modern state and how maps continue to embody and project the interests of their creators. He demystifies the hidden assumptions of mapmaking and explores the promises and limitations of diverse counter-mapping practices today. Thought-provoking illustrations include U.S. Geological Survey maps; electoral and transportation maps; and numerous examples of critical cartography, participatory GIS, and map art.

Author Biography

Denis Wood is a writer and artist living in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a former Professor of Design at North Carolina State University. His other books include The Power of Maps, Five Billion Years of Global Change, and Making Maps (coauthored with John Krygier).

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Two Simple Examples	p. 2
Making a Map of Mars	p. 4
Mapping	p. 7
Counter-Mapping	p. 8
Mapping
Maps Blossom in the Springtime of the State	p. 15
Maps Give Us a Reality beyond Our Reach	p. 15
And a Map Is...?	p. 18
The Development of the Map Discourse Function	p. 19
Trying to Write the History of Mapmaking	p. 21
There Were No Maps before 1500	p. 22
Calling Older Graphic Notation Systems "Maps" Is Anachronistic	p. 26
The Rise of Mapmaking in the Early Modern State	p. 27
Maps Figure the State	p. 30
As the Map Affirms the State, the State Affirms the Map	p. 33
Maps Unleashed	p. 35
Unleashing the Power of the Map	p. 39
Maps Advance Propositions	p. 39
Maps Make Arguments	p. 42
Maps Propose the Existence of Things	p. 44
The Map's Propositional Logic	p. 51
The Posting	p. 53
"This Is...": The Precedent Existential Proposition	p. 56
"This Is...": The Posting or Fundamental Cartographic Proposition	p. 58
Adding Postings Up to Make Territories: "This1 is there1" and "this2 is there2" and "this3 is there3" make "this4 is there4"	p. 59
The Transmission of Authority: "This1 is there1," and "this2 is there2" but "there1 < there2," and therefore "this1 < this2"	p. 61
Annexation, Division, and Entrained Operations	p. 64
Signs in the Service of the State	p. 67
The Legends of the Map	p. 67
But Then Maps Are Myths	p. 72
Everything's in Code	p. 78
At Least 10 Cartographic Codes	p. 80
Making Signs Talk to Each Other	p. 86
Varieties of Iconcity	p. 87
Inviting Words to Realize Their Expressive Potential	p. 90
Shaping Space	p. 92
What Time Has This Place?	p. 93
It's Not a Simple Set of Rules	p. 97
Maps Are about Relationships	p. 98
Elemental Signs Are Somewhere	p. 99
Sign Systems Go Somewhere	p. 102
Sign Systems in Dialogue	p. 103
Injecting the Map into Its Culture	p. 106
Counter-Mapping
Counter-Mapping and the Death of Cartography	p. 111
Protest Maps	p. 112
Maps in Protest	p. 114
Critical Cartography	p. 120
Cartographers Intentionally Foreclosed This Awareness	p. 120
Early Critique in the History of Mapmaking	p. 126
Critique within the Profession of Cartography	p. 128
The Outside Critique: Indigenous Mapping	p. 129
The Outside Critique: The Parish Maps Project	p. 143
Talking Back to the Map	p. 156
Public? Participation? Geographic? Information? Systems?	p. 158
Public Participation	p. 160
The Reframing of Public Discourse	p. 164
The Detroit Geographical Expedition and Institute	p. 166
The Situationist International	p. 171
Jake Barton's City of Memory	p. 177
Public Participation Geographic Information Systems	p. 187
Map Art: Stripping the Mask from the Map	p. 189
Joyce Kozloff	p. 189
A Little History: Dada and Surrealism	p. 190
A Little More History: Letterism, Situationism, Pop, and Fluxus	p. 200
A Little More History Yet: Conceptual Art, Earth Art	p. 203
Map Art Exhibitions: A Tedious but Necessary Section	p. 209
What Is All This About?	p. 214
Lize Mogel	p. 218
kanarinka	p. 220
3Cs	p. 220
Lauren Rosenthal	p. 223
elin O'Hara slavick and Susanne Slavick	p. 224
Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault	p. 227
Simon Elvins	p. 228
Steven R Holloway	p. 229
Mapmaking, Counter-Mapping, and Map Art in the Mapping of Palestine	p. 231
The Early Mapping of Palestine	p. 232
The Early Modern Mapping of Palestine	p. 235
Mapping and Counter-Mapping in Mandatory Palestine	p. 237
British Maps, Israeli Counter-Maps, Now Palestinian Counter-Counter-Maps	p. 243
Art Mapping the Conflict and the Occupation	p. 249
There Aren't Two Sides	p. 254
Notes	p. 257
Index	p. 329
About the Authors	p. 335
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