Rethinking the Power of Maps

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

• ISBN13: 9781606237076
• ISBN10: 1606237071
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-15
• 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. From 1974 to 1996 he was Professor of Design in the School of Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. In 1992 he curated the award-winning Power of Maps exhibition for the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in New York (remounted at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, in 1994), for which he wrote the bestselling The Power of Maps. Dr. Wood's other books include Five Billion Years of Global Change and Making Maps (coauthored with John Krygier).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Maps Work I. Mapping 1. Maps Blossom in the Springtime of the State 2. Unleashing the Power of the Map 3. Signs in the Service of the State 4. Making Signs Talk to Each Other II. Counter-Mapping 5. Counter-Mapping and the Death of Cartography 6. Talking Back to the Map 7. Map Art: Stripping the Mask from the Map 8. Mapmaking, Counter-Mapping, and Map Art in the Mapping of Palestine