Critical Cartography

Now, you might ask yourself how that could happen and surely why. Well, as we all know, the earth’s surface is curved, but we can’t carry a globe around all the time. Therefore, we need to transform it into something more practical – a map.

Fun Fact: The earth isn’t even round. It’s more of an oddly shaped potato.

Easier said than done.

This holey thing wouldn't be practical either. Good thing we can get rid of the gaps - that’s happening through a projection.

How to peel the earth?

Choosing a projection means choosing between two imperfect ways of portraying Earth. A map can either be true to its angle or its area.

Mercator was originally intended for navigating ships, so being true to angle is what matters most. Identify a Mercator projection yourself by looking at the size of Africa and Greenland. If they are the same size, it’s Mercator. When projecting true to area like a Peters projection does, Africa is significantly larger than Greenland (Monmonnier 1991:8f. ).

Maps reflect power structures...

... and also create them

Said the namesake of the Peters projection historian, Arno Peters, in the 1960s. For example, in a Mercator projection, Europe seems a lot bigger and hence more powerful; furthermore, the Equator is located in the lower half of the picture – the result – centering Europe vertically. Europe, portrayed as the center of the world, reveals colonial undertones.

The process of mapmaking

A map exerts power by simplifying and saying: "this is important!"

Like with media in general, what is being represented is being seen, and what is seen is considered.

The processmof mapmaking Map

Map Making Processes

1. Selection: information is selected based on the purpose of the map. It involves the where, what, when, and why questions.

2. Omission and Classification: grouping of attributes into discernible classes

3. Simplification: omissions and aggregation of data to improve legibility

4. Symbolization: using graphic variables to represent features while creating hierarchies

Maps are not neutral and objective representations of the world. They are created with a specific purpose and agenda, and they contain both information and omissions, truths and falsehoods. Maps are biased, partial, and selective, and they reflect the worldview of their creators (John Rennie Short, 2003).

It is important to recognize that maps are social constructions, and they do not show the world as it truly is. Maps are simplifications of reality, and they cannot show everything that is on the ground. Therefore, decision makers should be aware of the stories that maps tell and how they perpetuate certain forms of knowledge.

It is vital to understand that maps have consequences for people on the ground, and map users should develop a critical awareness of the maps they use. Map users should react to maps rationally rather than instinctively and recognize that maps are not the reality they depict.

Feel the map's power! - aka community mapping

Get yourself a piece of paper and some pens
invite friends
draw your city
have fun
compare

✨ Discover more collective mapping

What is "This is Not an Atlas"?

This Is Not an Atlas gathers more than 40 counter-cartographies from all over the world. This collection shows how maps are created and transformed as a part of political struggle, for critical research or in art and education: from indigenous territories in the Amazon to the anti-eviction movement in San Francisco; from defending commons in Mexico to mapping refugee camps with balloons in Lebanon; from slums in Nairobi to squats in Berlin; from supporting communities in the Philippines to reporting sexual harassment in Cairo. This Is Not an Atlas seeks to inspire, to document the underrepresented, and to be a useful companion when becoming a counter-cartographer yourself - NotAnAtlas 2023

JB Harley:

On Power

JB Harley, one of the founders of critical cartography, structures the map's power into internal and external power. The external power means the power that is exerted on maps. Meaning by the people that are commissioning the map and defining its objectives.

Power is also exercised with cartography by defining areas.

The power that is exercised with cartography is only possible because of the internal power of maps. Meaning they tell us how the world is and in doing that the world becomes like that (Harley 1989:12f.).

"Were all the maps in this world destroyed and vanished under the direction of some malevolent hand, each man would be blind again, each city be made a stranger to the next, each landmark become a meaningless signpost pointing to nothing."

(B. Markham, 1983 in: JB Harley 1989)

How did maps become a thing?

It all started in the 16th century with the rediscovery of Euclidean geometry, which intersected with artistic and scientific trends. Cartography was a mathematical form of art that gained its legitimacy because, the idea was on the rise that sovereign authority should be exercised through the law, which was only valid in a specific area.

People began to use maps to consolidate the power of a sovereign or to demarcate landownership therefore maps strived to portray the space someone had power over as accurately as possible.

Before that maps weren’t really used in treaties or political documents, it was mostly just a written list of cities and places (Debarbieux and Hirt 2022:92ff.).

“strategy for translating space into a conceivable object, an object that the mind could possess long before the lowing herds”

(Carter 1988:399 in Debarbieux and Hirt :110)

Elizabeth I. demonstrating her territorial authority

Decolonizing Cartography

This is a map’s “cartouche”, a decorative piece of art that is like the title page of a book. It illustrates the map’s intentions and how the viewer should think about the depicted place. Often shown are scenes of conquest and evangelization. A worldview is created (Van Duzer 2021: 90f. )..

All of our cartographic knowledge has a colonial past so it is important to first uncover the colonial patterns in our maps and then to counteract. This could for example be done by...

Counter-Mapping

... was first coined by Nancy Peluso. She was studying forest maps done by local activists in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The state had been using maps to claim territory and resources, and the activists were trying to appropriate the state’s methods to map back and gain legitimacy for their own ownership claims. Essentially, counter-mapping means mapping that is not done by traditional initiators like governments, big corporations, or financial institutions (Peluso 1995:384; Rundstrom 2009:314f.; Orangotango 2018:13)

Want to know something more? - Check out these resources

"Jim Enote, a traditional Zuni farmer and director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, is working with Zuni artists to create maps that bring an indigenous voice and perspective back to the land, countering Western notions of place and geography and challenging the arbitrary borders imposed on the Zuni world."

- National Geographic 2019

"This Is Not an Atlas gathers counter-cartographies from all over the world. This collection shows how maps are created and transformed as a part of political struggle, for critical research or in art and education. Not-an-Atlas is also a series of events, consisting of exhibitions, panel discussions, and workshops. This series started with a convention around counter-cartographies called This Is Not an Atlas in October 2018 in Berlin."

- ThisIsNotAnAtlas 2019

"Martín von Hildebrand explains the importance of social mapping as a component in indigenous territorial management. With the support of Esri, Gordon & Betty Moore, Parks, and Gaia Amazonas, the Amazon's indigenous organisations prepare their life plans to participate with the state in shaping the region's future."

- Gaia Amazonas 2014

"Lize Mogel discusses counter-cartography, an approach that involves looking beyond a map’s surface to reveal the politics of place. As the Whitney Education Department’s Community Artist-in-Residence, Mogel introduced her practice of counter-mapping to teens, students, and seniors as a way to uncover personal histories and see what they say about the past, present, and future of the Whitney’s downtown neighborhood."

- Whitney Museum of American Art 2015

Cartographic construction

of the world

The strange power of maps:

The external power: the state of the map maker’s decision about what is or not portrayed on the map.

How maps work politically and influence our understanding of the world.

The Organisation of Cartographers for Social Equality explains why President Bartlet should support the legislation making it mandatory for American public schools to use Peters's projection over Marcator's projection because the Marcator projection fostered the European Imperialist attitude distorting the size of Third World countries to render them less powerful and important in a world where size is unconsciously equated to importance and power.

"The West Wing" Season 2, Episode 16"

2. Internal Power:

This is the cartographic dictatorship. This refers to the mapping processes themselves ‘through which the world is disciplined.’

Maps are more than pictures of teh world. they can tell us about the people who made them, the time those people lived the world and what they knew and didn't know.

"Library of Congress 2015"

Who is mapping back now?

Cartographies Otherwise

Alternative mapping practices that challenge and subvert hegemonic cartographies.

Questioning our routine understanding of space and map reading, challenging our cartograhically colonized minds and decolonizing cartography, and inviting us to see the world in another light.

Critical Cartography of the Straight of Gibraltar

An alternative understanding of the Spanish-Moroccan border region that deviates from what has long been known about the region. The place is deconstructed to reveal other existing places at the border.

More

Jim Enote, a traditional Zuni farmer and director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, is working with Zuni artists to create maps that bring an indigenous voice and perspective back to the land, countering Western notions of place and geography and challenging the arbitrary borders imposed on the Zuni world.

"View this story on the Emergence Magazine website"

Highlights

Maps are not neutral and objective representations of the world. They are created with a specific purpose and agenda, and they contain both information and omissions, truths and falsehoods. Maps are biased, partial, and selective, and they reflect the worldview of their creators (John Rennie Short, 2003).

It is important to recognize that maps are social constructions, and they do not show the world as it truly is. Maps are simplifications of reality, and they cannot show everything that is on the ground. Therefore, decision makers should be aware of the stories that maps tell and how they perpetuate certain forms of knowledge.

It is vital to understand that maps have consequences for people on the ground, and map users should develop a critical awareness of the maps they use. Map users should react to maps rationally rather than instinctively and recognize that maps are not the reality they depict.