This map is one form of our accepted map, yet it is not real nor is it true, it’s an imagined apparition formed from many conflicting ideas and powerbases. This map exists in opposition to the ideal map; a map that would depict the world around us as it is. This is the definition of the purpose of cartography, but it is an impossible, and absurd aim.
In his essay On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1 Umberto Eco makes this absurdity clear in his attempt to prove theoretically that a map on the same scale as the empire it exists within could be constructed. Umberto Eco concludes that mapping is inevitably an unfaithful depiction of space due to the ever-changing circumstances and constructs of a given society and the hopelessness of including everything in the representation thereof.
It’s an absurd idea, but interestingly we have moved on. In 1981 when this essay was written we did not have digital media, and we did not have smart phones nor google maps or google street view. Now that we have these tools the 1:1 map is not far of being a reality. We live in a time where the absurd can be seen as possible, this world offers new challenges to the artist, to people illustrating ideas.
So I am going show something of my idea of what a map is and where I think maps are. In my research it became apparent that any statement or work made within visual art, It maybe possible and indeed useful to view that work as a map.
This is a photograph of planet earth taken in 1990 at the request of Carl Sagan from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers from Earth. Essentially this is what all maps, all cartography is now; photographs and measurements taken from space and beamed digitally back to us. I think this is a beautiful example of that.
So this image for Carl Sagan is the fragility of the earth and the immenseness of the universe thing but it also can be seen full stop on the story of cartography, the story of our world and planet as the limitation of our universe.
However from the beginnings a map of the world was never just a map of this world.
We see old maps, we see their form, the way it alternates from the true satellite geography that we are now all aware of. We might think them odd or simplistic or wrong, but if we did that It would be short sighted.
This map contains as sophisticated iconography as a modern London tube map, each step on the road is one days travel and each step represents a rest stop.
The scroll is 6.8m long, is actually a 12th century copy of one or more Roman originals drawn around the 4th century themselves based on earlier maps. We know this because It includes cities such as Pompeii, which had been deleted off the face of the earth in 79AD. It is a map about power with st peter in the middle, in Rome holding the orb of the earth, depicted in the role of emperor. It has a dual function to express power in metaphor and consolidate power though it’s practical use to aid trade and travel.
You would probably imagine that this at the point of this arrow, this is not where you are but it is a depiction from this roman scroll the most south westerly part of mainland Britain. That is where the arrow points.
Here is a satellite composite of the British Isles, Mainland Europe the Iberian Peninsula and parts of North Africa ( oh and iceland ). This we may take as an accurate depiction of the world we live in. Yet it still diagrammatic in nature, it is a map it is not a pure photograph It does not show weather systems because weather systems would obscure our view of the map.
We see an accurate depiction of the British Isles and we might think “AHH! that’s where I am!” but you’re not, you’re sitting right here or there or somewhere, in reality you are not in that map. This is the power of images, and a great feature of the functionality of maps. Maps tell the story that we believe we fit into, that we project ourselves into.
Of the world around us, we now accept totally in the conventional form that as depicted here. This Illustration printed on the report cards of Italian students, these report cards were standard issue during the Mussolini regime. This map again tells a story about power and empire. This one takes the idea of power and empire further and depicts it literally. A two frame narrative of manifested destiny the intention of this image is to ingrain the belief of the righteousness of this path upon the students of the Italian fascist state.
So next I will show a less conventional example of what I believe can be viewed as a map, telling the next part of this story of Italy and Africa, following on from what was depicted in the above map.
Here
is Gadhafi about to shake the hand of Berlusconi First the report card, now a man wearing a photograph. This map is a representation of a state, and further more a detailed one that illustrates something of the history of this state...
With this photograph stuck to the lapel of Col Gaddafi’s jacket we have a statement about power and empire. With the modern accepted map of Libya primarily you read Libya. You may read this maps secondary meaning as the legacy of colonialism. the borders of the Libyan state were created and drawn under the pretext of colonialism. That would be a secondary reading of the map of Libya.
In this map, this photograph of the dictator of the Libyan state wearing a photograph of the arrest by Italian troops in 1931 of the Libyan guerrilla leader Omar al-Mukhtar, the legacy of colonialism is brought to the forefront.
So far apart from (in some ways) the pale blue dot, I have shown maps that project themselves to be practical physical, literal maps that tell the stories of our world. Next I’m going to move onto maps and cartography that attempt to explain the ethereal or metaphysical. in order to do this I think it might be helpful to start by explaining what I believe is not a map.
The itinerary is not a map, It is SOMETIMES a progression, a narrative of the space around us, apparently primarily for practical use. Like a map it can be Subverted and expanded to the metaphysical. In the same way in its visual form the map can be. So maybe I could call it a map? No I don't think so, its form is textual iconographical, so maybe its literature? Literatures map relative maybe; It's half twin sibling.
Next I will take this Idea further on..
In 1587 Christopher Marlowe writes of Tamburlaine's aspiration to immense power in a way that is designed to raises questions about the supremacy of the religious world over the world of humans. Tamburlaine in his conquests gives himself a role as the "scourge of God" (an epithet originally applied to Attila the Hun) the text represents a journey with in an itinerary of real earthly sequential geography. This message we could be left with is “this is all there is, I command It, and it is really really big”
Tamburlaine is an Itinerary of real world geography and concerns
Back in the 8th century BC here we have another ( possible ) itinerary, The Odyssey by Homer. This, for me, like other itinerary’s is a proto-map in that it serves to describe a place and ideas linked to physical locations. In the text homer works in a theme of homecoming (nostos) Odysseus is on this journey home after the Trojan war has finally ended through an unreal and contentious geography. On his voyage to the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him a goddess who is the daughter of the sun-god Helios.
SO we have in these examples;
Tamburlaine as a Itinerary of real world geography and concerns
The Odyssey is an itinerary of ethereal geography and concerns
These two geography's can be seen in discourse with each other since the beginnings of our civilisation.Sometimes coexisting sometimes arguing.
Geography (Ptolemy) was a text that logically and systematically organized the known world. This map itself was redrawn from the coordinates in the text. I would view his text as a numerical itinerary.
He assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew, in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today. This map is the renaissances rediscovered beginnings of our science of cartography.
Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe. He was in some ways pragmatic, modern. Being as he was a Greek roman citizen, he would also be aware of the work of homer and understand it for its value in the Greek poetic tradition he may also of seen the Babylonian World Map and its roman successors as something of this tradition.
What would happen later is a meshing of these transitions both visually and metaphorically. A battle of ideas. The discourse would become an argument. The map Ptolemy was creating here would transcend mere iconography and become utilized and understood as metaphor.
So here we have The Imago Mundi or Babylonian World Map
“The hub of existence”, sits in the middle of the world map portrayed as a disk. probably created around the 7th or 6th century. Again a real world element in its Deliberate omital of the the powerful empires of Persian and Egyptions. Important cities are placed on the map relative to their location from Babylon. the “Babylonian world map” can be understood as the map of the cosmos symbolically featuring Babylon as the center of the universe and intentionally connecting them to a higher realm from which they drew meaning for their existence
This type of map was produced through the Roman period coexisted with maps like Ptolemy’s
The T O map can be seen as the Middle Ages evolution of the Babylonian world map, except in in the Middle Ages this type of map was in the ascendancy. The dialog or argument was continuing
T O Map From a 12th c. copy of the encyclopedia Etymologiae.
This is the Middle Ages evolution of the Babylonian world map, If I had time I would like to put forward this as the beginning of all frame based sequential narrative. But I don’t have the time...
OK here is a big map, There is a big story.. After Mesopotamia came Rome. Rome was a republic It built its idea for expansion not on the back of maps. There was no need for that. The desire to expand came from stories; founding mythologies built out of ancient conflict. One of the most prevalent stories in Rome at the time of the republic was that of Rome and Carthages absolute hatred for each other. This story was shared by both city's creation myths. The idea was they where destined to conflict. The destiny was dictated by the myth, a self fulfilling itinerary, You can find this with Illustrated maps that not only tell the story of where we have been but end up telling the story of where we are going. Often maps tell the story of where we intend to go.
Kato the elder was a roman senator who ended every speech with “Carthage must be destroyed!” every speech no matter how unrelated. In his attempt to persuade the Senate of the benefits in the destruction of Carthage he required a prop to illustrate the distance and time it takes to travel between Carthage and Rome, thus explaining the threat. He did not use a cartographical map because a shared iconography of maps not yet been wildly established. But what he did do helped highlight the future possibilities of a shared map.
The section shown here shows Rome at the center with the major roads branching out. The port shown below is Ostia (actually to the west of Rome) and North Africa is shown at the very bottom, across the Mediterranean sea. The city just across the sea from Ostia is Carthage.
TO explain the danger and the proximity of carthage Cato used a a Libyan fig. He encouraged the senators to admire the fig for its ripeness and size, explaining the fig came from fertile cartilage and further warning that it was only three days away by sea.
So here we have what I would call a primarily a fig utilised as a map of distance and time. But more than just simply that; part of the Romans and Katos hatred of the Carthaginians was based on their lifestyle which the Romans saw in opposition to their own. As often in these cases what they saw that they opposed and hated, they also desired. The decadence of the fruit and the belief that the Carthaginians were feminized society ( the fig a widely understood symbol of female sexuality in the Roman world ).
In the Senate a powerful 'surplus of meaning' had sprang forth, the senators were apparently convinced. I can only assume they were frothing at the mouth.
This fig utilized as a visual metaphor for time and space i.e. a map. changed the course of human history. The roman republics expiation was set. The course was empire.
This is a slide from the PowerPoint presentation used by Colin Powell to explain the danger and proximity of Iraq. Like Carthage Baghdad must be destroyed.
SO with this map we can seet where we are right now (sort of) Via photography and digital media nearly everybody has an idea of an accepted shared projection of this world that we live in.
This is why Colin Powell did not present a piece of fruit to the UN Gen assembly.
....
This map is no more real than.....
….This
map?
Literal tools to tell a story that can act as a
metaphor for “dark satanic mills” of William
Blake.
Despite what Tolkien
may say, for me I can not help but read this as the wilderness of wales
being crowded upon by the
dark forces of industrialisation.
This map has
to it a projection of threat, whether intended or not, just as Powell’s map had in
his presentation to the UN.
It can be seen that despite its
seemingly real geography the story Powel
is trying to depict contains a similar amount of fiction to it as a the map of middle earth. Although because one fiction is willingly presented as fact, Unhelpfully, in light of further evidence it ends up becoming lie.
The Hereford Mappa Mundi, about 1300, Hereford Cathedral, England. A classic "T-O" map with Jerusalem at center,
This Like Colin Powel's map uses the accepted geography of the time to tell a story not of fear of real world threats but a story about who we are and where we come from. Unlike ptolemey this map is not stating that this is only part of the world, it is stating this is a projection of the physical whole and it is everything we know.
It could be saying;
The physical world! We know all of it and none of it matters!
This is the British isles you are not here and it does not matter because;
All this geography Is only here here to persuade us of the story of where we come from and where we go;
1 Kingdom of heaven
2 Baby Jesus
3 Devine Impregnation
4 Later the earthly Jesus wounded died for our sins, takes his seat right on top of the map
So these maps can coexist until one side wins ( sort of ). This map can be seen as a denial of the supremacy of god. In the place of Jesus we have a pimp who the new continent of America was named after, Americi Vespvci, and Ptolemy making his grand comeback. Between them is the world they helped create, allegedly.
Because it uses the place in the map where the heavens are often depicted to make this point, it is of course still about god, depicting the world of the metaphysical via its denial of its the importance of that world. This is a paradoxically uncomfortable place, it is where we are now.
In this world we are now. The physical has apparently won, we make art and statements in the context.
Here is the boot of italy hanging upside down.
talia d'oro 1971
Luciano Fabro
Italy might say “there is no boot. If a boot is perceived, the actual presence of that boot is primarily in the mind of the viewer”
And the boot might come back with “WELL!, The actual presence of the Italy exist primarily in the mind of the viewer.”
At this point I would like to point towards something of Paul Ricoeur’s ideas from his book, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning.
In his book Paul Ricoeur explains about the different interpretations that are advanced to describe the meaning of images must be compared and examined separately and against each other to see which seems to make the most sense. A kind of discourse takes place, like two people speaking,
The maps and the borders of the sates we live in are now so loaded with meaning and emotive attachment. These seemingly abstract forms can now easily be seen to say something of the ark in our histories and are instrumental in the discourse defining our cultural and national identities.
I have made an odd comparison here;
Mussolini hanging from his feet; A terrifying, bloody new start for a new italy with out corruption, free and fair.
Italy hanging from its foot; The dream gone bad, the state reasserts a hierarchy, unfair and sold in the form of the golden map its wealth flowing to the north.
It may be an odd comparison but metaphor is an important thing to consider when viewing maps...
What if we where to take these forms and try to build the map and subsequently the world around us from the end point of the metaphors?
Mikale Ungers' Morphologie: City Metaphors (1976),
He says
"In every human being there is a strong metaphysical desire to create a reality structured through images in which objects become meaningful through vision and which does not (...) exist because it is measured.”
His argument was that an approach based on too much measurable criteria had left out conceptual sophistication, instinct, and depth.
Symbolic, analogical or metaphorical thinking was not meant to act as a substitute for statistical logical analysis, but did hope to break its "claim to a monopoly of understanding".
The creative and pragmatic would alternate, not as "opposed [methods], but more in the direction that analysis and synthesis alternate as naturally as breathing in and breathing out”
Here we have an age old discourse, like that between the work of Ptolemy and Homer, imprinting itself on the way we see are geography in our times and now we see this dialogs influence on the actual way we construct our environments.
He was very keen on mother and child metaphors
Anyway fast forward to now absurd becomes real.
This is a small problem of our times.
Eilert Sundt is the president of the Norwegian Cartozoological Society. Mr Sundt probably is the world’s most prominent ambassador of the obscure discipline of cartozoology a cross-breed of cartography, zoology and urban planning.
When the government of South Sudan announced plans to remodel its 10 state capitals in the shapes of animals and fruit. Under the proposal, the regional capital Juba would be laid out as a rhinoceros.
“It pains us to say it, but even if the idea is beautiful, we are afraid that the [South] Sudanese authorities haven’t got their priorities straight.”
Apparently the the South Sudanese are going ahead. This is a statement of power, the christian animalist south in opposition to the north that it has recently split from. The map made more important that the welfare of the individual.
Barry Blitt cover for the New Yorker. Over vast expanses of empty Alaska, just a tiny bit of Russia is visible on the horizon. This image is a satire on Sarah Palins unfortunate statement that the governorship of Alaska was a good preparation for the job of vice-president, because, Alaska is so close to Russia. Which is a foreign country: “They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
For me this is one trouble for artists or Illustrators; the absurd can not easily be utilised in order to highlight any greater truth because in our time it can already be understood in plain sight and to an extent is excepted as normal. Exposing such absurdities often only highlights what our world is already limited to, It hits the brick wall of this simple and expected absurd of our times, satire can no longer surprise and shock as it maybe once could, no light can shine past to greater truths.
VERY Sophisticated MAP
Here we have Saul Steinberg's cover for the New Yorker magazine from 1976.
The illustration may serve as a sartorial message on the relationship of the people of New York to the rest of the world. I can read this because of my external knowledge of maps. the author is invoking the map,
The geography depicted in this image is not accurate; it is skewed in favour of the huge richly detailed and depicted New York. The rest of the world is rendered barren in comparison. this is a satire or sorts. and a successful one because the preoccupation of the image is not just limited to the simple satire. In this image i would see the satirical element as being utilised as one part in a larger richly sophisticated whole. ( explain why )
Within this geography I can read New York for the city despite the fact it is not written on the image, I can also read the United States for the expanse of land above despite that also being unwritten. When even one word is placed with an image then through connotations and word associations a sense of the entirety of language becomes implicit. This is the power of text; that it can be read even when it is not there.
This is an interesting thing for me about maps that even without the text element are associations with map and text is so strong I can see the text with the map even when it is absent
This is a Saul Steinberg talking about his work
I would argue that interpreting and creating work within the framework of a map. It’s a great outfit for the illustrator to clothe reality so that it will be “forgiven.” it lends itself to this end
Wiltshire and Lex, Steinberg’s 1994 update of a classic 1976 New Yorker cover. He died 5 year laterA new york completely inward looking, no longer with any external concerns Are the 2d faces of the buildings Paradise or façades?Steinbergs Iconography is well established, is his he turning his visual language on himself? Maybe this new york map is less about the place and more about the author of the work in the place near the end of his life?
Highlights and send up the arbitrariness of maps ( something I can see allot with artists use of map form ) also serves up the animalist visual metaphor of a heard of cattle or bison long gone from the plains of mid west.
This flag is a map, all flags are maps.
Alighiero E Boetti. (1979) Mappa. Embroidered cloth, 122.9
He claimed this work as
“A work of cosmic dimensions which sees every nation represented in the geographical form of its existence and in the joyfulness of the colours of its flag. […] It is a familiar form wherein we can increasingly identify as citizens of the world” – Boetti AND ‘moral imperative as an artist to cut loose from the framework of little Europe”
The cartography represented by Boetti’s choice of world map is Eurocentric. It is notable that the female Afghani embroiderers employed on the Mappa series were unfamiliar with the image of the world in this format
So maybe it could accidently say
“If this image holds no significance to the people who made it why shouldn’t hold any significance for you? This map is not an absolute truth shared by everyone. It does not exist. From here you can increasingly identify as citizens of the world”
Whatever his intention the ‘surplus of meaning’ embodied by the form of these borders can transcend the authors intention and enters a positive and interesting place. The message of the image is more powerful than that of the creator.
“A work of cosmic dimensions which sees every nation represented in the geographical form of its existence and in the joyfulness of the colours of its flag. […] It is a familiar form wherein we can increasingly identify as citizens of the world”
Something of what Boettli says here could also apply to Sagan's intentions
I want to progress from Boetti to a wider interest than the map about map thing in 20th century art.
Here is a snapshot to a mindset, this is a metaphysical map not about the external but the internal; what is inside the authors head. It is an example of the it is the performativite, individualist 20th-century goings on.
Öyvind Fahlström
"Section of World Map - A Puzzle”
Idiosyncratic world view, emotive, reflective and built from the media and politics of his time.
“Thought is an absurd process. We think, in order to think no more, we talk, in order to stop talking. Thought is absurd” - Vilhem flusser
Maybe we can see this type of sentiment reflected in Öyvind Fahlström's feverish puzzle landscape. History and politics as part of a pallet of tools, this would be something I would hope to key into, to play with in my work.
I would see it In this context I am faced with the one of the problems of our paradoxical world; Sometimes too strange to expose strangeness and sometimes too ridiculous to make constructive use the ridiculous.
How in this world would I 'clothe reality' so that it will be 'forgiven.'?
SO!
I could work within this sort of metaphysical map not built from the external but the internal: What is inside my head. There is no way I can be sure this will work but this is to some extent what I do. I am pretty sure I would be doing it this way even if I didn't have the wonderful luxury of spending all this time considering what i'm doing, why i'm doing it.
Ive used this quote before, but I like it, so i will put it here again;
Thought is an absurd process. We think, in order to think no more, we talk, in order to stop talking. Thought is absurd, but it is what makes us what we are, thinking things, humans. To be human is to be absurd - a thinking absurd being. Let us accept this absurdity, let us think as much as possible, let us doubt on as many [levels] as possible. - Vilhem flusser
