User:Zpalomagar/THESIS OUTLINE

FOURTH DRAFT

CARTOGRAPHIES OF SOCIAL NOISE

Format: -Analytical essay exploring theoretical, historical and critical approaches to counter.cartographies.

Key Topics: Counter cartographies, collaborative practices, Community mapping, crowdsourcing, re-publishing maps and cartographies , map visual language, diagrams

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I. Introduction

Background

FROM COLONIALISM TO TECH-REPRESENTATIONS

Cartographies have broadly been understood as an instrument of power and domination. They define the territory, draw its borders and resources and consolidate the power of economic blocks. Societies have been oppressed by maps converting them in victims of a representation that define how they have to live. Maps have frequently been related to technical and reliable knowledge, realities represented in cartographies are mainly considered true, but the scientific objectivity of the maps should be questioned, as well as their intentions. They appear to be supposedly neutral to hide their real interests (Mesquita, 2016).

Maps have had a crucial role in the history of colonialism. They have been used to order and dominate the colonizers over the colonized. Furthermore, they are considered an institutionalised practice that implied legitimisation of territories. Indigenous communities developed their own cartographies to put themselves in the maps and to defend their lands and rights. More indigenous territory has been claimed by maps than by guns. (Nietschmann, 1995). These communities started to reverse maps representation visualising their resistance and claims. Indigenous cartography was an important inspiration tool for non-hegemonic worldviews and emancipatory practices.

This critical approach to cartographies, deconstructing traditional maps and diagrams have been explored by artist, architects, designers and activist in the post-colonial era. In 1943, “America Invertida” from Joaquin Torres, revindicated under the slogan “The south is our north”, the intention of challenging the conventionalism in map-making. Since then, alternative cartographies have been a huge area of exploration as socio-political communication tools for artist like Öyvind Fahlström who represented geopolitical tensions of the Cold War and changes of capitalism or Mark Lombardi who visualised global political and economic networks. In the ’80s Nancy Peluso introduced a specific terminology for community mapping: “Counter- cartographies” to explore how maps could be used by communities to represent themselves and stake claims to resources.

When internet globalization exploded worldwide a new range of possibilities opened up with digital communication, which has played an essential role in the development of counter cartographies and the process of collaborative making, collection of data and representation. The Internet has also generated new formats of online claims like data activism (Dataviz activism - Market café magazine) or Hashtag protests (#Metoo). This digital era also brings abundant tools that allow map-making more accessible to people and give more possibilities for cartographic representation. Nevertheless, digital tools also imply restriction of representation when working with visual and graphic language like algorithm oppression (Ramón Amaro), western supremacy in digital representation and default hierarchical structures in visual diagramming. Therefore, we need to have a critical approach when creating a visual representation in the digital era.

Precisely because maps are powerful tools to communicate, It is necessary to keep questioning and reinterpreting them to make sure they are still useful, and always rethink which one is the best representation for societies. Radical cartographies are necessary tools to fill information gaps and to put vulnerable communities in maps and data sets. There is a need for developing “science with people” rather than for people, specially in those fields characterised by “ irreducible uncertainties and ethical complexities ( Funtowicz & Ravetz 1994).

Statement

Diagrams, cartographies and maps can be transformed into socio-political communication tools which empower communities and give visibility to their common interests, revealing invisible realities and making the reader raise awareness about social crisis. This mechanism challenge the traditional storytelling of cartographies becoming a collaborative design instrument that spread knowledge through alternative map-making processes.

II. Body of thesis

CHAPTER 1: ANATOMY OF COUNTER CARTOGRAPHIES (Analytical reflection of elements, protocols and strategies behind them.)

• POINT A: Breaking the standards, the rule is there are no rules.
  • The necessity to create pictographic codes that challenge conventionalism: Filling the traditional gaps in representation. Pictographic Grammar (Bureau d’Études- Non-visual conventions), Isotypes (Otto Neurath - Popularised information). 
  • Deconstructing the world map: Speculations with cartographic projections. Lewis Carroll Anti-Mercator Poem and Empty Map, Surrealist World Map 1929.
  • Inaccuracies: They are not technical maps. Alfred Korzybsky: “The map is not the territory” the language create a map used by people to represent the reality that is perceived.
• POINT B: Representing complexities: Micro/Macro readings, abstraction and interpretation.
  • Multilayer cartographies, levels of information. Overlapping. Designing graphic interpretation - Johanna Drucker.
  • Density maps. The compactness of information (No endless zoom-in).
  • Freedom of reading: Where is the starting point?. Jan Tschichold: “As a rule, we no longer read quietly line by line but glance quickly over the whole, and only if our interests are awakened do the study in detail”.
• POINT C: Attention calls for the reader, connect with the audience.
  • Slogans/ Call for action: Cartographies as advertising.
  • Making maps attractive (aesthetic objects - Map art). Mark Lombardi, Öyvind Fahlström. 
  • Identity mirror. Communities feel identifies and represented with design elements. Iconoclasistas - Who owns the land?

CHAPTER 2: COLLABORATIVE MAPPING (Crowdsourcing practices for collection and production of cartographies.)

- Democratisation of information: Building data sets from people.

   -  Why to contribute: Idealism or local need?. James Surowiecki - Wisdom of crowds.
   - Unavailability of information: Filling data gaps.  The supremacy of western data. Missing maps platform. Bourj Al Shamali's maps (organisation that don’t share the maps with the citizens. Google maps blurry areas.
   - Availability of use of GIS - PPGIS ( Public Participation GIS). OSM (Open Street Map).

- Community mapping make communities (inclusion, transparency and empowerment)

   - Create local communities through maps: Parish mapping (more 1000 communities in UK linked to maps); The Green Map System (a global eco-cultural movement energised by local knowledge, action and responsibility).
   - Mapathon  - session for collective mapping and community making online.

- Became an occasional cartographer: Expanding cartography to non-expertise contributors

   - Workshop as laboratory: Iconoclasistas, A new social cartography in the Amazon. 
   - Mapping for Human rights: Amnesty international open letter how to map for Human rights 
   - Manuals for community mapping (DIY): Manual for collective mapping - Iconoclasistas; Making maps: A visual guide to Map Design for GIS - John Krygier and Denis Wood. Illustrated guide for Ballon mapping

CHAPTER 3: SHARING RADICAL MAPS WITH PEOPLE, GIVING THEIR KNOWLEDGE BACK! (Post digital strategies for re-publishing cartographies.)

- Ambition and motivations of publishing counter-maps.

   - Political pressure. Mapping sexual harassment in Egypt.
   - Calls for action / create a social movement. Community gardens maps NYC. 
   - Didactic. Protest map, Cartoon and propaganda.
   - Critique. Uneven digital geographies project. 

- Post-digital mediums to spread cartographic knowledge.

   - Make it part of the city: Mural Anti eviction map, Knitted Flood Wall. 
   - Experimental narratives: Lize Mogel - Performing infrastructure, Political poetic session - Anti eviction maps. 
   - Self-printing diagrams: Political action maps in Germany. 

- Radical Atlas: the importance of collection in maps (Interconnections across space and time)

   - Unfinished collection, ongoing publication. 
   - Some Collections of maps: Ej Atlas, An Atlas of radical cartography, Anti-Eviction Atlas, This is not an Atlas

- Open access, a handy publication.

   - Creative commons license.  Reappropriation, reproduction and redefinition of maps. 
   - Streaming cartographic publications. Always available, always updated. Mapping safe passages project.
   - Anti-counter cartographies: the other side of open access. When companies appropriate collective mapping processes to have profit. 

III. Conclusion

- Summarize the main points - Make a strong/ memorable final statement: For centuries cartographies had been defined by state and domination and now the reflect individuals’ voices. Thanks to technology and collaborative tools this process is currently accessible to many more people and practised to fight for the defense of people's rights.

THIRD DRAFT

I. Introduction

Background: Cartography was an instrument of power and domination, they used to define the territory and draw its borders and resources. In the vein of Denis Wood, John Pickles, and J. B. Harley, this paper places itself within the strand of critical cartography that emerged in the 1980s with the aim to redefine the concept of mapping by analysing maps as creative and ideological constructions making reality as much as representing it, shaping the political identities of the people inhabiting it.

Late 90’s Mark Lombardi, narrative structures that describe inconvenient stories about bank, corruption and crimes. He wanted to create a unifying element to understand the whole. He introduced topographies of Power. (Öyvind Fahlström???)

Statement: Diagrams, cartographies and maps can be transformed into socio-political communication tools which empower communities and give visibility to their common interests, revealing hidden information and making the reader raise awareness about the social crisis. This mechanism challenges the traditional storytelling becoming a technological design instrument that spread knowledge through visual global language.

II. Body of thesis

Topic 1: Anatomy of counter-cartographies ( visual language, codes, elements…)

• Coding/ decoding information - translation process
  • The grammar of the visual language (Semiology of graphics) Jaques Bertin - the problem of modern cartography are not related to the accuracy of the measures but centre on the graphic transcription of the data. ( variables of visual elements in maps )
  • Pictographic grammar (Bureau d’Études)
  • Visual language is a powerful instrument to Popularise information and make societies gain awareness (Otto Neurath The museum of society and economy - Working class in the museum)
• Interpretation /readability/ levels of complexity
  • Alfred Korzybsky - “The map is not the territory” the language create a map used by people to represent the reality that is perceived.
  • Jan Tschichold - “as a rule, we no longer read quietly line by line, but glance quickly over the whole, and only if our interests are awakened do the study in detail” —Micro -Macro readings —
• Role of software when making visual representations: Mapping (interpretation) vs tracing (reproduction)
  • Wester supremacy in technological visual translations (Gaps of representation) - Ramon Amaro
  • Diagrammatic layout in software representation invites you to represent hierarchical structures (Tree, Pack circles)

Topic 2: Social mapping ( Collaborative processes)

• Make communities through Counter-Cartographies
  • Mapmaking collaborative sessions( Iconoclasistas in Argentina)
  • Mapathon - session for collective mapping online
• People’s contributions to building data sets - Democratisation of information
  • Why to contribute ¿ Idealism or local need? —> wisdom of crowds
  • Unavailability of data (where are the data?) —> Data gaps
  • People missing in maps (Missing Maps platform)
• Through collective mapping, the language, tools and techniques of cartography formerly restricted to “specialist” are socialised and reinvented —> expanded to non conventional uses - become an occasional cartographer!
  • Manual for collective mapping iconoclasistas - the creation of visual language - DIY grammar
  • Mapping for Human rights - Amnesty international ( Training session to introduce mapping for Human Rights )

Topic 3: Sharing diagrams with people (Re-publishing), giving their knowledge back!

• Create a common identity
  • Mural anti-eviction map
  • Knitted Flood Wall (the collective process of making )
• Performing diagrams
  • Lize Mogel: Performing infrastructure
• Transforming knowledge into action
  • When counter cartographies became urban tools for designers (Iconoclasistas)
• Anti counter-cartography
  • Companies taking advantage of collective mapping processes to have profit

III. Conclusion

• Summarize the main points
• Make a strong/ memorable final statement: For centuries cartographies had been defined by state and domination and now the reflect individuals’ voices. Thanks to technology and collaborative tools this process is possibly easier and faster nowadays.

SECOND DRAFT

I. Introduction

Background: Cartography was an instrument of power and domination, they used to define the territory and draw its borders and resources. In the vein of Denis Wood, John Pickles, and J. B. Harley, this paper places itself within the strand of critical cartography that emerged in the 1980s with the aim to redefine the concept of mapping by analysing maps as creative and ideological constructions making reality as much as representing it, shaping the political identities of the people inhabiting it.

Statement: Diagrams, cartographies and maps can be transformed into socio-political communication tools which empower communities and give visibility to their common interests, revealing hidden information and making the reader raise awareness about social crisis. This mechanism challenge the traditional storytelling becoming a technological design instrument that spread knowledge through visual global language.

II. Body of thesis

Topic 1: Visual language for creating radical maps

• Coding/ decoding information
  • The grammar of visual language (Semiology of graphics)
• Interpretation / readability / levels of complexity
  • Jan Tschichold - “as a rule, we no longer read quietly line by line, but glance quickly over the whole, and only if our interests is awakened do the study in detail”
• Software conditions you when making visual representations: Mapping (interpretation) vs tracing (reproduction)
  • Wester supremacy in technological visual translations (Gaps of representation) - Ramon Amaro
  • Diagrammatic layout in software representation invite you to represent hierarchical structures (Tree, Pack circles)

Topic 2: Community mapping | Collaborative practices in mapping counter-cartographies Tools for production wee need people (creation of a cartography people’s role)

• Crowdsourcing processes
• Wisdom of Crowds
• why to contribute? —> idealism or local needs
• Where are the information/ data is everything - communities voices
• Protocols and dilemmas of collaborative work —> systematisation of data
• Through collective mapping, the language, tools and techniques of cartography formerly restricted to “specialist” are socialised and reinvented —> expanded to non conventional uses

Topic 3: Sharing diagrams with people (Re-publishing) , giving their knowledge back!

• Visual language is a powerful instrument to Popularise information and make societies gain awareness
  • Otto Neurath The museum of society and economy - Working class in the museum
• Create common identity
  • Mural anti-eviction map
• Performing diagrams
  • Lize Mogel: Performing infrastructure
• The cartographic mediums display
• Transforming knowledge into action
  • Collective maps as urban tools (Iconoclasistas)

III. Conclusion

• Summarize the main points
• Make a strong/ memorable final statement: For centuries cartographies had been defined by state and domination and now the reflect individuals’ voices. Thanks to technology and collaborative tools this process is possible easier and faster nowadays.

FIRST DRAFT

I. Introduction

Background: Cartographies as power-elements. Traditionally they were instruments of domination (indigenous cartographies??)
Statement: Diagrams, cartographies and maps can be transformed into socio-activist communication tools which empower communities and give visibility to their common interests, revealing hidden information and making the reader raise awareness about social crisis. This mechanism challenge the traditional storytelling becoming a technological design instrument that spread knowledge through visual global language.

II. Body of thesis

Topic 1: Visual language for creating radical maps

• Coding/ decoding language
• Interpretation / readability / levels of complexity
• Popularize information
• Role of software in visual language: Mapping (interpretation) vs tracing (reproduction)

Topic 2: Collaborative practices in mapping counter-cartographies

• Crowdsourcing
• Wisdom of Crowds
• Why to contribute? —> idealism or local needs

Topic 3: Sharing diagrams with people (Re-publishing) - engage

• Performing diagrams
• The cartographic mediums
• Storytelling (graphic novels-Chris Ware?)
• Diagrams became community icons

Topic 4: Applying diagrams to society, giving their knowledge back

• Urban collaborative design
• Create common identity
• Atlas of practices

III. Conclusion

• Summarize the main points
• Make a strong/ memorable final statement: For centuries cartographies had been defined by state and domination and now the reflect individuals’ voices.