Historical geographer JB Harley wrote an essay on Map Deconstruction in 1989, in which Harley argues that a map is more than just a geographical representation of an area, his theory is that we need to look at a map not just as a geographical image but in its entire context. Harley points out that by an examination of the social structures that have influenced map making, that we may gain more knowledge about the world. The maps social construction is made from debate about what it should show. Harley broke away from the traditional argument about maps and examined the biases that govern the map and the map makers, by looking at what the maps included or excluded. Harley’s “basic argument within this essay is that we should encourage an epistemological shift in the way we interpret the nature of cartography.” Therefore Harley’s aim within his essay on ‘Deconstructing the Map’ was to break down the assumed ideas of a map being a purely scientific creation.
In ‘Deconstructing the Map’ Harley looks at the writings of two well-known philosophers’ Michael Foucault and Jacques Derrida, looking at their argument’s around maps. Foucault, a renounced philosopher in cultural theory, examines the external power and the omnipresence of internal power in the cartographic representation of place. Derrida applied conceptions of literary understanding to the maps construction. Derrida’s argument was that like a literary text a map could also be read, and using theory Harley was able to deconstruct the map. Another name that is just mentioned in this essay is Panofsky; Erwin Panofsky was an art historian, “most frequently associated with the concept of iconography, matching the subject-matter of works of art to a symbolic syntax of m...
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...luencing map making, and Derrida’s deconstruction argument, which stated a map could be read like a literary text, Harley was able to argue that a map is more than just a simple geographic representation of an area, by using Harley’s theory of deconstruction the embedded symbolic value within the map can be discovered. By studying maps we can learn more about the world we live in, and the society from which the map derived.
Works Cited
1. J B Harley, 1989, Deconstructing The Map, Ann Arbor, Michigan: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library.
2. Erwin Panofsky, 1939, Studies in Iconology, 1939 rpt. New York: Harper and Row, 1972, pages 3-31.
3. Class notes for The History of Cartography.
4. J.B. Harley, "Maps, Knowledge, and Power," in The Iconography of Landscape, ed. Denis Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988: 289-90.
James Howard Kunstler begins his work, “The Geography of Nowhere,” at a top speed and continues from there. He starts chapter one, Scary Place, by describing the story of Judge Doom from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, which is the fictional character that is supposedly responsible for Los Angeles becoming taken over by the freeways. He then continues quoting Lewis Mumford, who was basically the dean of American urban academics in the beginning of the 1900s. He gloomily predicted, would completely demoralize mankind and lead to the nuclear holocaust (p. 10).
Now that we’ve made our way through the journey of Ken Jennings’ incredible book I feel as if it’s important for me to try to sway you to become more involved in geography. It’s a truly fascinating subject and can take you places you never thought you could ever visit. If you don’t want to leave your home, at least buy an atlas, map, or visit Google Earth. You never know what you could discover in your journey. If you don’t think maps or an atlas is your thing, you never know if you never try. Jennings created a journey, for me I would have never cared to take had it not been assigned as a college class assignment, but now I’m so glad I did. Jennings shined a different light on geocaching, and map hunting. He made it fun, interesting, and overall thrilling.
Until the 1950s, Atlases were mostly comprised of maps that simply show space and place. However in 1953, the World Geo-Graphic Atlas, published by Walter Paepcke’s Container Corporation of America (CCA) with Herbert Bayer, changed people’s notion of what maps look like and what information they contain. Bayer believed, that maps were “a record of time and perhaps even a tool of prognostication.” By the use of Isotypes (International System of Typographic Picture Education), Bayer created an atlas that is universal, therefore allowed viewers to understand complex data more clearly and easily.
Gibbs, S. (2015, February 8). Google Maps: a decade of transforming the mapping landscape. Retrieved from The Guardian Web Site: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/08/google-maps-10-anniversary-iphone-android-street-view
In eighteenth century Paris the images on signboards served the purpose of stimulating, amusing and informing through an iconography that was complex enough to engage the great masters of the time.
The Vinland Map has been at the center of controversy ever since it appeared around 1957. It depicts several islands in the Atlantic Ocean, but more importantly, an island called Vinland. This island is believed to be part of Canada or even Northeastern America. If the map is truly genuine, then it pre-dates Columbus’ discovery of America by more than 50 years (Gorman, 2002). However, there has been constant doubt surrounding its origins and authenticity. These issues have divided scientists into two camps which seem to ride circles around one another. As soon as new evidence arises, someone disputes it with counterarguments that are just as strong. The controversy has focused most recently on two issues: the ink used to draw the map, and the parchment that it is drawn upon.
Derrida thinks that Logocentrism is unreasonable. As a result, he raises deconstruction to against the established philosophy.
Scholarly article used: Lucius Grisebach. "Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 29 Nov 2011.
Jed Martin is a French artist who became famous by photographing maps. Throughout The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq there are a lot of metaphors associated with the title. Jed is able to shift his career from a lowly photographer up to a popular artist. He makes this transition by taking pictures of Michelin maps (Houellebecq 33). He finds these maps magnificent and rich in emotion and meaning. He views looking at a map as becoming a kind of “god” looking down on the villages and imagining the destination of the souls that occupy them (Houellebecq 28). Jed’s father, Jean-Pierre, was an architect which is a profession that often work with maps to design territory. His father had been praised for his seaside resort and the
Baudrillard starts off with an example of Borges tale, “cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where, with the decline of the Empire this map becomes frayed and finally ruined)” (365). He is explaining how there is an impeccable map rotting whereas the territory on the map still remains. He goes on to explain “it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map” (366). This story is to point out that our modern society is playing the role of the map, which is self-destructing and the territory is representing the simulation. He clarifies that simulation is “the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal” and “hyperreal: the simulated generation of difference without any distinction between the real and the imaginary” (Lecture slides 3/6/12).
The Hereford World Map is the world’s oldest surviving map of the world; it was made in 1300, during the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe. There was a wider range of influences on mapping during the later medieval period. With an increase in exploration, Europe began to evolve into an international continent; widespread travel can be seen by the influences of the Islamic world on architecture. While map making in China had flourished in the 11th C, mapping was beginning to evolve in Europe. By around 1400 there was a peak in map making in Europe. There is evidence of the influence of Roman mapping on medieval maps in Europe. The Medieval world maps but together information from Roman sources to make the world maps in the middle ages known as the mappa mundi, meaning cloth of the world. These were cloth maps, and the name mappa mundi was widely used for them. These world maps were understood by historians as an attempt to show where countries were located, quite often they were not just geographical representations but they were also stories of the world. As knowledge of map making increased during the Renaissance, was a move for wider representations of information on maps. The map became a source of information on the animals and history of the different countries. This can be seen in The Hereford World Map, a map that gives a geometrical representation of the locations of the known countries of the world and also acted as an encyclopaedia of information on various types of animals and where in the world they came from.
‘Through identifying places and organizing them, we make sense of the world we inhibit’ (Unwin,
Dalton, R. a. (1898). A description of one of the plaques (Plate 3.2.27). In D. Loftus, & P. Wood, Cultural Encounters (p. 84). Open University.
Using photography is a popular method in social science research. This essay uses photographs to demonstrate the urban differences between residential areas in Edinburgh as well as illustrating the segregation of religion in society. Photography is an active research method where in images are used to visually represent areas being discussed in the text (Rose, 2007). There are considerable benefits to using photographs as a research method, in particular the value the hold over text. Photographs convey a
De, Blij Harm J., and Peter O. Muller. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts. New York: J. Wiley, 1997. 340. Print.