Maps and daily life are now so intertwined for most people that it is difficult to imagine a world without them. Most of us use at least one map every day. Some of us use many of them, especially since they have now become one of the dominant interfaces of our digital society, alongside the scrolling screen, camera view and search engine.
We are also mapped, covertly or overtly, through the GPS and location data trails we leave, the journeys we take, and the types of activities we engage in as we go about our daily business.
There are also more similar ways maps are part of our lives: the pirate treasure maps of our childhood and atlases that reveal a world ripe for adventure; maps on railway platforms or bicycle docking stations; and there are maps on the back of the flyers posted on the door.
Maps also have other, less practical uses. They hang proudly in our homes and offices, are used to decorate items like coffee mugs and mouse pads, and even create fashion.
Cartography has become one of the most successful technologies we have developed to understand the world around us. Maps have also become important cultural and artistic objects that we hold dear. They can be both useful and pragmatic, beautiful and poetic, political and powerful, meaningful and ordinary.
Shaping social and cultural life
My work over the last decade, culminating in my book All Mapped Out, has led me to question what maps mean to people in their daily lives and, in turn, how maps shape their experiences.
Maps have attracted much attention from researchers and industry over the years, mostly to produce the most accurate and useful map for a particular purpose or to examine how strong interests are reflected in maps.
Once working with pen and paper, now working with advanced geospatial technologies, professional cartographers aim to produce more detailed maps for more and more uses. worldviews of its creators.
But it is only relatively recently that we have begun to investigate what they do to shape social and cultural life.
Maps and what we do with them cannot be universally defined. Ideals and ideas about maps often conflict with the reality of how and why maps are used. By bringing together my own research examining map users in London and the work of others investigating mapping practices around the world, I want to show how map uses are shaped by different cultures, communities, contexts and technologies.
One way to explore this is to look at the impact of GPS technology on mapping our movements. Today, millions of people use this technology to map out their exercise routines, supporting a multibillion-dollar industry.
But self-monitoring isn’t just about maps and measurements. These maps gain meaning as objects engraved with personal cartography. It’s a good feeling to see where we are; This is a sign that we have achieved something.
Some people have taken this further, using fitness trackers as vehicles for their artwork, using GPS functions to write images and words on a map along their movements across the landscape. The art of GPS, as it is known, is growing in popularity as people realize the potential of self-tracking outside of a purely mapping exercise towards personal targets.
It started in 2000, long before smartphones and fitness tracking apps became commonplace, when artist Jeremy Wood began recording and mapping his movements using a handheld GPS device. This included tracking their daily travels and even recording their mowing routes throughout the seasons. This reveals that a popular mapping technology (GPS) has many effects beyond what was intended.
Mapping Contexts
There are several overlapping themes in my work that show how maps become connected to culture and society. I want to do more than describe the maps that changed the world or reveal the history of maps and society. Instead, I want to show that all maps have the potential to change the world and shape society. What matters is where you look and whose world you are interested in.
With my book, I hope to inspire another way of looking at maps, first through the lens of navigation, an activity strongly associated with maps, and then through movement and how maps shape our perception of it.
I also look at the power and politics of maps, which reveal whose interests certain maps serve, and explore contemporary mapmaking cultures. With easy-to-use digital mapping tools now available online and the proliferation of advanced mapping technologies used by professionals, the power of mapmaking and the cultures that develop around maps are more diverse than ever.
Maps and mapmakers are constantly changing, making what we do with maps an exciting area for development. This means that our understanding of the map must evolve along with the way it continues to shape society.
So it’s time to rethink. Despite the now-often-used line that maps are arguments about the world, the prevailing view remains that maps are neutral and objective, once on paper but now digital, accurate and functional. Why is this? So how do we move beyond this?
My hope is to create a conversation (which so far can only be had in a small corner of map studies) that encourages people to think beyond the assumptions society has about maps and how we use them.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Mike Duggan receives funding from the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, EPSRC and King’s College London. Affiliated with Livingmaps Network