An Atlas of Radical Cartography makes an important contribution to a growing cultural movement that traverses the boundaries between art, cartography, geography and activism. It pairs writers with artists, architects, designers and collectives to address the role of the map as political agent (rather than neutral document). Ten mapping projects dealing with social and political issues such as migration, incarceration, globalization, housing rights, garbage and energy issues are complemented by 10 critical essays and dialogues responding to each map. The maps themselves are printed as posters, unbound for leisurely perusal. Among the contributors are artists Trevor Paglen, John Emerson, Ashley Hunt and Pedro Lasch and essayists Avery Gordon, Heather Rogers, Alejandro De Acosta and Jenny Price. An Atlas of Radical Cartography also serves as a catalogue to the exhibition An Atlas, which has been touring the United States and internationally since July of 2007.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By D. Tucker
Space Discovery:
A review of An Atlas of Radical Cartography
Review by Daniel Tucker
The fist time I went to Central New York state, was the first time I knew where it was. The first time I heard about Sudan on the news, was the first time I knew where it was and what was on the nearby borders. Our personal maps of the world are continuously changing. Through our experiences we become aware of places and ideas previously unfamiliar. Through culture and tourism we feel invited to explore what feels new to us. Through disasters and devastation we become conscious of locales that are further away that anywhere we could have imagined. All of this information and these experiences informs the expansion and creation of our map of the world and how it works.
Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat have edited "An Atlas of Radical Cartography" a beautifully designed 160 page book of ten essays, ten 17" x 22" maps, that all fold up and fit into an elegant slipcase. It's the second book to be released on the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press, a sister project to the original and ongoing annual Journal, which has become an important hub for critical and creative writing about the intersections of contemporary art and politics. The An Atlas collection is unique and unprecedented, collecting together many of the primary voices that have connected the visual and semiotic language of cartography with current political and artistic discourses.
The map is an obvious and practical device for people attempting to better understand the world in all its complexity, this project illuminates this "why mapping" question. Some of the reasons that essayist and map makers in this volume identify for their interest in maps include: shaping arguments, shaping policy, considering the continuity between geography without physical connections, as an ongoing research process, just to follow the connections between things we do every day and complex infrastructures, or to encourage a critical civic engagement and understanding of how things are planned and how they work.
An Atlas of Radical Cartography is an amalgamation of several different ideas. It is an experimental primer course in geography, a sampling of spatially oriented trends in contemporary art, a portable mini exhibit and a field guide to ongoing international debates about space and place. The collection of maps/essays starts to differentiate between the aesthetic experimentation and art trends that sample or reference geography, and the political mapping practices that take seriously their goals to change how we think about and use the world around us. An Atlas will be of interest to quasi-planners, drifting artists, experimental geographers, lovers of places, haters of maps, lost students and engaged citizens alike. It calls out attention to vital "radical cartography" work that is happening in cities and communities with which we could all relate. An Atlas asks us to handle maps, examine thoughts and rediscover space at a time when there is great confusion about what is where, what is near, how far is far, where we should go? An Atlas asks us to take great care with the world we currently have, to better understand its complexity and how it works, and to more thoughtfully consider how we are getting where we are going?
For more information
The project http://www.an-atlas.com/
The publisher http://www.joaap.org/
Bio: Daniel Tucker is the editor of AREA Chicago (areachicago.org). For more information see miscprojects.com
A review of An Atlas of Radical Cartography
Review by Daniel Tucker
The fist time I went to Central New York state, was the first time I knew where it was. The first time I heard about Sudan on the news, was the first time I knew where it was and what was on the nearby borders. Our personal maps of the world are continuously changing. Through our experiences we become aware of places and ideas previously unfamiliar. Through culture and tourism we feel invited to explore what feels new to us. Through disasters and devastation we become conscious of locales that are further away that anywhere we could have imagined. All of this information and these experiences informs the expansion and creation of our map of the world and how it works.
Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat have edited "An Atlas of Radical Cartography" a beautifully designed 160 page book of ten essays, ten 17" x 22" maps, that all fold up and fit into an elegant slipcase. It's the second book to be released on the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press, a sister project to the original and ongoing annual Journal, which has become an important hub for critical and creative writing about the intersections of contemporary art and politics. The An Atlas collection is unique and unprecedented, collecting together many of the primary voices that have connected the visual and semiotic language of cartography with current political and artistic discourses.
The map is an obvious and practical device for people attempting to better understand the world in all its complexity, this project illuminates this "why mapping" question. Some of the reasons that essayist and map makers in this volume identify for their interest in maps include: shaping arguments, shaping policy, considering the continuity between geography without physical connections, as an ongoing research process, just to follow the connections between things we do every day and complex infrastructures, or to encourage a critical civic engagement and understanding of how things are planned and how they work.
An Atlas of Radical Cartography is an amalgamation of several different ideas. It is an experimental primer course in geography, a sampling of spatially oriented trends in contemporary art, a portable mini exhibit and a field guide to ongoing international debates about space and place. The collection of maps/essays starts to differentiate between the aesthetic experimentation and art trends that sample or reference geography, and the political mapping practices that take seriously their goals to change how we think about and use the world around us. An Atlas will be of interest to quasi-planners, drifting artists, experimental geographers, lovers of places, haters of maps, lost students and engaged citizens alike. It calls out attention to vital "radical cartography" work that is happening in cities and communities with which we could all relate. An Atlas asks us to handle maps, examine thoughts and rediscover space at a time when there is great confusion about what is where, what is near, how far is far, where we should go? An Atlas asks us to take great care with the world we currently have, to better understand its complexity and how it works, and to more thoughtfully consider how we are getting where we are going?
For more information
The project http://www.an-atlas.com/
The publisher http://www.joaap.org/
Bio: Daniel Tucker is the editor of AREA Chicago (areachicago.org). For more information see miscprojects.com
27 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By rnh
I heard the editors of this book on the radio and I was intrigued by the map ideas, but I was disappointed in the execution. Some of the maps are not maps, but drawings, such as the one of North and South America drawn in a faded red with the label across the continents "Latino/a America." Is this radical? Another, titled "Routes of Least Surveillance," shows surveillance cameras in Manhattan--but the data is from 2001, and there's no explanation of how the data was obtained. Perhaps the included book gives an explanation, but the map should stand on his own. It also has silly little vignettes of people--invented or real?--who might want to avoid the cameras, e.g., Wanda gets the creeps from the though of unsupervised male camera operators ogling her as she returns home from her Power Pilates class. Finally, I didn't find any of these maps particularly attractive or innovative--there's nothing I would want to put on my wall. You'll find much better designed maps in any of Tufte's books. If the point was to get me thinking about radical ideas through cartography, this book failed.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
Definitely a worthwhile collection of essays. Not all are hit. Some of the maps are rather good and some aren't. Not necessarily any push forward or too radical here, but pretty good read.
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