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MAPS THROUGH TIME AND REDESIGN

M. Fernandes

Abstract

Knowledge takes many forms and shapes. Usually we associate our gathering of information and knowledge by what is transmitted in books and text. But it is often through our visual heritage that we perceive and build a notion of world and space around us. According to J.B. Harley [1] there has probably always been a natural impulse to create maps. Cartographic maps are historically synonymous of power, since geographic representation and knowledge in them concentrated influences, moved reigns, borders, and controlled market routes. As a system of signification, the credibility of a map is seldom contested, and these objects "possess an 'extraordinary authority', even when they present errors, which may be lacking in other types of image" [1]. This is a structure agreed upon by centuries of development, appropriation, graphic familiarity and analogy to physical realities, which has allowed them to be an object quickly retained by sight and quite immersed in semiotics as a "general metaphor" of our space. The resilience of these objects has also allowed the construct of imaginary spaces and realities that are made credible by their cartographic representation. We will focus on present and long lasting examples of maps and demonstrate how their design and redesign continues to shape our knowledge; by the way they interconnect with our visual perception of truth.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/5.3/S21.043

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