Picturing Place: Women in American Pictorial CartographyJudith Tyner, California State University, Long BeachPictorial maps have existed from the earliest days of mapping, but became very popular in the early 20th century and remain so. However until recently there was little serious study of these maps and the people who made them. Most of the literature focuses on some well-known men, but women were involved in making pictorial maps from early days. This paper is a discussion of the nature and history of pictorial maps with a focus on women cartographers and their contributions.
Embodying Landscape, Transposing Space: Francois Matthes's 1906 Topographical Map of the Grand CanyonNicholas Bauch, Stanford UniversityBetween 1902-1904 Francois Matthes led a team of mapmakers to create the first detailed topographical drawing of the Grand Canyon, using plane table technology to do so. In this presentation I offer the idea that a map cannot be a map without the process of transposition, a term from music that is the operation of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant level. The act of transposing from the surface of the earth to the piece of paper is the mapping, the act itself bringing the two realities into a relationship. In the two years it took to move around the dense region and draw the intersecting lines for his map, Matthes embodied this process of map-making. The location of his body and the lines of sight he experienced were in fact the map as much as the piece of paper.
https://speakerdeck.com/nvkelso/embodying-landscape-transposing-spaceRemapping Spatial SensibilitiesNick Lally, University of Wisconsin-MadisonIn a number of recent articles, scholars have drawn connections between cartography and the visual arts. These connections are usually confined to questions of aesthetics and representation, eschewing larger conceptual and historical connections. In this paper, I deploy Jacques Rancière's concept of the “distribution of the sensible,” which he uses to describe how art changes what we are able to perceive. Using a number of maps as examples, I use this concept to trace a history of cartography concerned with changing understandings of space. This periodization, I argue, suggests a path forward for cartographic work concerned with developing new spatial cognizance, or using Rancière's terms, re-distributing what is spatially sensible. This path, informed by art theory, opens up exciting new possibilities for cartographic work to exist as an independent knowledge-producing practice, intersect with theories in human geography, respond to the current moment, and produce new representations of space.
https://speakerdeck.com/nvkelso/remapping-spatial-sensibilitiesRecognizing Place: Examining Artists’ Use of MapsDKB Hoover, University of Wisconsin-Stevens PointVisual artists use maps to represent their personal terrain or suggest shared geographies. They can conjure ‘mental maps’ by using plats or charts as mnemonic devices to trigger recognition of experiences. Cartographic imagery can also be employed to highlight human scale in the physical world, social conventions of organization, vernacular forms of information, or real or imaginary evolution of place.
In her book, The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, Katharine Harmon states, “the artist/cartographer is the enabler, subverter, and documenter of experience.” In this presentation I will explore the work of different artists who use maps and mapping and examine their motives. Whether the concept of map is incorporated to evoke a sense of place, to question notions of home, to deconstruct boundaries, or invent something new, my focus is on the artist’s intention and the effects that has on perception of the work.
