Overview

This lesson introduces students to map design as a practice of visual rhetoric and critical cartography. It enables students to learn how map design choices can shape the meaning a viewer derives from a map, as well as a map’s persuasive power and visual appeal. It also introduces the idea of maps as social and political technologies that can be used as agents of control or domination while also exploring ways in which they might be reconfigured as tools of emancipation or social change.

Learning Goals

• Appreciate the ways in which maps might be used as tools of power and control
• Explore ways in which maps also have the potential to liberate and empower
• Understand cartographic design choices as tools of visual rhetoric

Readings

Note: A “” next to a resource indicates that it is optional reading/viewing*

• “Critical Cartography: subjectivity, politics, and the power of spatial data.”YouTube, uploaded by HarvardHumanitarian, 5. November, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Matpi4BhBTM
• “Why all world maps are wrong.” YouTube, uploaded by Vox, 2, December 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIID5FDi2JQ.
• Matson, Laura and Melinda Kernik. “Scale and Projections.” Mapping, Technology, and Society, edited by Steven Manson, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2017. https://open.lib.umn.edu/mapping/chapter/3-scale-and-projections/
• Deluca, Eric and Dudley Bonsal. “Design and Symbolization.” Mapping, Technology, and Society, edited by Steven Manson, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2017. https://open.lib.umn.edu/mapping/chapter/4-design-and-symbolization/
• “Cartography Guide: A short, friendly guide to the basic principles of map design.” Axis Maps, 2020, https://www.axismaps.com/guide, Accessed 15. June, 2020. [Skim tutorials]

Agenda

Video/reading discussion (35 minutes)

Begin class with a discussion of some of the issues raised in the videos that students watched in preparation for class. Some discussion questions might include the following:

• How do maps distort reality?
• How are maps implicated in systems of power and authority?
• How do map design choices shape the narratives conveyed by maps?
• What does the Mercator map distort? Why is this relevant, from a political perspective?
• What do we mean by map symbology? Why is it important? What criteria should we use in making choices about symbology?
• What accessibility principles should we keep in mind when making maps?
• What is the relationship between maps and marginalized populations? How can this state of affairs be changed?
• What do we mean by the “decolonization of mapping”? What are some strategies for pursuing this decolonization project?

Critical Cartography (20 minutes)

Have students peruse this collection of historical maps from Stanford University: https://www.davidrumsey.com/

Have them select a map and answer the following questions (adapted from Erica Nelson’s lecture on critical cartography):

• What is the context of this map?
• Who made this map, and for what audience?
• What are they trying to portray?
• What are their biases?
• What are the systems of power that the map reflects?

Counter-cartographies (20 minutes)

Have students peruse this collection of “critical” maps (in small groups) that attempt to transform maps from tools of hegemony or control, to agents of emancipation or reform: https://notanatlas.org/#atlas-maps

Have them select a map, and answer the following questions:

• How would you summarize the map’s rhetorical situation? Consider author, audience, exigence, and purpose.
• What is the map trying to convey or portray?
• What design choices do the map authors make that help them convey this message? Would you make different choices? Why or why not?
• What is your emotional response to the map?
• Does the map give voice to marginalized populations? If so, how?
• How could this map be used as part of a broader advocacy campaign?