Lize Mogel on Counter-Cartography

Lize Mogel discusses counter-cartography, an approach that involves looking beyond a map’s surface to reveal the politics of place. As the Whitney Education Department’s Community Artist-in-Residence (January-May 2015), Mogel introduced her practice of counter-mapping to teens, students, and seniors as a way to uncover personal histories and see what they say about the past, present, and future of the Whitney’s downtown neighborhood.

[@mitchcox8577]

Love this. I spend a lot of time thinking about the science of mapping and data visualization, but I also agree that no map can contain capital-T Truth. They can only show us patterns, which might be true, or they can be based on assumptions, biases and power dynamics that serve some audiences over others. Those audiences have a vested interest in maintaining the maps' claims of objectivity. Questioning that objectivity is an important cultural project, and subverting the the structures of cartography to tell different stories is a great use of the medium.

[@Obiwannabe]

"They don't necessarily question what they see on a map"
Yes that's the point. It's a map. It's is unnecessary(and potentially harmful) for someone to need to question a utility like cartography . There needs to be a baseline of universal understanding for what a map is. A map is meant to be a lay out. Social justice and cartography are mutually exclusive.

[@slash09r1]

Those aren't maps. This is absolute garbage