According to one art critic in the LA Times maps act as both a discrete object and an indicator of position. Artists have used maps to locate intersections and the overlapping of various phenomena in the world. The map can explore concepts that are metaphysical or concrete; it offers us a way to share our ideas with others. Below are links to various artists, collectives, and blogs dedicated to the art and act of mapping.
Who Invented the Avant Garde, ver. 3 by Ward Shelley
Dennis Wood, “P L E A S U R E IN
T H E I D E A / T H E A T L A S AS
N A R R A T I V E F O RM”
Though they reverse their terms, cartographers insist upon an equally vacuous
and stultifying image of man. In the puritanical world where pleasure needs a
mask, the map walks boldly uncovered: there is nothing of pleasure in maps.
Maps, we are told, are tools (image of smithy bent over anvil), made, not because
anyone particularly wants maps as maps, but because map buyers have
information needs that maps allow them to meet. People who ‘wax enthusiastic’
over maps are suspect, and usually turn out to be writers and poets (images of
long-haired romantics lost in reverie)
Links to images and artists who have used mapping
Jenny Beorkrem and Ork Posters
BLOGS and WEBSITES
Raw’n Wild’s Map Photostream on Flickr
