Well, we all
need Wikipedia, sometimes, I suppose, when we move out of our comfort zones, as
I do today when I begin to muse upon our spring-quest and its depiction by map.
The font of all knowledge says that “A map is
a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting
relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes. Many maps are static two-dimensional, geometrically
accurate,” or almost accurate, “representations of three-dimensional space,
while others are dynamic or interactive, even three-dimensional.” The
article then goes on to speak of scale, ratio, projection etc. and the usual
distinction between “political” and “physical” maps.
Why did I look
this up today, the 29th August 2012? Well, partly because it’s
pouring down again and I can’t face getting soaked again, but also because of a
splendid article in the Guardian which touches upon our spring-quest. Oliver Burkeman
wrote about Google Earth - “inspired by zooming satellite images in TV war
reports” - and how Google continually adds new data to its maps (“in June it
was 2,000 miles of canal towpaths…in July it was bike lanes”). This constant
process could, of course, add data from the movement of individuals…No wonder
“cartographic historian”, Jerry Brotton
thinks that the switch to digital mapping is an even “more profound
change” than the Renaissance manuscript to print revolution.
Now, seemingly
surreal invention is at one’s fingertips: Alice in Wonderland one to one scale
is possible, as are cartographic mash-ups, as is the seeming impossibility of
getting lost. One of the most ubiquitous sights of recent years is the
traveller consulting a smartphone and resolutely, if mutely, going on their
way. No more “Excuse me. I’m lost. Could you help me find…” Burkeman points
out, however, that “In a world of GPS-enabled smartphones” whilst you are
consulting a map, Google and Apple are mapping you. Martin Dodge from
Manchester University says that products that might appear to be “innocent and
neutral” are actually “vacuuming up all sorts of behavioural and attitudinal
data.”
The article
concludes with cartography curator, Lucy Fellowes’ famous statement that “Every
map is someone’s way of getting you to look at the world his or her way” and
the implications of viewing the world through the lens of Californian
capitalism rather than through Alice’s Looking Glass: a world of mercenary,
Gradgrindian logic, no matter how cool the employees dress. So this is where we
come in with the spring-quest.
Our map making
will reclaim Lewis Carroll from Google and we will walk hand in hand with
History, Philosophy, Geology, Literature, Logic, Mythology and Pyschogeography.
We may not go down the rabbit-hole but we will certainly peer into the depths
of our springs and map the genius loci of Stroud and the Five Valleys. Our maps
will be collaborative, shared and Blakean in their envisioning of the fusion of
Space and Time, past, present and future. Who knows? We might even meet the
Green Man. And s/he might even tell us how to name unnamed springs and so
change Google Earth. As the Paris Situationists used to say: “Underneath the
pavements, the beach!”