What is it that makes a map a map? Denis Wood tackles the issue in the opening essay in CP 56. The essay is in response to Mark Denil’s critique (CP 55) of Wood’s article “Map Art.” (CP 53).
Wood writes: “The following remarks … are intended to clarify what I have been claiming makes a map a map, that is, what I’ve been calling the map’s mask.” Wood argues “the map’s mask establishes its alienation.”
Selected quotes: “. . . an essential property of maps: their objectness, their objectiveness, their objectivity.” “. . . I was to conclude that all maps were mental maps, that is, subjective to one degree or another.” “. . . the map insisted on being accepted not as a discourse about the world (which would be open to discussion, or a fight) but as the world . . .”
“. . . almost everything about the map looks to us for acceptance.” “The sketch map comes into the world naked, subjective and expressive.” “Although art maps do not enter the world naked as sketch maps do, neither do they enter it masked as maps. Rather they come with masks in hand, masks pulled from the face of maps they’ve unmasked.”
Cartographic Perspectives issue 53 was a special issue on mapping and the arts. Contents included “Map Art” by Denis Wood, “Interpreting Map Art with a Perspective Learned from J.M. Blaut” by Dalia Varanka, “Art-Machines, Body-Ovens and Map-Recipes: Entries for a Psychogeographic Dictionary” by kanarinka, “Jake Barton’s Performance Maps: An Essay” by John Krygier and a “Catalogue of Map Artists” Compiled by Denis Wood.
Citation: Denis Wood. “A Map Is an Image Proclaiming Its Objective Neutrality: A Response to Mark Denil.” Cartographic Perspectives 56, Winter 2007, pp. 4-16.
Cartographic Perspectives issue #56 (Winter 2007) will be mailed soon to NACIS members. NACIS membership is $42/year ($20 for students) and includes three issues of the journal.
