Maps are power projections. Adminsitrative jurisdiction and lines divide responsibilities for a space. But these lines made on paper force social processes into play with consequences in real space. Planning maps, as such, can be thought of as tools of violence, destruction and exclusion for their impact.
This post from Urban Omnibus is a great introduction to mapping as a critical, social practice. It is a short interview with architect and educator Louise Harpman, who teachers a course on Mapping at NYU.
– Barack Obama, June 19th at the Brandenburg Gates
More
Saskia Sassen’s research deals with the existence and formation of borders and of cities as frontier zones.
Thinking about maps, the first thing to come to mind is political borders. The delineations between countries, between spaces and between people which in an age of globalization make mobility more a challenge than one could hope.
About 19 kilometers (12 miles) of what appears to be black polypropylene twine, 3mm in diameter and suspended in the sky, demarcates an important boundary in Central Brooklyn.
– Simon Kuper, Financial Times More
– Daniel D’Oca, Urban Planner, Interboro Partners.
Mark Skwarek – Erase the Separation Barrier Showing what’s on the other side of a border through Augmented Reality. In this case, the border is rendered invisible – a projection of a possibility.
Analysis performed earlier this year of the borders that divide and define Taksim Square. The divisions are categorized by their permeability or “fusibility”.