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Livingmaps Review issue 8
Link: http://livingmaps.review/journal/index.php/LMR/index
Like everything else in early 2020, Issue 8 of the Livingmaps Review has been affected by the long arm of the corona virus pandemic, which has found a way to reach into and disrupt every aspect of our ‘normal’ lives. There were times when we considered cancelling the issue altogether, as contributors and editors grappled with the task of putting it altogether amongst everything else going on in their lives. It is a wonder that we managed it at all, and I want to thank everyone involved for making it happen.
As always, this latest issue is a diverse mix of maps, carto-inspired writings and calls for action that show off the rich diversity of our network. And yet, despite this diversity, the underlying theme of how the mapping of social and ecological life are invariably interlinked does still manage to provide a coherent narrative across the sections.
In Navigations, Phil Cohen contemplates what the role of mapping can and should be in response to the corona virus pandemic, urging us to think about how and whether the multiplicity of social, historical and biological actors involved can be captured cartographically. In the same section, Aldo de Moor lays out the case for a mapping methodology that brings together diverse and often disparate community actors to engage with each other on the so-called ‘wicked problems’ of climate change. Though different in their approach, both of these articles continue to engage with key questions about map making: when is it appropriate, when is it effective, and whom are maps for?
In this issue’s Mapworks, Debbie Kent reviews Graeme Miller’s Linked, a sound installation that maps the stories of lives and livelihoods displaced by the M11 link in East London. Almost two decades after its installation in 2003, Debbie’s review and interview with Graeme reveals the importance of revisiting maps and their creators to understand what their legacy is. Also in this section is Debbie’s critical reflection of Blueprint, a participatory walking arts project based on a geo-locative smartphone app, by herself and Alisa Oleva (collaborating together as the Demolition Project). In the article she discusses how virtual walks and the practices of working together from a distance can form meaningful engagements with the city. Although the project was first designed in 2017, its theme has renewed relevance in our current climate, where urban walking is not what it used to be.
Lines of Desire includes an article by Hilary Ramsden, who take us on a walking tour of the desire lines trodden into the urban landscape of Detroit, USA. In response to the (im)mobilities produced by and through this motor city, Hilary highlights how walking one’s own path through the city can be a necessary act of sociality and a form of resistance. Continuing the theme of walking, multi-media artist Laura Kim Meckling, details a series of geopolitical walks across forty-four legal points of entry and exit between the USA and Mexico. Through a remarkable self-reflexive account involving photojournalism and GPS walking art, Meckling illustrates just how wide the gap can be between the map and one’s lived experience of space and place. Closing this section is an active article from Louise Ann Wilson that calls for readers to share their memory maps of walks to remember during the pandemic. By asking readers contribute their walking stories to a collective map, Wilson highlights the power that personal and collective memories can have in helping us escape the often harsh realities of life in lockdown.
In the Reviews section, Phil Cohen returns with a review of Adam Dant’s Living Maps: An Atlas of Cities Personified, and interview with Jane Commane about her book, Assembly Lines. Mike Duggan rounds off the issue with a review essay of Tania Rossetto’s book, Object-Oriented Cartography: Maps as Things.
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