At the beginning of the 21st century, geographic information technologies show us extraordinary levels of detail about the physical world we inhabit. However, their objective authority can distract us from their subjective limitations; satellite-based maps mask racial, linguistic or religious concerns, and show us little about the social, emotional and political worlds we inhabit.
The Iniva Creative Mapping Project asks how we can begin to map these worlds. Artists work with different groups to create new maps, maps that reflect something of our daily lives. Previous mapping projects have considered ‘how can we map our senses?’, ‘who makes up my personal cartography?’, while others create ways to tag the world with ‘geograffiti’. Each project provides a unique reconsideration of mapping as well as a different world to think about how we look at the world we live in.
‘I think that maps are a great thing to use in art. Before they were confusing, but learning about it now I feel I can make a map out of anything.’
Student at City Learning Centre Newham
Do you want to run a creative mapping project in your school or community group? Contact Teresa Cisneros-Ledda on 020 7749 1254/ tledda@iniva.org
