Else/where: Mapping

by Janet Abrams

ELSE/ MAPPING charts the ascendancy of mapping as a powerful interdisciplinary strategy, one that links people and places, data and organizations, and physical and virtual environments. Traditionally written by history's victors, maps are gaining new currency in our information-saturated age as a means of making arguments and processes visible. Mapping technologies today are as diverse as the agendas driving social networks are mapped with dynamic digital interfaces; buildings are mapped with lasers; cities and regions are mapped by satellite.Illustrated with nearly 300 images, from archival woodcuts to Web-based maps and GPS drawings, ELSE/ MAPPING explores how cartographic techniques are being adapted to map the emerging landscapes of electronic communication. It showcases cutting-edge projects in graphic and industrial design, art, architecture, and technology by an international roster of writers, artists, and designers at the forefront of locative media practice.ELSE/ MAPPING proposes—by visual example and written analysis—that mapping is a fundamental design process that increasingly shapes the physical and conceptual dimensions of contemporary society.Deborah Littlejohn (designer) is design fellow at the University of Minnesota Design Institute.Distributed for the University of Minnesota Design Institute by the University of Minnesota Press.

Genres: Design, Geography, Cartography

Paperback

First published December 15, 2005

Reviews

[Yokusun Basi]

Else/Where: Mapping — New Cartographies of Networks and Territories by Janet Abrams (2006)

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like someone ate a lot of interesting stuff and then barfed it up - which then got turned into a book.

The occupation of editor exists for a reason - someone forgot to remind the authors of this, who are too intent on replicating the distributed attention of web surfing in book form. Very retro-90s, but here, sadly, done completely without irony.


There is the odd good bit in the puddle of vomit, however.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book i have ever read