The Ideology of the Map

Mapping reveals the complex relationship between representation and thinking, technology, culture and aesthetic practices. Embedded in the procedure are the general terms of cartography and how mapping re-constructs a three-dimensional world onto a surface. We will address the map both as a text and as an object of historical explanation from which we can gain a better understanding of current spatial practices.The course is divided into nine sections: an introduction and eight sections corresponding to a term referenced from mapping procedures but also articulated within architecture. Each section associated with a term includes one or more case studies. The projects we examine in the course position themselves in relation to the project of the city through the map; specifically, how mapping reveals the dialectic between spatial constructs and their potential meaning. Students will have the option of working on a mapping or concentrating on a historical topic.The objective of the course is to historicize and then instrumentalize maps and mapping procedures.