Time for mapping: Cartographic temporalities - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1526122537 ISBN 13: 9781526122537

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2018

Synopsis

Maps take place in time as well as representing space. The Google map on your smartphone appears to fix the world, serving as a practical spatial tool, but in practice is deployed in ways that draw attention to memories, rhythm, synchronicity, sequence and duration. This interdisciplinary collection focuses on how these temporal aspects of mapping might be understood, at a time when mapping technologies have been profoundly changed by digital developments. It contrasts different aspects of this temporality, bringing together experts from critical cartography, media studies and science and technology studies. Together the chapters offer a unique interdisciplinary focus revealing the complex and social ways in which time in wrapped up with digital technologies and revealed in everyday mapping tasks: from navigating across cities, to serving as scientific groundings for news stories; from managing smart cities, to visual art practice. It brings time back into the map!

An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

About this title

About the Author

Sybille Lammes is Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at Leiden University
Chris Perkins is Reader in Geography at the University of Manchester
Alex Gekker is Lecturer in Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam
Sam Hind is Research Associate in Locating Media at the University of Siegen
Clancy Wilmott is Lecturer in Geography at the University of Manchester
Daniel Evans is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at the University of Manchester

From the Back Cover

The digital era has brought about huge transformations in the map itself, which to date have been largely conceptualised in spatial terms. Novel objects, forms, processes and approaches have emerged and pose new, pressing questions about the temporality of digital maps and contemporary mapping practices: in spite of its implicit spatiality, digital mapping is strongly grounded in time.

This collection brings time back into the map, taking up Doreen Massey's critical concern for 'ongoing stories' in the world; it asks how mapping enrols time into these narratives. Maps often seek to ‘freeze’ and ‘fix’ the world, looking to represent, document or capture dynamic phenomena. This collection examines how these processes are impacted by digital cartographic technologies that, arguably, have disrupted our understanding of time as much as they have provided coherence.

The book consists of twelve chapters from experts in the field. Each addresses a different type of digital mapping practice and analyses it in relation to temporality. Cases discussed range from locative art projects, OpenStreetMap mapping parties, sensory mapping, Google Street View, to visual mapping, smart city dashboards and crisis mapping. Authors from different disciplinary positions consider how a temporal lens might focus attention on different aspects of digital mapping. This kaleidoscopic approach demonstrates a rich plethora of ways for understanding the temporal modes of digital mapping and the interdisciplinary background of the authors allows multiple positions to be developed and contrasted.

From the Inside Flap

The digital era has brought about huge transformations in the map itself, which to date have been largely conceptualised in spatial terms. Novel objects, forms, processes and approaches have emerged and pose new, pressing questions about the temporality of digital maps and contemporary mapping practices: in spite of its implicit spatiality, digital mapping is strongly grounded in time. This collection brings time back into the map, taking up Doreen Massey's critical concern for 'ongoing stories' in the world; it asks how mapping enrols time into these narratives. Maps often seek to freeze and fix the world, looking to represent, document or capture dynamic phenomena. This collection examines how these processes are impacted by digital cartographic technologies that, arguably, have disrupted our understanding of time as much as they have provided coherence.The book consists of twelve chapters from experts in the field. Each addresses a different type of digital mapping practice and analyses it in relation to temporality. Cases discussed range from locative art projects, OpenStreetMap mapping parties, sensory mapping, Google Street View, to visual mapping, smart city dashboards and crisis mapping. Authors from different disciplinary positions consider how a temporal lens might focus attention on different aspects of digital mapping. This kaleidoscopic approach demonstrates a rich plethora of ways for understanding the temporal modes of digital mapping and the interdisciplinary background of the authors allows multiple positions to be developed and contrasted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526122537
• ISBN 13: 9781526122537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Lammes Sybille, Perkins Chris, Gekker Alex, Hind Sam, Wilmott Clancy, Evans Daniel