Silences and secrecy: The hidden agenda of cartography in early modern Europe

Harley, J. B.

doi:10.1080/03085698808592639

Cited by 300 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…By now most geographers are familiar with the names that have come to work in one way or another from these perspectives, including the key works by Denis Wood (Wood and Fels, 1986;Wood 1992), Harley (1988Harley ( , 1989, Smith (1992), Goss (1995), Pickles (1995), and Curry (1997), among others.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

Kingsbury¹,

Jones²

2009

Geoforum

110

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a b s t r a c tThis paper argues, following Friedrich Nietzsche, that recent evaluations of Google Earth uncritically privilege the product's Apollonian determinations at the expense of its Dionysian uncertainties. Specifically, when we understand Google Earth as a virtual globe composed of surveyed panoramas, sober rationalization, dystopic control, and transparent order -or, even, as a tool for participation and empowermentwe undersell its capacities as an alluring digital peep-box, an uncertain orb spangled with vertiginous paranoia, frenzied navigation, jubilatory dissolution, and intoxicating giddiness. We argue that the former interpretations not only risk foreclosing our theorizations about how Google Earth is actually used in various ways and different contexts, they also reproduce a one-dimensional and conservative reading of technology that can be traced back (at least) to the writings of Theodor Adorno. By drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin (Adorno's critic and pen pal for more than a decade) we aim to 'go beyond Apollo and Adorno' by illustrating the extent to which Apollonian order and Dionysian love makes Google Earth go round. To do this, we examine Google Earth as a ''digital peep-box" with an online collective that revels in its ''Spot the Black Helicopter" competitions; illuminated profanities; alien and giant insect invaders; naked sunbathers; and crashed transport planes in Darfur.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

Kingsbury¹,

Jones²

2009

Geoforum

110

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“…Firstly, Harley's work is sadly incomplete due to his death when only 59 (just three years after the article which brought to the fore the Foucauldian notion of powerknowledge in maps - Harley, 1988a). For the practical implications of his theoretic work, we are limited to his last, unfinished writings (e.g., Harley, 1992b).…”

Section: Contemporary Challenges To the Map Communication Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maps as social constructions: power, communication and visualization

Crampton

2001

Progress in Human Geography

381

210

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Two developments in cartography mark an epistemic break with the assumption that maps are unproblematic communication devices. These are 1) investigations of maps as practices of power-knowledge; and 2) 'geographic visualization' (GVis) which uses the map's power to explore, analyze and visualize spatial datasets to understand patterns better. These developments are key components of a 'maps as social constructions' approach, emphasizing the genealogy of power in mapping practices, and enabling multiple, contingent and exploratory perspectives of data. Furthermore, this approach is an opportunity for cartography to renew its relationship with a critical human geography.

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“…Harley (1989) shows how the Casa de la Contración maintained the Padron Real in the early sixteenth century as a secret master map to protect the key discoveries of Spanish explorers.…”

Section: Secrecy and Spectaclementioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite imagery and the spectacle of secret spaces

Perkins

Dodge

2009

Geoforum

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This paper documents and assesses emerging efforts to resist and subvert deep-seated and long-held governmental secrecy over geographical spaces of military/security activities and other sites deemed sensitive by the state. It explores tensions in new web-served mapping and high-resolution imagery of these sites, which view them though 'pin holes' of publicly available data. These 'counter-mappings' focus attention on the significance of sites that are either buried unnoticed in seamless global image coverage, or else censored on official mapping. Some reveal a strongly anti-hegemonic and oppositional discourse, others a more playful set of cultural practices. We situate these newly witnessed secret sites in contemporary visual culture, exploring the spectacular and Debordian possibilities of resistance that they offer, and evaluate the significance and ironies of these diverse imaging practices.

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Silences and secrecy: The hidden agenda of cartography in early modern Europe

Cited by 300 publications

References 25 publications

Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

Maps as social constructions: power, communication and visualization

Satellite imagery and the spectacle of secret spaces

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