As part of my research into maps I was fascinated at the amount of inaccurate versions that have been produced historically.
To follow are a few examples I found, it is just the tip of the iceberg but does give an idea of how inaccurate maps have been historically and the reason behind them.
Ireland, 1599.
This big map of Ireland was produced in 1599 to satisfy public interest during the Tudor conquest. In fact, it was so big that there weren’t enough known place names to fill it, so the mapmaker Battista Boazio created some, including ‘Elstrack’s Isle’ (after the engraver Renold Elstrack) and Baptiste’s Rock (after himself).
Photograph: Provided by British Library (https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/oct/10/made-up-places-and-costly-mistakes-a-history-of-unfortunate-maps-in-pictures).
In the 16th Century California was believed to be an island. A misconception started in a novel written in 1510. Various expeditions continued this belief, documenting it as a peninsula. It featured on a map ‘as an island for the first time in 1622 in a map by Michiel Coliijn for Amsterdam, and this image would endure far into the eighteenth century.’ (Jacobs, F. (2009) Strange Maps An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities London).
Another map that features in The Guardian article 'Made up places and costly mistakes: a history of unfortunate maps – in pictures' features a map from WW1 and details the Western front. 'The western front generals have often been portrayed as blundering donkeys, and they squabbled amongst each other. This map was donated to the British Museum by General Douglas Haig in order to prove that it was the British, not the Americans or French, who first broke the line during 1918’s final Hundred Days offensive, thus proving his able leadership.'
Photograph: Provided by British Library
Other maps are purely fiction; The Land of Oz (above) , Orwell’s 1984 and Tolkien’s Shire. This did make me start to think about the amount of fictional maps there are and how this could be developed. As a child I would create maps, fantasy lands and more often than not islands.
Further fictional maps
Narnia
Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings)
Gotham City (pictured right)
Grand Theft Auto
Jurassic Park (Isla Nebula)
Game of Thrones
World of Greyhawk (Dungeons & Dragons)
Skyrim (Sea of Ghosts)
My recordings are of my footfall in an actual geographical area, creating my own maps based on my travels. The word ‘map’ is an understandable term for the record of an area of land that includes the geography of the area, towns, cities, dwellings, roads, as well as boundaries. My ‘maps’ do not feature any landmark or feature, purely the route taken. Are they therefore maps or traces? They neither guide or assist a traveller and the trace is purely a record of my presence in a place and time.
Vincent Meertens created a map of New York City (Fig. 7) detailing all his and his partner’s movements, tracking their locations over an eleven-month period and although it doesn’t follow the routes they took, it creates paths through the locations visited. A digital record of their physical presence. I was taken by the their post-activity graphical representation, a heat map of activity or an explosion of movement.
Questions raised post presentation.
I had a few questions and comments from the floor, all from lecturers. Initially questioning maps and the accuracy and how they can define an area or does an area define a map? Then gave an example of a map that had a town inserted that didn’t exist (Agloe, New York) but people wanted to visit this mythical place and eventually it actually became a place.
An article in The Guardian discusses these ‘Phantom Towns’ and how they are often put in by Cartographers to stop illegal copying of maps.
‘Agloe was the creation of two men: Otto Lindberg and Ernest Alpens from America’s General Drafting Company. Commissioned to make a map of New York state in the 1930s, they used the initials of their names to create a paper town – Agloe – which they dropped into a dirt road intersection in the Catskills.’
When it appeared years later on a map made by one of their competitors, Rand McNally, General Drafting threatened to sue. McNally pointed out that it would lose the case: Agloe’s general store could be found at the intersection. Its store manager, having spotted Agloe on a map, had taken it as a good place to set up shop. A lack of houses or indeed a town of any kind should have suggested otherwise; the unfortunate shopkeeper went out of business shortly after. It was, however, sufficient proof that Agloe existed. Contemporary maps still feature Agloe. This, its strange history and the popularity of the book Paper Towns ensures a steady stream of curious sightseers.’(https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/03/imaginary-american-town-tourist-attraction-agloe-new-york-state#:~:text=Agloe%20was%20the%20creation%20of,road%20intersection%20in%20the%20Catskills).
Another question was about disrupting the shapes, the walks. Could I make my own shapes? Would this be more in line with my ‘Not Knowing’ methodology, that have employed throughout the majority of the undergraduate and post graduate degrees. Although this obviously has merit it also goes completely against the reason I call these ‘Thinking Loops’ as they allow me that space to think. If I was to walk straight on a compass bearing, through hedge, field, garden, water... then I would be having to focus on every step and that would become the work, not the free thinking time. My loops are a record of my physical presence in a space that allowed me to think.
I could perhaps look to create my own shapes and reverse the process by defining a shape and then walking it to create a digital version of the shape I have created.
Beating the Bounds was also discussed. In an article by Amelia Soth (https://daily.jstor.org/beating-the-bounds/) the history of how boundaries were established and indeed remembered before being mapped.
‘Maps are only one way of knowing the shape of a place. Before the borders of England’s parishes were definitively mapped, people learned the boundaries of their community by foot. Every year, a few days before the feast of the Ascension, the members of each parish would come together to walk the edge of their common lands.
The practice was called “beating the bounds,” and the purpose was to create a shared mental map of the parish, to ensure that neighboring communities couldn’t encroach on their land. They carried flags, sang songs, read homilies, and used slender willow-branches to swat the landmarks that separated one parish from another.’
This practice also served to define the farming rights and was also used to bless the crops. ‘Pain was used as an aid to memory, and the form of attack was determined by the landscape. If they came to a stream, the children’s heads might be dunked in it; if the boundary ran against a wall, they might be encouraged to race along it, so that they would fall into the brambles on either side.’
The final comment was about the origins of Psychogeography, which is defined in an article in the Tate: ‘The term psychogeography was invented by the Marxist theorist Guy Debord in 1955 in order to explore this. Inspired by the French nineteenth century poet and writer Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the flâneur – an urban wanderer – Debord suggested playful and inventive ways of navigating the urban environment in order to examine its architecture and spaces.’ (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography).
Maps are fascinating. I can examine a map for ages, I have historically always brought an Ordnance Survey map for areas in the UK we are visiting. Love a map. However, I am increasingly using digital maps and plotting walks that you can follow, or even audibly guided through. There's a lot more to explore with maps. Pardon the pun...
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