Digital twins and deep maps

Abstract

Mapping is now thoroughly digital at all stages of production and maps are widely used in digital form. This digital turn has transformed the nature of mapping and maps. Maps need no longer be static representations, but rather constitute spatial media, providing an interactive, dynamic means for creating, discussing, and sharing spatial information and mediating spatial practices. This has included the development of 3D mapping, including nascent digital twins and digital deep maps. In this short paper, we reflect on our attempts to produce a 3D city information model for Dublin that acts as a basic digital twin, which we have also used to explore deep mapping, as well as map projecting data onto a printed 3D map model of the city. We consider what digital twins and deep maps mean for how we understand the nature of mapping, arguing that they produce a dyadic intertwining of map and territory; a literal, material expression of post‐representational, ontogenetic conceptions of mapping.