Can We Talk About Cartography Without Borders?

The present essay discusses new perceptions of spatial organization in the sphere of geographic cartography and their utilization in marking borders. It deals with various mapping practices, some traditional and others based on the possibilities posed by novel technologies for gathering, organizing, and presenting spatial knowledge. It examines the approaches created by a political reading of mapping through mechanisms of revealing and concealing – whether by exposure of an existing political reality or as an invitation to action based on comprehension enabled by the very act of mapping. My essay explores the effect of map design on the interpretative systems derived from them and the influence of the act of mapping itself on the reorganization of the mapped space. In this framework, I propose viewing the various phases of mapping as a political act, which, in certain cases, “acts against itself,” or, in other words, undermines the act of mapping. I