Renewing the debate about theoretical frameworks, conceptual networks and methodological approaches in maps and mapping history

CARLA LOIS

Belo Horizonte

Conferencia; 27th International Conference on the History of Cartography; 2017

Imago Mundo

Since the 1960s, intensive criticism about theoretical aspects of the category of representation has prompted new reflections on the cultural functions of images. From art history, philosophy, photography, cinema and visual studies, scholars have been discussing the nature of images, how images represent things, the knowledge-power relation mobilized by images, and the theories that support certain social functions of images in our cultures. Curiously, cartography and cartographers have tended to ignore these debates, and kept putting aside the theoretical considerations that, implicitly or explicitly, pertain to maps and mapping research. Some scholars still see the empirical and the theoretical as being in opposition, when in fact the one requires the other, and all research puts in action theoretical frameworks to deal with empirical analyses. Inexplicably, theory still seems ?suspicious? to many historians of cartography, and the idea that maps are statements of geographical facts and self-evident images because they are produced by neutral technologies, remains alive.However, twenty years ago now, at the 16th ICHC, a special session debated theoretical aspects of the history of cartography, and put the question on the table. As Christian Jacob pointed out then, a theory is ?a way of accessing some of the complex issues related to these artifacts, their makers and their users, and a tool of self-awareness that extends the range of research questions.? So we cannot escape from theory. The importance of analyzing the theoretical aspects of maps has to do with the fact that theories successfully explain how and why maps exercise their cultural function with reasonable efficiently.Monique Sicard in her book La fabrique du regard affirmed: ?The industries of knowledge are intimately entangled with those of belief and by corollary, those of making believe. The more claims are made of ignorance of visual devices, the better the political function of the images is exercised. The more their neutrality is proclaimed, they better they impose their points of view and install their fictions as if they were fact.? Maps, as long as they are taken as neutral representations, also install fictions as if they were facts.Inspired by the ample literature on the theoretical aspects of visual representations, this presentation aims to explore how and what theoretical reflections can help us achieve a better understanding of maps. How can map historians make critical use in our researches of the multiple debates that have been taking place in many disciplines and fields of knowledge?To explore some answers, I will establish a parallel between the theoretical debates that occurred in other fields of knowledge (notably, photography) and their potential utility in rethinking maps and mappings, as well as our own practices as researchers on the history of maps. I will focus on discussions of a) the relationship between the map and what it is supposedly representing, considering the different theoretical perspectives that create or explain that relationship; b) the role played by technologies in establishing the relationship between the image and the thing, discussing whether they contribute to enhance or to deconstruct the presumed ?self-evidence? of maps; and c) theories in practice: how theories operate in producing, reproducing, consuming, accepting, rejecting and using maps, even beyond our awareness.