Some readers will know that I enjoy a good map. It's the colour, pattern and promise of new places. I also find myself intrigued by the idea of mapping. The way that a map picks out certain features of reality in relationship to others to guide the reader through a literal, metaphorical or mixed territory. And while the map is not the territory, it shares with language more generally the ability to make us think it is -kind of.
Now the article here: 513 - Then We Take Berlin: When East Ate West | Strange Maps | Big Think: helps shine a light on the way that things that we take as natural, unproblematic or starightforward, are actually freighted with ideological, hegemonic perspectives -just like ideas and other cultural artefacts. See ...
"Take this map of the urban transport network (1) in Berlin. At face value, it is a purely utilitarian map, giving its readers a no-nonsense, schematic overview of the transportational possibilities of the German capital. But context matters: this map was produced by the East German government, for its captive citizenry. It mixes information with propaganda as it tries very hard to ignore an inconvenient truth - too big to hide completely: the existence of another Berlin."
So this is a great idea for cultural studies teaching and learning: a way in to a central idea...
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