CFP for Map Archive

Note the recently edited size constraints below

Dear Mapmakers,

This is an invitation to have your maps included in the new “We Are Here” archive that will travel the United States for 2 years (starting Fall 2008) in an exhibition entitled “Experimental Geography” and then be housed in a portable archive in Chicago IL to be available for future exhibition, preservation and research. The archive is dealing with 3 main categories of contemporary cartography: Complexity/Power Mapping; Resource/Asset Mapping; and Alternative Visions of Dominant Geography (see below outline of the kinds of maps we are thinking about).

I have been asked by the organizers of “Experimental Geography” to put together this archive because of my background in organizing mapping related exhibitions and events in Chicago for the last 4 years. This is a great opportunity to get a lot of really interesting and inspiring work together! I should also say up front that I am not being paid to do this and am receiving no budget to work with, only $ to purchase a poster display rack to preserve the maps. The cost of shipping the collection once it is complete will be covered by the host institutions, but I have no budget for your initial shipping costs to mail the maps to me. I am hoping your motivation for sending your work to me will be the same as mine for putting this together, to get new and excited audiences to have access to this interesting and inspiring work. The show will tour primarily to university galleries and small museums, almost always engaging audiences who are not in attendance at small galleries or cultural institutions where this kind of work is typically displayed. The benefit of having it as part of a larger exhibition about the use of geographic metaphors in contemporary art will also connect this cartographic work to conceptually related work from other genres and spheres of influence.

The maps (40 total) will be displayed in a wall mounted poster rack which will keep them from damage over the 2 year tour organized by Independent Curators International and the exhibition curator Nato Thompson. Here is a link to the display case we will use:
Standard Steel Browser, 30 x 40 in. (http://www.floorstands.com/artbins.htm)
Classic Standard Protectors, black, 30 x 40 in.
Because of the size constraints of the display case, the maps must be smaller than 28” x 38”.

If you are interested in participating please send a web compressed image (.gif, .pdf or .jpg) to mapsarchive@gmail.com with a short description of your map. Do this by March 1st, 2008 to be considered for this archive. The inclusion in this archive will not be based on an arbitrary nor subjective determination of ‘quality’ but will be carefully considered in relationship to the rest of the maps in the archive in order to ensure aesthetic and conceptual diversity in the overall collection of 40 maps. If your map is selected then it will need to be mailed directly to me at a later date.

Thanks for being open to participating. I have pasted some relevant links below to give you a better sense of the context.

in cahoots and many thanks
Daniel

My site: https://danieltucker.wordpress.com
The description of the exhibition: http://www.ici-exhibitions.org/exhibitions/experimental/experimental.htm

Example MAPS and SECTIONS as of 11/07

Complexity/Power Mapping

* “What is Forum 2004 really about?” http://www.sindominio.net/mapas/ing/index_ing.htm
* Piquete Urbano http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/12/66753
* Privatization of War by Lize Mogel and Dario Azzellini http://www.publicgreen.com/projects/pmc_map.htm
* Prison Industrial Complex by Ashley Hunt http://www.correctionsproject.com/art/images/poster_PIC.jpg
* FTAA by Beehive Design Collective http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/ftaa.htm
* CURRENCY SYMBOLS by Bill Rankin, 2006 http://www.radicalcartography.net/?currencysymbols
* “disOrientation guide 2006” by Critical Cartography Collective http://www.countercartographies.org/
* NYC Guide to War Profiteers http://backspace.com/notes/2006/09/09/x.html
* Garbage Problems or Is Detroit A Shrinking City? by The Center for Urban Pedagogy http://anothercupdevelopment.org/projects/detail/23/images/225 http://anothercupdevelopment.org/projects/detail/33/images/340
* Incarcerated America by http://backspace.com/notes/2003/04/30/x.html
* A Threat to Peace, U.S.A. by the Indypendent Magazine
* World Government by Bureau d’études http://u-tangente.org/

Resource/Asset Mapping

* Green Map Project http://greenmap.org/
* Map Hub Pittsburgh http://www.maphub.com/
* The People’s Guide to the RNC by Friends of William Blake
* Polk Street Gentrification by Gay Shame SF http://www.gayshamesf.org/lpn.html
* Biopower and Universities by Subrosa http://www.cyberfeminism.net/biopower/bp_map.html
* West Harlem Environmental Action http://www.weact.org/gis/index.html

Alternative Visions of Dominant Geography

* http://www.indigenousmapping.net/
* http://www.nativemaps.org/
* MY CITIES by Bill Rankin, 2003 http://www.radicalcartography.net/
* THE UNITED STATES? by Bill Rankin, 2003 http://www.radicalcartography.net/?reservations
* Spain/Morocco map by Hackitectura http://mcs.hackitectura.net/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=7
* “Assassins Live Here” by Grupo de Arte Callejero (Argentina)
* Feminist Map of Montreal
* Nikolas Schiller “Pentagon” quilt map