Space Discovery:
A review of An Atlas of Radical Cartography
Review by Daniel Tucker (originally published in April 08 in Proximity Magazine)

Ed. Lize Mogel & Alexis Bhagat; Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press 2007

With maps by An Architektur, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), Ashley Hunt, Institute for Applied Autonomy with Site-R, Pedro Lasch, Lize Mogel, Trevor Paglen & John Emerson,  Brooke Singer, Jane Tsong and Unnayan

With Essays by Kolya Abramsky, Maribel Casas-Cortes & Sebastian Cobarrubias, Alejandro De Acosta,  Avery F. Gordon,  Institute for Applied Autonomy, Sarah Lewison, Jenny Price, Jane Tsong, DJ Waldie, Ellen Sollod, Paul S. Kibel, Heather Rogers, Jai Sen, and the Visible Collective with Trevor Paglen

Review:
The fist time I went to Central New York state, was the first time I knew where it was. The first time I heard about Sudan on the news, was the first time I knew where it was and what was on the nearby borders.  Our personal maps of the world are continuously changing. Through our experiences we become aware of places and ideas previously unfamiliar. Through culture and tourism we feel invited to explore what feels new to us. Through disasters and devastation we become conscious of locales that are further away that anywhere we could have imagined. All of this information and these experiences informs the expansion and creation of our map of the world and how it works.

Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat have edited “An Atlas of Radical Cartography” a beautifully designed 160 page book of ten essays, ten 17″ x 22″ maps, that all fold up and fit into an elegant slipcase. It’s the second book to be released on the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press, a sister project to the original and ongoing annual Journal, which has become an important hub for critical and creative writing about the intersections of contemporary art and politics. The An Atlas collection is unique and unprecedented, collecting together many of the primary voices that have connected the visual and semiotic language of cartography with current political and artistic discourses.

Continue reading “Space Discovery: An Atlas of Radical Cartography”