Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: I Map Therefore I Am Modern

1. The Shock of the Whole: Phenomenologies of Global Mapping in Solomon Nikritin’s The Old and the New

2. Combined and Uneven Cartography: Maps and Time in Alison Hildreth’s Forthrights and Meanders

3. Drawing Like a State: Maps, Modernity, and Warfare in Gert Jan Kocken’s Depictions

4. Insular Imaginations: Statehood, Islands, and Globalization in Satomi Matoba’s Utopia

5. Cartography at Ground Level: Spectrality and Streets in Jeremy Wood’s My Ghost and Meridians

6. Another Chorein: Alternative Ontologies in Peter Greenaway’s A Walk Through H

Envoi: Artists Astride Shifting Mapping Paradigms

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Promotional Information

• The field of map art has moved into increasing prominence through numerous exhibitions, yet critical writing on the topic has been largely confined to general overviews of the field
• The first book-length study devoted solely to map art, Mapping Beyond Measure breaks fresh ground in undertaking a series of close readings of significant map artworks in sustained dialogue with the thought of spatial theorists, including Peter Sloterdijk, Zygmunt Bauman, and Michel de Certeau.
• The book begins from the premise that maps have been of central importance to the practice of modern states and capitalist globalization, indicating how map art is uniquely placed to explore topics including colonial warfare, uneven development, utopian urbanism, the disenchantment of the world, state bordering practices, and positivist rhetorics of science and specialism.

About the Author

Simon Ferdinand is a lecturer in literary and cultural analysis at the University of Amsterdam. He is the coeditor of Other Globes: Past and Peripheral Imaginations of Globalization.
 

Reviews

"Thought-provoking . . . . Ferdinand impressively traverses a variety of interdisciplinary approaches from cartography, sociology, political and philosophical theory, as well as art analysis; one hopes he can expand this work into more publishing and even exhibitions. . . . Necessary reading for anyone concerned with the contemporary nexus of art and mapping."—Ruth Watson, Visual Studies

"Ferdinand's argument that art can help reveal both the potency and the spectrality of modern cartography’s claims to knowledge, at once tearing them down whilst also relying on them . . . is a powerful one, which offers an original, and compelling, contribution to ongoing geographical debates around mapping."—Dave McLaughlin, Social and Cultural Geography

"Deep and wonderful . . . The author does superb work in analyzing art and cartography. . . . I recommend this book for a museum curator, an art historian, an artist or a person with a serious interest in art and/or cartography, and a mapmaker."—Lucia Lovison-Golob, Western Association of Map Libraries Bulletin

"Mapping Beyond Measure participates in a broader scholarly discussion about the cultural formation of geographic knowledge and the ways that we think about and experience our place in the world through maps and other cultural representations of the earth. The book also provides a valuable resource for a growing number of historians who use digital mapping as a method of inquiry."—Kristan M. Hanson, H-Maps

“In this thoughtful analysis of ‘map art’ Simon Ferdinand offers an innovative interpretation of contemporary artworks that tests and reconfigures the challenges and opportunities posed by the transformation in global modernity of our lived world into lines and grids. ‘I map, therefore I am modern’ is the resounding implication that emerges from Ferdinand’s perceptive exploration of how visual artists in our times have used the map form to relate to the world, to the globe, indeed to earth itself.”—Sumathi Ramaswamy, author of Terrestrial Lessons: The Conquest of the World as Globe

“This is an important book on a theoretical level. By looking at recent technologies as a continuation of existing ontologies, Ferdinand goes beyond the hype around digital mapping. The chapters touch deftly on many themes that will also be of interest to academic readers who don’t deal explicitly with maps in their work, including utopia, modernity, quantification, and futurism, among many others.”—Jess Bier, author of Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine: How Occupied Landscapes Shape Scientific Knowledge