{"id":204,"date":"2012-01-24T20:19:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T20:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/?p=204"},"modified":"2018-08-30T16:33:56","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T20:33:56","slug":"from-the-directors-desk-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/2012\/01\/24\/from-the-directors-desk-3\/","title":{"rendered":"from the director’s desk"},"content":{"rendered":"

TIME Magazine recently published this disturbing image titled \u201cA Map of Trouble\u201d (TIME, Jan. 3 2012; 26-27). \u00a0My response and my counter-map are inspired by the work of Mark Monmonier (How to Lie with Maps) and J.B. Harley (Maps, Knowledge and Power).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First, the title and the graphic shape of the \u201cregion\u201d are linked together in the reader\u2019s mind.\u00a0 Trouble = Middle East = Bad is the not-so-subtle message.<\/p>\n

TROUBLE \u00a0=\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the same way that:<\/p>\n

LOVE \u00a0= \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

HAPPY =<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Second, the lack of color, the choice of markers resembling hazardous waste dumps, and grey-scaled photographs of men (disturbing \u2018others\u2019) help to reinforce the negative message of the map.\u00a0 Contrast these with the colorful photos included on my \u201cMap of Travel\u201d.\u00a0 For Harley, \u201cmaps are never value-free images.”\u00a0 \u201cBoth in the selectivity of their content and in their signs and styles of representation, maps are a way of conceiving, articulating, and structuring the human world which is biased towards, promoted by, and exerts influence upon particular sets of social relations (Harley 278).”\u00a0 \u201cA map can carry in its image such symbolism as may be associated with the particular area, geographical feature, city, or place which it represents (Harley 279).\u201d How might our perspective change if we were constantly bombarded with maps and images of smiling people, beautiful scenery and colorful markets?<\/p>\n

Third, the map contains several blatant omissions.\u00a0 The countries of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are simply NOT THERE<\/strong> (neither is Afghanistan or Cyprus for that matter).\u00a0 The four absent countries fall within the extent of the map – will they not be missed?\u00a0 Why were they excluded?\u00a0 Harley says \u201cmaps \u2013 just as much as examples of literature or the spoken word – exert a social influence thru their omissions as much as by the features they depict and emphasize (Harley 290).”\u00a0 Significantly, the Israeli-occupied territories of\u00a0 the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank (aka the PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES) are neither on the map nor mentioned in the vignette.\u00a0 Could this be a case of the \u201cpredictive art of using maps to project and to legitimate future territorial ambitions? (Harley 289).”\u00a0 Or was this simply an oversight?<\/p>\n

\u201cMap users seldom, if ever, question these [the map makers], and they often fail to appreciate the map\u2019s power as a tool of deliberate falsification or subtle propaganda (Monmonier 42-45).”\u00a0 \u201cSavvy map viewers must recognize that not all maps are intended solely to inform the viewer about location or geographic relationships.\u00a0 As visual stimuli, maps can look pretty, intriguing, or important.\u00a0 As graphic fashion statements, maps not only decorate but send subtle or subliminal messages about their authors, sponsors, or publishers (Monmonier\u00a0 43-45).”<\/p>\n

Counter-maps – maps of peace, maps of potential – maps of nuance \u2013 must be created and shared to balance overly simplistic and negative maps.\u00a0 This is one of the chief motivations behind MEMIR \u2013 the Middle East Mapping Initiative at Richmond.\u00a0 Join us!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TIME Magazine recently published this disturbing image titled \u201cA Map of Trouble\u201d (TIME, Jan. 3 2012; 26-27). \u00a0My response and my counter-map are inspired by the work of Mark Monmonier (How to Lie with Maps) and J.B. Harley (Maps, Knowledge and Power). First, the title and the graphic shape of the \u201cregion\u201d are linked together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4215,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5830],"tags":[5843,5848,5844,5847,24537,5838,109,675],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-directors-desk","tag-gis","tag-harley","tag-memir","tag-monmonier","tag-sal","tag-spatial-analysis-lab","tag-time","tag-university-of-richmond"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/files\/2012\/01\/TravelMap11.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Tv8N-3i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/sal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}