The map is not the territory, and the name is not the thing named. – Gregory Bateson1
Our spatial perception of the world in which we live is undoubtedly shaped significantly by maps. Political maps, which are frequently used, convey the size and political unity of territories through colored polygons and borders. They are deeply ingrained in our collective memory. Only rarely are we unsettled in this established knowledge by alternative representation methods that encourage new perspectives on the world. The choice of the base map alone is already a significant decision with immediate visual and thus cognitive consequences: the projection of a three-dimensional sphere onto a two-dimensional surface is by no means trivial, and aside from the commonly encountered versions, numerous alternatives exist, each with their advantages and disadvantages. „Borders, Data and Vassals – a Postdoc-Fellowship at the DH Lab“ weiterlesen
- Gregory Bateson: Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. New York 1979, p. 30 [↩]