Lily Díaz-Kommonen

Professor, Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki (FI)

Maps, place-names, and cartographic attitude

As a form of structuring behavior, map-making activity involves the management of uncertainty. Through maps we strive to create both factual representations of the territory "as it is", as well as subjective instantiations of the imaginary. In their effectiveness and beauty our objects of cartographic activity combine the objectivity of reason with the originality of creation.

The latest evolution in the production of maps via the use of digital media is closely intertwined with the progress of science and technology. "It's getting better all the time!" Really. But while the scope of apprehension and degree of accuracy of our tools continues to improve, the incommensurable, complex, center of our human experience remains a world outside the epistemological boundaries of hard scientific data.

In our thirst and hunger for knowledge, we seek to simultaneously comprehend and observe the whole. But choices must be made. And while one thing is inscribed another is left outside, cast aside. (Leave it to the humanists to later sort through the piles of Culture.) Through this most basic action, map-making activity and maps unavoidably embed the political and social order: Beyond the artifact there is always a story to be told.

We usually begin by naming the place of where it happened. Consider the case of the Legends of the historic center of Mexico City in which the narrator always introduces the story by citing the place-name (or street-name) where the events depicted in the stories take place immediately after the title: "It happened in the street whose name was Cerbatana and is now called Donceles..."

Place-name contains, anchors and situates a narrative to its historical and social context, as well as to a physical, embodied, frame of reference. In place-name space converges with time.   And in becoming place-name, the present, past and future conflate into living performance. The reader, the viewer, is and feels herself a part of the narrative. At this moment cartographic activity also becomes an attitude: "Let me tell you a story about a place called Petare..."

Lily Díaz-Kommonen (a.k.a.) Lily Díaz, is a professor and leader of the Systems of Representation research group in the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Media Lab. Her research interests include visualization methods and tools, digital cartography, and ontology design for the cultural heritage and audiovisual sectors. She has designed tools such as Image ImaNote (Image and Map Annotation Notebook) and SOL (Soft Ontology Layer).

As an educator, she has developed and implemented curricula in visualization and design for new media. Her design and research work has been published in diverse international journals such as Flash Art, Leonardo, Revista Internacional de Arte Lápiz, and Computer Graphics. She has also received awards for her work in concept design including 1st prize in the Nabi Digital Storytelling Award organized in 2004 by Art Center Nabi in Korea in collaboration with UNESCO in 2004.

http://mlab.uiah.fi/www/research/research_groups/systems_of_representation