Part of our daily line of sight, maps have a long history of assisting in territorial claims, from the first colonial world atlas to GPS: The mere fact of representation of a territory enacts a fundamental claim to that territory. What bias is encoded in our daily maps, and what cartographic alternatives are geographers researching to ask new questions about land, emphasizing ecological justice, displacement, and embodied practices?

Critical cartographer Clancy Wilmott (@clancywilmott) recasts maps as geometries of power that carry out a form of visual imperialism. In this talk, she builds on research from her book Mobile Mapping, the first in-depth discussion of how specific geographical and historical conditions shape the way in which we read, work, and leverage mobile-phone maps in daily life. Topics include the importation of cartographic aesthetics from imperial centers to peripheral landscapes, and the various visual productions and resistances that appear (including counter mapping, hand-drawn maps, and art).

Wilmott is assistant professor in the UC Berkerley Geography Department; her research interests include critical cartography; media geographies; critical graphic information system (GIS) and data studies; cultural memory and landscape; politics of representation, textuality, and visuality; and lived, manufactured, and inherited digitalities.

Participants and topics are subject to change; visit Berkeley Arts + Design (artsdesign.berkeley.edu) for the most up-to-date series information.