Pandemic Cartographies: A Conversation on Mappings, Imaginings and Emotions

1

Online

Event details

This conversation between four Italian map-scholars started as a response to the pervasive spread of both cartographic materials related to the COVID-19 pandemic and critical commentaries about such materials during the 2020 lockdown.

This plurality of cartographic visuals and mapping practices, which appeared soon after the coronavirus outbreak, requires exponential research angles. Approaching the pandemic through and in the proximity of maps, mapping practices, map-like objects and creative cartographies, we aim to foreground the speculative, empirical and fast-moving expressions of the pandemic’s cartographic imagery.

This conversation aims to stimulate a collaborative exchange about how both scientific and governmental, as well as existential and affective features of the pandemic have been informed by cartographic imaginings.

• Andrea Pase Motion and emotion in viral maps

• Laura Lo Presti Mapping transversal solidarities: flattening the curve through solid cartographic chains

• Tania Rossetto Taking care of the infected geobody: expressing the nation through map-like images

• Giada Peterle Postcards from urban quarantines: drawing implicit cartographies

This event will be chaired by Phil Cohen and Mike Duggan from Livingmaps.

Andrea Pase is Full Professor of Historical and Social Geography at the University of Padua. In his research path, historical cartography was the point of access to study the unfolding of modern State territorial rationality, with particular reference to the definition and setting of borders (in Europe and in colonial and postcolonial Africa). He has carried out fieldwork—largely dedicated to the Sahel—with Marina Bertoncin, a colleague and friend. Maps (projects) and territories (reifications) are often in conflict, widening the gap between the declared (development) and the pursued (logic of domination). On these issues, he has published in journals such as Geoforum, Geographica Helvetica and Rivista  Geografica Italiana.

Laura Lo Presti is Visiting Research Fellow at the Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG). Her research focuses on critical and cultural cartography, investigating political phenomena such as migration, national identity, imperialism from a visual and artistic perspective. Her work has been published in Political Geography, Mobilities, Acme and include two books, Cartografie (In)esauste (FrancoAngeli, 2019) and Mapping, Connectivity and the Making of European Empires (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021).

Tania Rossetto is Associate Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Padua and co-convenor of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility & Humanities (https://twitter.com/mohu_centre). Her research interests include the relationship between map studies and visual studies, the portrayal of maps, haptic cartographies, national mappings and the linkage between cartographic theory and literary studies. On these subjects she has published in journals such as Progress in Human Geography, Social & Cultural Geography, Environment and Planning D. Her recent book, titled Object-Oriented Cartography: Maps as Things (Routledge, 2019), establishes an unprecedented dialogue between the field of map studies and object-oriented philosophy.

Giada Peterle is Lecturer in Literary Geography at the University of Padova. Working in the emerging field of the geohumanities, her research interests lie in the interconnections between geography, literature, comics, creative mapping and art-based practices. Her publications on ‘literary geographies’, ‘carto-fiction’ and ‘comic book cartographies’ appeared also in Mobilities, Social & Cultural Geography and Cultural Geographies, and include the book Comics as a Research Practice: Drawing Narrative Geographies Beyond the Frame (Routledge, 2021). Her creative/research endeavours are available at www.narrativegeographies.com.

Livingmaps Network is an independent not for profit organisation, we receive no core funding. Our main income comes from live events which we have been unable to organise this year. We are asking for donations of £3 – £5 from people who wish to attend our online events to help us cover our running costs. We greatly appreciate your support.

https://www.livingmaps.org