fadaiat 233
starlight and secrets; a short talk
Basically I'm going to treat cartography as the
art of finding something. Finding a place, the
place you're looking for, finding people, either
people you don't know, maybe even your ene-
mies, or let's be optimistic, your friends, per-
haps even familiar people living right next door,
but unknown to you in some important way. So
what I'm talking about is cartography as the art
of bringing people together, or as the art of fin-
ding yourself in a reality shared with others.
This is the most interesting part of the carto-
graphic act, the possibility of finding shared
territories, and the need to think about the
material and symbolic forms that can make
such meetings possible.
To speak about this I will draw on something a
bit abstract, a diagram made by the cartogra-
pher Kolácny in 1969, where instead of talking
about the technique of mapmaking he descri-
bes maps as acts of communication. Thus the
title, Communication of Cartographic
Information. The thing I find fabulous is that
Kolácny begins with reality: there is a first cir-
cle designated reality, and inside it there's a
second circle which marks off the cartographe-
r's reality. The first point that he wants to make
is that reality is in fact going to be reality as
perceived by the cartographer, the reality to
which the cartographer has access, the reality
she can see, smell, touch, hear and feel, and
that she will then try to tell about, to express.
Next on the left there is a thick black arrow
with a text that says observation selected with
a view to creation. From the reality that we
see, that we perceive, that we partially unders-
tand, we select certain elements that we want
to represent, and this process leads us to a lit-
tle box which is curiously entitled contents of
the cartographer's mind. This means that the
filter through which reality will be constructed
on the map is the contents of the mapmaker's
mind, the way she understands reality. Each
cartographer has a specific perception of rea-
lity, but before beginning to work she has to
create a mental map, she has to adjust the
reality she perceives to all the other things she
knows about the world, she has to adjust the
about maps and their uses (1)
brian holmes
perception of the outside world to an inside
world. And this inside world contains many dif-
ferent things: your past, what's facing you now
and the things you're trying to achieve, also
the knowledge and experiences you have as an
individual or a group. It includes your capaci-
ties, the specific skills that you bring to the
endeavor, and the psychological processes that
unfold during the creation of this mental map,
how it's structured, how you decide to organize
the elements of perception in order to obtain
something useful, in order to locate some place
or to find somebody, in order to create this way
of finding people on a common territory.
Then there is another phase which goes from
the contents of the cartographer's mind to the
translation into cartographic language, and this
is clearly the key point, because you have to
move from some kind of inner magma, a mental
map or imaginary vision, to a symbolic language
that can represent everything in a schematic
form, because that's what we always do with
maps, schematize. Cartographic language is
made up, for example, of the lines that mark off
the difference between the land and the sea, the
borders that mark the limits of cities or different
kinds of territories, the patches of color that can
represent different population densities, or
forested areas, etc., and then also the icons
that show the emplacement of specific featu-
res: infrastructure, maybe buildings, etc. These
are elements of cartographic language. And the
elements that are ultimately chosen and the way
they are composed form what Kolácny calls the
phase of objectification. The mind is left behind,
the mental processes are left behind, and the
psychological and intellectual part is converted
entirely into an object: the map.
Now these lines, these colors, this written infor-
mation, what's it all trying to say? To unders-
tand it we have to generate a process of deci-
phering, of decoding, we have to translate it
once again into a mental map. And through this
process the readers of the map are able to
integrate the information into the contents of
their minds. From the mapmaker's viewpoint
these are obviously the places where errors
62
234 starlight and secrets; a short talk about maps and their uses
occur, the moments when the map can fail.
Because if the reader is not able to integrate
the symbolic language of the mapmaker into
her mental map, into something familiar, some-
thing that can be used to navigate through
known and unknown spaces, if the reader is
not able to reconstruct this map, then the map-
maker can only consider that it's mistaken, it's
erroneous, it's a failure. People have to be able
to follow the codifications back to reality, they
should be able to cross through this zone.
Because the function of the map is to get you
where you want to go, to help you find the per-
son you want to meet. And in a larger way, the
function of the map is to bring you to a shared
reality, a reality where you can act together
because you have created a shared understan-
ding of the territory you're inhabiting, the
country where you're living, the conditions
under which you meet, and so on.
Maps work with imaginary elements and with
hidden elements, they have to do with the sky
above and also what's beneath our feet. They
deal with utopia, with your vision of the future,
and also with fear, with the problems you face
in the present. Let's say they're fundamentally
involved with the stars and the underworld, with
destiny and death. It's important to take this
into account, because when you introduce these
elements into a map you set off a very deep
and strong kind of communication. It's a matter
of trying to share utopia, which is really the
place you want to reach, although it's not a
specific spot on the earth but rather how it's
going to evolve, the place we'll meet next year,
or five or ten years into the future. This is what
we look for, we look up at the stars trying to
read our destiny. And all that can in fact be
written on a map, in the ways you use the
colors, the figures, the lines, how you draw the
icons. Each person will fill their maps with all
kinds of utopias, but also with all kinds of fears,
in the attempt to communicate the things we
can't see. For example, the map of the Straits
tries primarily to represent what can't be seen,
the militarization of the territory, but also the
cooperative potential of the multitudes.
This need to consider what's in the sky above
and the earth below is fundamental, and
Kolácny knows it. That's why he draws a lighter
arrow that goes from the contents of the carto-
(1) A talk of Brian Holmes -member of Bureau d'Etudes- about the posibility
of finding a common place of action through the maps.
62
grapher's mind back to the cartographer's rea-
lity, because he knows that the very reality the
cartographer perceives is already transformed
by utopia and fear, by the imaginary ideas of
what could be and the objective ideas of what
is, which in both cases include things that are
invisible. And for this reason the process of
choosing symbols, of deciding what kind of lan-
guage will be used in the maps, is vitally
important. Because on the far side of the map
we have to communicate with people who also
see the world through an imaginary filter,
through hope and fear, also through their inte-
llectual skills, the kinds of symbols they are
used to dealing with, and the kinds of symbols
that are lacking in their lives. So to think about
the people who are going to read the map, and
the way they are going to use it, what their
hopes and fears may be, is fundamental if you
want to communicate to people where you
want to go, the reality you want to share. For
me, when we crossed the Straits the other day,
it was very intriguing because clearly, when we
got to the other side, we could immediately
realize that the Moroccans don't see the world
the way we do, we don't see the same reality.
The invisible things are absolutely not the same
in Morocco, for example, a certain kind of
authority and regime that make up the figure
of power, which is quite different from what we
have here. But the hopes are also quite diffe-
rent, and it would be important to know much
more about them. It's curious that one of the
groups working in Morocco is called Rafts for
Life, because what they want is not to go off to
die at sea, but to stay right where they are and
live; but it's clear that this is a group of people
who have the possibility to make something
happen in Morocco, and so they are quite diffe-
rent from those who do in effect get on the
rafts to cross the Straits.
The point being that if there's a possibility to
make mistakes in this phase of deciphering the
maps, and therefore a chance that you might
not end up in a place where the mapmaker's
and the map-reader's realities coincide, that
just means there are always reasons to go on
talking with people, imagining other icons and
other patches of color, until we find a territory
that we can really share.

PGS versus GPS: on psycho/subjective geographic systems (1)
Looking back on several generations of map-
ping tools and projects, related in particular to
the locative media trend, still we feel that some
levels of representation are missing in most of
the maps that can be produced. We are inte-
rested in locating collectives and the activity of
the multitude rather than into locating indivi-
dualistic practices. We suspect that the logic
under which some geospecific mapping projects
are developed is the logic of the market in its
propagation of self referent narratives.
A subjective positioning system would be deve-
loped after working on questions such as what
is the meaning of location when the activities
that are mapped are constituted by human
practices? Some inmaterial entities are missing
in the mapping of human activities, for exam-
ple, how can you trace the influence of a writer
in a network of conversations? When trying to
give location to the inmaterial, ephemeral, dis-
tributed and non objective nature of for instan-
ce, human labor, human play and civil participa-
tion, it seems that all monitoring-based systems
will fail in locating the subjective nature of flows
of human activity and the processes involved.
Tracking technologies are insufficient to descri-
be inmateriality. If the description of territories
is only based on geographical data (GPS), how
can we draw a clear picture of human actions,
history and struggles? How can maps be made
to represent the inmaterial labor of such people
who cannot afford expensive technology when
the techno-positivist approach to cartography is
the only one proposed? (GPS could have been
used for instance for going to the desert to
help african immigrants, but these devices were
too expensive).
In the GPS sense you cannot locate the origin
of a social struggle.
1. PGS VS GPS (I DON'T WANT TO BE
SPOTTED FROM A SATELLITE)
If independent practices work under a paradigm
of identification they will be swallowed by a
fadaiat 235
elpueblodechina & yves degoyon
system based on market values, incorporated
to its own logic that is permanently trying to
renovate itself at various levels, through consu-
mer profiles and consumption habits for instan-
ce. GPS maps may evolve into futuristic profiles
of a consumer picking up locations in the globe
to experience satellite vision and ultimately
satellite shopping.
If I track you, spot you, I can control you.
MapOmatix is a tool for chameleons. It is about
collaborative imagination, a map that draws a
tissue of human practices, an active map in this
sense, since it empowers the activity of collecti-
ves. It is giving them a location, in some way a
precious materiality and an affirmation to their
precarious activity. People reinventing the city,
reinventing cartography and geographical loca-
tion (AutonomiAerea, map organised by
www.rotorrr.org in Barcelona:
http://gollumlab.dyndns.org/mapomatix/cgi-
bin/mapframe.pl?name=alt-terratsn).
Some can say, they are mental maps or imagi-
nary maps...
However, the aims of many groups working on
psychogeography are not on the direction of
creating new imaginary consumption items,
more so on fighting back consumption models
based on the repetition of self referent narrati-
ves that constitute the magic of goods. These
collectives are attractive because they plot rein-
ventions in the optic of potlatch pursuing
encounters or meetings encouraged by civil
participation and no other commodified gain.
The logic of identification walks tightly along
the narrative of war, a subject/object as the
target for a gun machine. And war goes along
another logic, that of the powerful, the rich and
the right.
The mapping of subjective activity, that of a
human being acting in her ecology is to be per-
formed in a subjective way. This way may be
psychogeographic, derived from the psychologi-
cal perception of places. Mapomatix in this
sense preserves the subjective nature of what it
62
236 PGS versus GPS: on psycho/subjective geographic systems
is mapping and simultaneously becomes a
nomadic artifact that is a platform for collabora-
tive activity. As a platform it gives materiality to
other nomadic agencies. Mapomatix is a Psycho
Geographic System (PGS), its nomadic nature
gives presence to distributed counteraction.
2. MAPOMATIX AS A GEO-WIKI,
A STORY-TELLER FOR THE MULTITUDE
(OF SOME CHOICES OF IMPLEMENTATION)
In the times of real-time fear watching, when
centralized and controled instances deliver loca-
lized and time-stamped information, based on
satellite data but processed through a chain
controlled by big telecomunication companies,
a need for a tool based on the exact negation
of these characteristics seems useful and draws
a line between service providers and self-orga-
nised groups of individuals.
MapOMatix is not real-time: every piece of
information entered into the system can be
located at a precise time on the time scale.
MapOMatix, in this sense is a geo-wiki where
the state of each map at a given moment can
be recalled at any time, enabling people to
visualize the state of a conflict or a territory at
a given date, keeping the history and the
memory of all actions performed through time.
Used in this way, it also reveals itself as a tool
for the collective memory.
MapOMatix does not guarantee any accuracy:
the perception of events, place and space is
relative to each individual, each one using her
own subjectivity to describe her perception of
territories. In some contexts (like repression
against immigration floods in Marroco, some
accuracy is needed, but this accuracy is left to
the people uploading their informations to the
maps. In some other contexts, like elaborating
a map of control structures or human organisa-
(1) The full version of this text can be found at http://mapomatix.sourcefor-
ge.net/mapOmatix-3.pdf
62
tions, geographical accuracy just doesn't make
sense.
MapOMatix is not centralized and does not
apply any access restrictions to privileged
users: The feed of informations comes from the
actors of the self-organized group, not from a
centralized and privileged data feed. We would
refuse to enter data automatically using a brid-
ge to a centralized system (satellite or gis
data).
MapOMatix does not require any expensive
technologies: Another refusal is to let mapping
techniques in the hands of high-tech users, pri-
vileged holders of up-to-date gadgets. Every
piece of data located on the map can be uploa-
ded using the web interface, all other ways of
providing data to the system (through GPS
telephones, PDAs ) would be easy to achieve
but the need for it is still to be debated. From
its inception and in the context where it was
conceived (the border conflicts in the Straits of
Gibraltar), the need for expensive technologies
has always been perceived as a restriction of
many existing systems.
All these choices of implementation are based
on a philosophy of bringing collaborative tools
to social networks, all shareable and open-
source. From the very beginning, all MapOMatix
code is available on Source Forge
(http://mapomatix.sf.net). By many aspects, it
is a continuation of former projects of free
media hactivists groups, in that case of the al-
jwarizmi versus CNN (http://www.hackitectu-
ra.net/aljwarizmi/) and gollum/gis projects
(http://gollum.artefacte.org). MapOMatix is
part of a wider project of free and uncontroleld
tools for the multitude, one very important fea-
ture is that these tools can be entirely contro-
lled by their users. they are built in a logic of
nodes and networks, where there's no centrali-
zed database.