Mappa Mundi

Mappa Mundi refers to medieval world maps that sometimes conflated real and imaginary geography, made at a time when the complete picture of the physical world was still being formed. This map mash-up reorders the world based on connections between places, their histories, and the processes of globalization. China, South Asia, Panama, and other places are linked geographically and through common narrative threads of shipping, displacement, and struggles over territory.

Mappa mundi explores two kinds of popular representations of the World –the iconic world map and the international spectacle of World’s Fairs. As technology and commerce blur more and more geographic boundaries, the ubiquitous world map can't adequately describe the intricacies of global economies. Mappa mundi is an attempt to remake the world map, relying on associative geographies rather than physical ones.

This project is also related to late-medieval portolan charts, which were functional navigational maps used by seafarers. These maps focus on the coastline –the interior is often blank– and show how to navigate from here to there, to make physical connections between landmasses.

Exhibited:
> Experimental Geography | 2008-2014 | ICI traveling exhibition, multiple venues
> Expanded Map | 8.9.13-8.24.13 | RM Gallery, Auckland, NZ (wall mural)
> Precious Cargo | 3.18- 5.15.10 | University of Buffalo Art Gallery, NY (wall mural)
> RAW-Geographies | 3.11 - ongoing | Reed College, Portland OR (wall mural)

Press/Published:
> Experimental Geography (Catalog) | Nato Thompson | Melville House Books
> Lize Mogel, "Disorientation Guides: cartography as artistic medium", in Geohumanities | Routledge, 2011
> Denis Wood, Rethinking the Power of Maps| Guilford Press, 2010