Maps do more than help us find our way. They are selective ways of imagining, representing and distorting our worlds. Map-making, or cartography, is the art of filtering and focusing the complexity of our lived experience, locating our place and ourselves in the world. We asked Bubbler teens to map their worlds, paying attention to three attributes of all maps: scale, projection, and symbolization.
Scale is a coherent forgetting, a decision to include more or less detail, reality pared down to its essence. Projection transforms the curved surfaces of the earth into planes. It requires a fixed center point, a unique symbolic space that is given a privileged position. Symbolization is the representation of selected features with graphic symbols that may be figurative, abstract or emotive.
