Mind the map

Critical Geography is a field of study dedicated to the analysis of the unequal relationships reflected in our use and understanding of geographic spaces. ACME is an electronic journal that features writing on this subject. I'm not sure if it is still publishing, but there are many articles from back issues archived on the site.


Psychogeography is another really interesting tool for thinking about how we interpret the world around us. A product of the Lettrist and Situationist Movements, psychogeography is a subjective, non-scientific examination of our relationship to space, often through a technique called mental mapping. Mental mapping depicts the way we relate one location to another and combine this ego-centred understanding with our "objective" knowledge of geography.

This type of mental mapping is analogous to (and might even be seen as an extension of) the brainstorming technique that is also sometimes also called mental, cognitive or concept mapping, in which concepts and questions are explored through the creation of diagrams that describe the relationships between related ideas. This background image for the Institute for Lateral Research is an example of this, and the site itself is based on the same principle.

Maps may seem inherently visual, but an interesting paper by a psychologist at the University of Surrey on creating practical maps for the blind explores the non-visual aspects of both cognitive and "real" maps.