Editorial
Issue 10
This issue of Livingmaps Review marks our tenth since we began publishing in 2016. I would like to begin this editorial by thanking everyone that has been involved so far, from the contributors, to our editors past and present, our readers, and to the wider Livingmaps Network, which continues to go from strength to strength. It’s a significant milestone for a volunteer-run outfit and a great achievement for the kind of multidisciplinary work that we have produced together. Well done everyone!
Readers from the start will have noticed that the journal has grown in multiple directions, cartographically, intellectually and politically. Today we can begin to boast a journal with a diverse group of contributors from different disciplines and geographical backgrounds. We can also now claim to have a growing international audience as well as an established readership, which is a welcome development that we hope will continue to broaden the scope of contributions in the future. As we move into our next decade of issues, all we can hope for is that you keep reading, keep contributing and keep thinking about the possibilities of maps, mappings and cartography.
In Navigations Neha Gupta, Rajesh S.V, Sharmistha Chatterjee and Abhayan G.S introduce us to MINA, a mapping platform for post-colonial archaeological research in India. Through this work, they highlight the role that open-sourced web-maps can play in putting Indian heritage (back) on the map, and how they might be used to foster a critical dialogue on the topic. Following this, Jack Lowe situates his location-based game, Canterbury in 3 words within a critical discussion about how the interactions between locative media games and the practice of walking can augment place in playful, poetic and enchanting ways. By doing so he continues a theme of locative media that we have been developing in recent months across the network as well as in the journal.
In Waypoints Tiago Muniz directs our attention to rubber tapper communities in Pará State, Brazil, to discuss the role that historical maps and contemporary GIS can have in engaging the public in conversations about their colonial and indigenous histories. Continuing the historical theme, Miriam Silverman introduces The Mapping Memory Project, a web-based mapping project that maps the oral and visual testimony of Liverpool’s dock workers, commuters, sailors, and locals during a great period of change in the city (1950-1970). In addition to discussing the platform, Miriam foregrounds the struggles and successes of keeping a web-based project going in a climate characterised by short term funding.
In Mapworks we are introduced to, and invited to engage with, the Texas Freedom Colonies Project Atlas, a web-based mapping tool and social justice initiative that aims to put ‘Freedom Colonies’ (post-emancipation Black communities) back on the map. Led by Dr Andrea Roberts from the Texas A&M University, the Atlas offers users an interactive portal into where these communities were placed and why these places are important in understanding the history of Texas and wider post-emancipation practices in America.
A walking themed Lines of Desire section begins with a photo essay by Alisa Oleva, which presents a series of annotated photographs – a walking score - taken from The Residents Association’s Unlocked Walks Series in Edinburgh, 2020. Taken together, this piece reveals how collective walking can produce intimate, sensory and emotional experiences across time and space. Continuing this theme, Cristina A. G. Kiminami and I present two edited interviews with Fred Adam and Geert Vermeire, whose work to date has combined walking arts and locative media technologies. Intended to be read together, they tell the story of two early pioneers of locative media with a shared sense of how this technology can shape our engagement with the world. Closing this section, Ali Pretty describes the development of the T100 arts festival in Thurrock, Essex. By taking us on a colourful journey through the history of the festival, Ali demonstrates how the practices of walking, making, storytelling and performance art can bring a community together and develop a shared sense of place.
To conclude this issue, Phil Cohen’s Point Nemo essay brings into sharp focus the psycho-nationalist geographies of British culture and its relationship to the Royal family, something which has once again come to dominate the news agenda over the past few months. Part psycho-analysis, cultural commentary and personal history, Phil’s essay weaves a narrative that draws our attention to a peculiarly British gaze that shows how inextricably entangled the nation is with this institution.
Finally, we are advertising for the position of Reviews Editor. The main duties will include requesting mapping/cartographic themed books, seeking out exhibitions to review, and inviting contributors to review them. If you are interested, please email me to express your interest.
Mike Duggan
Editor-in-Chief, April 2021