Overview
Speculative Mappings of an Invented Territory
This course is designed around the iterative and collective production of a “3/4 Coast Atlas.”
Throughout the quarter we will develop, refine, and compile a series of geographic drawings into a single narrative or “geo-story.” These geo-stories will be collected and curated as “chapters” into the final Atlas.
The “3/4 Coast” comprises the watery geographies of Chicago and the Great Lakes– the so-called “Third Coast” of the United States– and their conjuncture with the Mississippi River watershed– the “Fourth Coast.” By choosing this fractional (and admittedly awkward) form, we invoke its ambivalent, contingent, and always-incomplete figuration.
This geographic character points toward what we mean by an “invented territory.” On the one hand, it is “invented” in a material and historical sense: the diversion and ultimate reversal of the Chicago river (1848-1900) conjoined the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins, geoengineering a new, anthropogenic hydrography out of two previously disconnected watersheds.
On the other hand, the 3/4 Coast is invented insofar as we must break cartographic conventions to imagine it as a coherent (if always in-process) whole. The 3/4 Coast does not exist on any administrative map, even as its invented geographies shape landscapes and lives within and beyond its territories. Learning to see, trace, and reimagine the histories and spaces of 3/4 Coast opens us up to unexpected connections between different landscapes, objects, protagonists, and struggles.
In this sense, the 3/4 Coast is also a narrative device that allows us to tell different geographic stories than those constrained by more conventional territorial boundaries. These “geo-stories” not only require new maps, but experimental approaches to “mapping” broadly construed. Where mapping becomes an expansive mode of geographic storytelling, we must creatively and critically engage geospatial data alongside archival materials, alternative artistic methods, and other forms of spatial media. In so doing, we seek to explore how different kinds of bodies, places, landscapes, and geographies bring new territories into view.
Each group will produce a single “scenographic map” that combines different forms of spatial media to tell a distinct geo-story. These maps will trace varied geographic themes and events that sketch out possible versions of what an atlas of the 3/4 Coast might look like. Each atlas map will include media developed through lab- and studio-based exercises that challenge students to experiment with what count as “maps” and practices of “mapping.” Some geo-stories might be composed in more familiar cartographic forms, while others may use interactive, web-based media to construct non-linear narrative architectures. Each one will traverse the 3/4 Coast in different ways, offering a unique-- and forever partial-- perspective on this invented territory and the processes through which it remains in-formation.
This geographic character points toward what we mean by an “invented territory.” On the one hand, it is “invented” in a material and historical sense: the diversion and ultimate reversal of the Chicago river (1848-1900) conjoined the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins, geoengineering a new, anthropogenic hydrography out of two previously disconnected watersheds.
On the other hand, the 3/4 Coast is invented insofar as we must break cartographic conventions to imagine it as a coherent (if always in-process) whole. The 3/4 Coast does not exist on any administrative map, even as its invented geographies shape landscapes and lives within and beyond its territories. Learning to see, trace, and reimagine the histories and spaces of 3/4 Coast opens us up to unexpected connections between different landscapes, objects, protagonists, and struggles.
In this sense, the 3/4 Coast is also a narrative device that allows us to tell different geographic stories than those constrained by more conventional territorial boundaries. These “geo-stories” not only require new maps, but experimental approaches to “mapping” broadly construed. Where mapping becomes an expansive mode of geographic storytelling, we must creatively and critically engage geospatial data alongside archival materials, alternative artistic methods, and other forms of spatial media. In so doing, we seek to explore how different kinds of bodies, places, landscapes, and geographies bring new territories into view.
Each group will produce a single “scenographic map” that combines different forms of spatial media to tell a distinct geo-story. These maps will trace varied geographic themes and events that sketch out possible versions of what an atlas of the 3/4 Coast might look like. Each atlas map will include media developed through lab- and studio-based exercises that challenge students to experiment with what count as “maps” and practices of “mapping.” Some geo-stories might be composed in more familiar cartographic forms, while others may use interactive, web-based media to construct non-linear narrative architectures. Each one will traverse the 3/4 Coast in different ways, offering a unique-- and forever partial-- perspective on this invented territory and the processes through which it remains in-formation.