WWW: World Wide Warp by Sophie Peterson

WWW: WORLD WIDE WARP By Sophie Peterson

Do you remember the invention of the internet? Perhaps not the actual inception, but the period of time where chunky desktop computers snuck into your house and caused the rise of the ‘computer room’1. A room constructed, or perhaps reimagined, as an escape. The world developing inside the computer slowly became our reality. We once accessed the world wide web. Now, we are logging on to a world wide warp. This hyperreal world collated of a few hundred thousand pixels is having real, tangible impacts on the way our society and city is arranged. Developing forms of digital representation, specifically in the realm of online mapping tools and cartography, is contributing to further disparity between the physical, economic and social core nodes of contemporary society and its estranged peripheries due to man’s ability to distort the perceived value of land. For the purposes of this essay, whenever the terms core or periphery appear, they refer to the discrete model of core-periphery world systems theory as proposed by Borgatti and Everett in Figure A.2 In this representation of interconnected relations, “core nodes are adjacent to other core nodes, core nodes are adjacent to some periphery nodes, and periphery nodes do not connect with other periphery nodes.”3 The concept of core-periphery systems theory is not itself the issue. Rather, that the distance between the core-periphery nodes are becoming further estranged, and core-core nodes are growing closer (Figure B). This essay argues that the fields of view of our conscious have deliberately been warped by global powers so that the crises of the periphery are swept aside, and thus, are unassociated issues of our everyday lives here in the physical cores of capitalism.

News.Bbc.co.uk. 2004. “Unstoppable Rise of the Home Computer,” February 9, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3471803.stm.

Borgatti, Stephen P, and Martin G Everett. 2000. “Models of Core/Periphery Structures.” Social Networks 21 (4): 376–81. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/s0378-8733(99)00019-2. 2

Borgatti & Everett, et al.

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Figure A: Borgatti and Everettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discrete model of core-periphery world systems theory

Figure B: Borgatti and Everettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s model in comparison to the proposed estranged periphery diagram.

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Physical, economic and social cores of influence cannot be discerned from one another. They could, for example, be seen as items 2, 3 and 4 in Figure A which are all dynamically interconnected and yet their own entities. This essay will take a holistic approach to the analysis of the core powers instead of attempting to isolate them. It will first look at how these core neoliberal powers have grown further intertwined through mapped representations of the land and has consequently subverted the climate narrative to the periphery in order to perpetuate the dogma of endless economic growth. An analysis of the distortion and censorship of information available online will additionally delve into the validity of this preposition. Finally, the Green New Deal will be assessed in terms of its potential to correct or perhaps capitalise on this distortion. The climate narrative an individual internalises is deeply personal and is influenced by age, access to media and one’s cultural and social contexts. There is not one story, but millions which have tangents of similar sentiments. The element of the climate narrative that this essay focuses on is that of Jason Moore’s Cheap Nature theory, in which he observes that Humanity and Nature are seen as seperate entities which are inexhaustible in use for the former, and growth for the latter.4 In this case, the narrative being told and analysed is one of the power and entitlement of man over nature. As such, we no longer need to say “you are here” - we are by default the centre of the world and our surroundings emanate from us from a little blue dot that sits on the digital map on our screen.5 Dominant cartographic representations are amplifying and silencing elements of our ‘human versus nature’ climate narrative so that we are increasingly positioned as the controller’s of the map and how it represents the earth and its value. Finally, the online realm - constituting of the internet and subsidiaries of social media, online archives and databases - is used as a tool to analyse the presentation of ideas, materials and factual information. The accessibility and hierarchy of this information is interpreted and explored as a contributing factor to this distortion. Through a series of online investigations, this essay hopes to shed light on the subtle but tangible impact of cartographic representations on the offline landscape. The focus will be less on the analysis of geographical or meteorological content and more on the question of non-geographical meanings of the map and its inherent political discourse. As a significant part of visual culture, maps hold an unparalleled power to stand strongly besides a long history of visual tools of persuasion and reference systems that all collaborate to determine the trajectory of our future.

Moore, Jason W. 2015. Capitalism in the Web of Life : Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. New York: Verso.

McMullan, Thomas. 2014. “How Digital Maps Are Changing the Way We Understand Our World.” The Guardian. December 2, 2014. https:// www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/02/how-digital-maps-changing-the-way-we-understand-world. 5

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CHAPTER I

CLIMATE WARP The Impact of Digital Cartographic Representations on the Social, Cultural and Economic Value of Land

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I: CLIMATE WARP The Impact of Digital Cartographic Representations on the Social, Cultural and Economic Value of Land

It’s not uncommon to scoff at the rise of ‘flat earthers’ or geocentrists who believe that the earth is shaped like a coin, or that the sun is not the centre of the solar system.6 The point is not to make a comment on what is true or false. It is rather to point out that almost any ideology or way of thinking develops through an echo chamber7 whereby important, and in this example, scientific facts have been deliberately distorted by pushing them aside to the periphery of popular consciousness. Maps too are a portrayal of a narrative. We can observe them not as truth, but as a “map of the mapmaker; his or her assumptions, skills or world-view.”8 Maps are now of the hyperreal, without origin or reality but of subjectivity.9

The same can be said about the current climate narrative and representation of the value of land through digital mapping tools. Subjectivity, political power and capitalist gain - either consciously or subconsciously - drive the hand of the cartographer or whoever might be paying him or her. The maker of the map now decides the attention and value given to the Earth. Is conservation of the Earth worth more than the destruction needed to continue to accelerate the unrelenting dogma of exponential economic growth?

I am by no means the first to come across this idea. Jason Moore also looks at the “story of Humanity and Nature”, both capitalised as to assign them their own authority at a stand off with one another. This narrative “conceals a dirty secret of modern world history,” observing that “capitalism was built on excluding most humans from Humanity – indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, nearly all women, and even many white-skinned men (Slavs, Jews, the Irish).”10 In fact, he observes that these people weren’t actually seen as a part of Humanity at all, but as a part of Nature. They too are a resource to exploit, whitewash and push to the periphery.

This study aims to examine the distinction between Humanity and Nature and the emerging digital methods of representing the land which distorts its social and monetary worth. The explorative phase also analyses the rise of social media ‘geo-locations’ which add§ place-importance to the collective online conscious in core areas of the city over its peripheries.  Scott, Eugenie. 2016. “The Creation/Evolution Continuum | National Center for Science Education.” NCSE NGO. National Centre for Science Education. 2016. https://ncse.ngo/creationevolution-continuum. 6

Gillani, Nabeel, Ann Yuan, Martin Saveski, Soroush Vosoughi, and Deb Roy. 2018. “Me, My Echo Chamber, and I.” Proceedings of the 2018 World Wide Web Conference on World Wide Web - WWW ’18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3178876.3186130. 7

Korzybski, Alfred. 2005. Science and Sanity : An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. “The map is not the territory.” Fort Worth, Tx.: Institute Of General Semantics. 8

Baudrillard, Jean, and Sheila Faria Glaser. 2010. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Univ. Of Michigan Press.

Parenti, Christian, and Jason W Moore. 2016. Anthropocene or Capitalocene? : Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. Oakland, Ca: Pm Press. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sociology_fac/2/. 10

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Figure C: Map of Indigenous Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Distortion of the Ownership Narrative I grew up in Australia and a few years ago I would not have been able to name any of the tribes on this map, let alone instantly recognise it. And not without reason; it allowed the capitalist core to continue to claim ownership of periphery Indigenous sacred lands and overlay oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own goals onto a seemingly clean slate of seven colonial states. We changed the map, which changed the terminology of entitlement we used to relate to the land, thus altering the socio-economic and physical landscape of Australia as we know it. Which map do you think Rio Tinto decided to use as reference when it blew up a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site? Was it it the map of Indigenous Australia (Figure C), or perhaps a map which outlines boundaries, perceived mineral deposits and a colonial definition of land ownership?

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Figure D: “Rio Tinto Blames ‘misunderstanding’ for Destruction of 46,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Site.” The Guardian, June 5, 2020.11

Wahlquist, Calla. 2020. “Rio Tinto Blames ‘misunderstanding’ for Destruction of 46,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Site.” The Guardian, June 5, 2020, sec. Business. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/05/rio-tinto-blames-misunderstanding-for-destruction-of-46000-year-oldaboriginal-site. 11

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In fact, when searching for the Indigenous map of Australia, Google search engine placed it between maps which show ‘how many countries physically fit within Australia’,12 placing a somewhat novelty representation of country size in line with the importance of the Indigenous tribal map of Australia. This seemingly blameless distortion of information via digital hierarchy of cultural data importance contributes to the narrative that land significance and climate play in the collective conscious, both on and offline. It is one of novelty, over-saturation of information and organisation of data, and hence narrative, according to the ability to effectively market to an online audience. The idea that we no longer have the attention span to process this density of cartographic information speaks to the same sentiment of the climate narrative. We resort to simplified, allegedly demystified representations of reality13 to further estrange the issues of the periphery (in this case, the blatant disregard of the traditional custodians of the land) so that the capitalist core can continue to reap and sow its power. Simplification is an unavoidable consequence of mapping at a large scale,14 but the choice of which map we primarily use, what detail is included and what story it tells, is not. Who would dare to “map non-reality as long as ‘reality’ exists and is knowable” anyway?15 Distance between the reality core node and the unknown, non-reality periphery node is thus increased. When indigenous tribes are not mapped, they are not seen as valid. This very detail allows for extractive industries to exploit, for commercial developers to prosper and for infrastructure industries to prioritise billion dollar highways over sacred, three hundred year old trees.16 Indigenous cultures become further suppressed, pushed to the periphery of our physical and collective conscious. The very urban fabric of cities is concealed and censored from any of these processes and indigenous communities are further isolated from Humanity. The structure of our landscape changes because the way we see and use the land changes too. Not only that, but the power that cartography has to suppress knowledge means that it is primarily a form of political discourse.17 The popularisation of a White Australia map is used as a vessel of subverted racism against Indigenous Aboriginal Australians, drawn up in 1811 by Matthew Flinders.18 Flinders also decided to name one of two major national parks in South Australia after 12

Google Search. n.d. “Google Visual Search Result: ‘How Many Countries Fit inside Australia.’” Google Images. Accessed December 14, 2020.

Kernik, Melinda, and Eric DeLuca. 2017. “5. Simplification.” Open.Lib.Umn.Edu. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. September 5, 2017. https://open.lib.umn.edu/mapping/chapter/5-simplification/. 13

Raposo, Paulo, Guillaume Touya, and Pia Bereuter. 2020. “A Change of Theme: The Role of Generalization in Thematic Mapping.” ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 9 (6): 371. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9060371. 14

Arvidson, Enid. 1995. “Cognitive Mapping and Class Politics: Towards a Nondeterminist Image of the City.” Rethinking Marxism 8 (2): 20. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935699508685439 15

Neary, Gemma. 2020. “300-Year-Old Tree to Fall Victim to North East Link Project.” The Junction. Swinburne University. June 5, 2020. https:// junctionjournalism.com/2020/06/05/300-year-old-tree-to-fall-victim-to-north-east-link-project/#:~:text=The%202019%20Victorian%20Tree%20of. 16

Harley, J. B. 1988. “Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe.” Imago Mundi 40 (1): 57–76. https:// doi.org/10.1080/03085698808592639. 17

Chester, Simon. 2013. “400-Year-Old Australian Map on Display.” Spatial Source Australia. July 30, 2013. https://www.spatialsource.com.au/ latest-news/400-year-old-australian-map-on-display#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWith%20his%20ship%20sinking%20and 18

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himself. The Flinders Ranges were a place of mining for mineral and metal resources as well as murder of Indigenous people’s that supposedly had no rights to claim anything from the land.19

becomes apparent that the suppression of indigenous history via cartographic silencing21 gave a means to the White to erase the community inhabitation and commons economies of Indigenous Australians.22 The righteousness and false authenticity of truth that cartographers consciously or unconsciously present allows for a warped perception of the earth, who owns the rights to it and what can rightfully and wrongfully be done with it.

Commodification of Place Creating Physical Urban Cores This section of the essay proposes that the commodification of the hierarchy of place via the world’s most widely used digital cartographic platform, Google Maps23, has accelerated our changing urban fabric. In August 2013, it was determined to be the world's most popular app for smartphones,24 being used by one billion people per month in 2020.25 If you’re not familiar with SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, you have probably been saved from the modern marketing course. SEO is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.26 It is a tool used to increase awareness and thus capital profits of online businesses. What happens, then, when you can optimise traffic flow to a website by buying a larger label on a map? The commodification of place via Google Maps has turned the map into an “advanced digital product“27 which inherently manipulates its users as an interactive way of structuring the spaces in

Gorlinski, Virginia. 2020. “Flinders Ranges | Mountains, South Australia, Australia.” Encyclopedia Britannica. December 19, 2020. https:// www.britannica.com/place/Flinders-Ranges. 19

“Mining in the Northern Flinders Ranges.” n.d. Www.Southaustralianhistory.com.Au. Accessed December 19, 2020. https:// www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/miningnfl.htm. 20

Harley, J. B. 1988. “Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe.” Imago Mundi 40 (1): 57–76. https:// doi.org/10.1080/03085698808592639. 21

St. Martin, Kevin. 2009. “Toward a Cartography of the Commons: Constituting the Political and Economic Possibilities of Place.” The Professional Geographer 61 (4): 493–507. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330120903143482. 22

Smith, Cooper. 2013. “Google+ Is The Fourth Most-Used Smartphone App.” Business Insider. September 5, 2013. https:// www.businessinsider.com/google-smartphone-app-popularity-2013-9?r=US&IR=T#infographic. 24

Rijo, Daniel. 2020. “Google Maps Now Used by over 1 Billion People Every Month.” Newsletter.Ppc.Land. February 15, 2020. https:// newsletter.ppc.land/p/google-maps-now-used-by-over-1-billion-people-every-month. 25

Noran, Kaiti. 2010. “SEO Meaning | What Is Search Engine Optimization?” Webopedia. January 4, 2010. http://www.webopedia.com/definitions/ seo/. 26

Kuhn, Harlan, and Benjamin D. Hennig. 2016. ADVANCING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SCIENCE : The Past and next Twenty Years. Chapter 11: Mapping Practices in a Digital World. GSDI Association Press. Page 163. 27

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which we live and communicate with each other.28 This commodification directs online attention to discover certain offline places. Are we more likely to explore a neighbourhood with a large cluster of coloured icons of businesses or the neighbourhood with small, dispersed clusters of place names? Online representation of place is curated by online presence and monetary ability to pay for advertising of place. This cartographic notation and representation undeniably influences how we see place before we experience it and, more broadly, how “real estate agencies, travel websites and home-sharing apps refer to an area.”29 It is no wonder now that we have moved into a more augmented reality that the path of urban density and gentrification is cartographically and physically paving itself. The ability to ‘buy’ digital place or amplify and indirectly silence the inherent cultural value of land directly contributes to our distorted climate narrative. Land, what value it holds and how it might benefit us is at the core of this distortion. This sentiment implies that Nature is at the complete surrender of Humanity. When we label something, it becomes tangible, deferrable and commodifiable. Suddenly, we are accessing “Google’s View of the World” instead of a “local view of the world.”30 The density of commercial label advertising on cartographic representations allows the growth of popularity of new, physical cores in the city’s fabric. Areas with less investment are further pushed to the periphery of this fabric, fraying at their ends. Now that the digital world is accessible to almost everyone, the dominant strategy of the past few years has been to ‘beat the algorithm’31 and to ensure that hierarchy of information plays strategically into a commercial plan. It is the secret recipe which has been mystified because it determines how money flows, and to whom. What you see first at the top of your Instagram feed, which hotels appear first on your exploration of Google Maps and even how the map is located and at what scale, are all subtle determents of how we perceive and value space. The cartography of capitalism spreads out from its origin, engulfing or displacing that which came before and transforming societies and spaces to meet its needs.32 We now see land and maps as a way to advertise. The digital map gives us an impression of the social and economic worth of place before we have experienced it for ourselves. This distorted representation accommodates capitalism and erases or displaces non-capitalist economies and commons livelihoods.33 A basis for exploiting the environment in the name of capitalism is given its place on the world’s stage. 28

Hillier, Bill, and Julienne Hanson. 1984. “Introduction.” The Social Logic of Space, June, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511597237.002.

Barnhart, Brent. 2020. “How to Survive (and Outsmart) the Instagram Algorithm.” Sprout Social. August 7, 2020. https://sproutsocial.com/ insights/instagram-algorithm/. 31

Ibid., 7.

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The Rise of Geolocation and the Power of an Invisible Cartography What then is to be said of the secondary maps we use to track, to share and to find new places of interest? With the rise of technology and the transferal of our social and lifestyle choices being translated to an online landscape, everything we do, and everywhere we do it, can be tracked. If you are one of the one billion people34 that own an Apple iPhone and you haven’t turned off location tracking services, you’ll see your photos have been mapped onto an mercator globe. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will have the same. The question of who owns these maps, how the data is used and how the rise of geolocation has impacted the physical city is a difficult question to answer because this data is personal and, thankfully, censored to the general public. It is, for the most part, an invisible cartography. But it is not without power. Major change processes occur in a “co-evolutionary manner” and “rely on a great number of changes in different sociotechnical and socio-cultural (sub)systems… at a local, national and global action level.”35 I propose a socio-economic centric map of the city created by the rise of geolocation tracking supports a cartography of capitalism36 and the further distortion of socio-spatial inequalities.37 By mapping the physical city onto an online landscape, the users of the platform elevate “exclusive and avant-garde establishments and events… while rendering mundane and low-status places invisible.”38 Coreperiphery world systems thinking is reinforced through this almost invisible, secondary online cartography. It is important to discern the physical, planned cores of the urban city from the social and economic activity cores which are played out within it. The difference being that one is a map or blueprint of the built city, and the other is an overlay of geospatial data which reflects socio-spatial networks. Often the physical core is planned, such as Haussmann’s Croisée de Paris to create a city centre or the Arc De Triumph as the centre point of the city which all roads branch out from.39 Instead, these social mappings of geolocation have physical, economic and cultural impacts on the physical city. It is not that cities “disappear in the virtual networks.” More that they are “transformed by the interface between electronic communication and physical interaction.”40 Potuck, Michael. 2020. “Apple Hits 1.5 Billion Active Devices with ~80% of Recent IPhones and IPads Running IOS 13.” 9to5Mac. January 28, 2020. https://9to5mac.com/2020/01/28/apple-hits-1-5-billion-active-devices-with-80-of-recent-iphones-and-ipads-running-ios-13/. 34

Frauke Kraas, Claus Leggewie, Peter Lemke, Ellen Matthies, Dirk Messner, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, et al. 2016. Humanity on the Move: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Cities Flagship Report. Berlin Wissenschaftlicher Beirat D. Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen. 35

St. Martin 2009. “Toward a Cartography of the Commons.” 5.

Boy, John D, and Justus Uitermark. 2017. “Reassembling the City through Instagram.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 42 (4): 612–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12185. 37

Boy, John D, and Justus Uitermark. 2017. “Reassembling the City through Instagram.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 42 (4): 612–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12185. 38

Patrice De Moncan. 2019. Le Paris d’Haussmann. Paris Les Éditions Du Mécène.

Mueller, Elizabeth J. 2012. “The City Reader Edited by Richard T. Legates and Frederic Stout. The American Urban Reader: History and Theory Edited by Steven H. Corey and Lisa Krissoff Boehm.” Journal of Urban Affairs 34 (1): 124–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00604.x. 40

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I propose that the gap between Humanity and Nature is further estranged through the rise and popularity of geolocation sharing. This mirror world of digital communications creates and reinforces “nodal areas of the city” which connect to the global social economy and receives the highest priority in terms of investment and management as they are sources of value creation.41 Socio-economic disparity is mimicked in the spatial fabric of the city as increased investment and soaring price tags for every square inch of the earth force periphery cultures and peoples further to the edge lands. The comment being made here is that social mapping makes place a social and lifestyle statement. Earth, it’s habitable lands and its worth are seen as Humanity. People of the periphery are seen as disposable, much like Nature. Ironically, the earth is used as a map for social status, whereas social groups are seen as something to dispel from the social map.

Figure E: A geolocation map of Amsterdam by social media check in. https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tran.12185

As the population gravitates towards the city cores according to a geolocation mapped city, such as that seen in Figure E, urban density demands more from the land than is sustainable in the long term. Grassroots methods of maintaining the land cease to exist and we treat the city as a blank slate waiting for us to do away with it at our will. Once more, we exploit location, land and the environment for our own social benefit. The impact of geolocation perhaps is not just an innocent way to share our lifestyle choices, but an inadvertent method of popularising place and land beyond its ability to cope with our economic influence. Mueller, Elizabeth J. 2012. “The City Reader Edited by Richard T. Legates and Frederic Stout. The American Urban Reader: History and Theory Edited by Steven H. Corey and Lisa Krissoff Boehm.” Journal of Urban Affairs 34 (1): 124–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00604.x. 41

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CHAPTER II

A COMMON GROUND The Link Between Distorted Cartographic Representations and the Climate Narrative

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II: A COMMON GROUND The Link Between Distorted Cartographic Representations and the Climate Narrative

The distortion of digital cartographic representations and the distortion of the climate narrative have more in common than one might first assume. The Cambridge Dictionary describes the concept of narrative as the particular way of explaining or understanding events.42 It is this particularity where the narrative of digital cartography and that of the current climate crisis overlap. They both present certain facts and censor or suppress others to perpetuate systems, such as ideation of neoliberalism, corporate persuasion or political favourability. I propose that the distortion of cultural land value due to new digital cartographic representations contributes to our distorted climate narrative, which suppresses the crisis-level response needed to make change before it is too late. The following research discusses whether digital cartography might be used to bring the climate narrative into the everyday conscious of the public.

Cartographic Representations of Environmental Accountability: Corporate Responsibility and Transparency There is one image on the webpage which overviews the material sustainability of global fashion giant H&M Group. It’s a stock photo of calico rolls in elevation. Whilst clarity of information is of course important, I predict the likelihood of H&M’s lower middle class and working class target market43 ever accessing this page, let alone reading it in full, would be relatively low to nonexistent.

“Narrative | Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” 2019. Cambridge.org. 2019. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ narrative. 42

All Answers Ltd. (November 2018). H&M Marketing Analysis. Retrieved from https://ukdiss.com/examples/marketing-analysis-h-and-m.php? vref=1 43

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Maps often say what words don’t have the power to express. If we can so easily track packages in the name of consumer impatience, then surely we can track the creation of a product too. Silk from India, polypropylene from China, copper from Chile; how can the map be used to visually convey this language? Imagine if the CO2 emissions of each of the processes of mining, manufacturing, human production and transportation were also mapped? If this kind of map was required to be displayed on every H&M product would; A) Companies produce as much stock? B) Companies create as much wastage? C) Consumers be willing to pay more for lower emissions productions? D) We begin to appreciate where our goods come from and who made them? The new digital age of cartography has the ability to bring further clarity to our purchasing decisions. Likewise, our climate narrative - polluted with political rhetoric and agendas, commercial persuasion and industry irreplaceability - can be distorted towards a rhetoric of clarity, honesty and transparency instead. Within these prepositions, the map becomes an instrument for revealing the reality of globalisation and free trade networks. In this sense, maps not only represent reality, but also play an active role in its construction. So we must ask ourselves; what reality do we want to construct with our cartographies?

Hollow Mapping: The Outsourcing and Sharing Economy of Cartographers I propose that we live in a time of hollow cartography. If it is not too far reaching to say, I believe the hollowness of globalisation has been the major contributing cause of climate change. But what is meant by hollow? Naomi Klein first coined the idea of hollow branding and hollow wars in her book No Logo.44 Klein explores the rise of outsourced labour, skills and often authoritarian processes (for example, prisoner interrogation and often torture in Afghanistan) as a method of deferring state responsibility for when things go askew. This complete market decentralisation, which historically has been seen as the very holy grail of exponential economic growth, is not only a huge contributor to rising carbon emissions45, but runs right through to our social, political and physical lives with the decentralisation of cartography. This is what is meant by hollow cartography. After all, are the maps in the palms of our hands organised by those with relevant accreditations, or are they sitting behind the global desks of big data

Klein, Naomi. 2009. No Logo : Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Toronto: Vintage Canada.

Clark, Duncan. 2018. “Why Do Economists Describe Climate Change as a ‘Market Failure’?” The Guardian. The Guardian. February 14, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/may/21/economists-climate-change-market-failure. 45

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companies? Perhaps it does not come down to a human agenda at all, but is simply a product of machine learning.46 Hierarchy of place and importance is given to the highest bidder. That will not be Indigenous Australians. That will not be minor communities at the periphery of the city. That will not be those excluded from the invisible cartography of social media networks. Capitalism works its way into every aspect of our lives, from the state, to the practises and ideologies of the ruling and working classes, and the prevailing culture.47 Maps are now curated by those who can afford to put themselves on the map. No one is to blame, and yet everyone is to blame. It doesn’t sound so dissimilar from our confused climate narrative. The key idea here is one of a regulation equilibrium. Policy involving cartographic development and use can be used to bring greater transparency, place identity and justice to the land and its use. There seems to be one exception to the total commercialisation of the map; the architect as underlying cartographer. Architects give form to the city and thus to the land. Cartographers represent these forms. The process of mapping has been a debate of decades, if not centuries, whereas the role of architectural drawing and the resultant fragmentation of commercial mapping has, at least in my formal education and professional training, mostly flown below the radar. Surely then, the architect too plays one of the founding roles in imagining the city and how it will create place identity, a feeling of inclusivity and environmental consideration. Moreover, how this place might be explored digitally on the map, and physically as a part of the narrative of exploring the city and its peoples. International architectural practises now access online GIS data as a basis for architectural, environmental and planning decisions. Through our use of GIS technologies and our ability to choose which datasets we draw on, we have a certain power over what we see and become co-creators of the story of the map.48 This process of analysis is self-reflexive,49 just as the act of creating maps is a never ending process of reinterpretation and use of new sources and data. This possibility of representation presupposes an idea and shapes it at the same moment. It is precisely this seemingly contradictory relationship that makes it possible to control and steer the understanding of space via maps without apparently having to presuppose it in the first place.

Hsu, Fang-Ming, Yu-Tzeng Lin, and Tu-Kuang Ho. 2012. “Design and Implementation of an Intelligent Recommendation System for Tourist Attractions: The Integration of EBM Model, Bayesian Network and Google Maps.” Expert Systems with Applications 39 (3): 3257–3264. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2011.09.013. 46

Wood, Ellen Meiksins. "Modernity, Postmodernity or Capitalism?" Review of International Political Economy 4, no. 3 (1997): 539-60. Accessed December 22, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4177238. Pp. 551 47

Diana Stuart Sinton, and Jennifer J Lund. 2007. Understanding Place : GIS and Mapping across the Curriculum. Redlands, Calif.: Esri Press.

Korzybski, Alfred. 2005. Science and Sanity : An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. “The map is not the territory.” Fort Worth, Tx.: Institute Of General Semantics. 49

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CHAPTER III

GREEN-TINTED GLASSES Using the Visual Language of Cartographic Distortion to Tint the Green New Deal Climate Narrative

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III: GREEN-TINTED GLASSES Using the Visual Language of Cartographic Distortion to Tint the Green New Deal Climate Narrative The irony in discussing and critiquing narratives of climate is that bias is inevitable. Through this research paper as a formal requirement of my involvement with the HT6 Green New Dialogues seminar within the Bartlett, I observe, record and critique through a narrative lens of the Green New Deal as a pathway of climate change. I see the issue of the climate crisis as one directly linked to neoliberalism, inequality and increasing disparity of wealth and thus power. For this very reason, I will look at how the Green New Deal interacts with digital distortions of cartographic representations. Specifically, I will explore how the Green New Deal might look at graphic representation, semiotics and visual hierarchies to increase widespread impact. I believe my role as an aspiring architect is not only to reveal and frame ideas, but to creatively propose informed solutions to or comments on these ideas. I will look at how mapping may be used to rehumanise labour, to reinforce place identity and to work with a new economic system which moves away from the oversimplified supply & demand economic system we are still living in.

The Re-Humanisation of Labour, Empowerment of Communities and End to the Dogma of Endless Growth Through Standardised Cartographic Representations If the distortion of digital representations of the land can be used to benefit capitalism and warp cultural, social and physical land use, I believe the Green New Deal can thus capitalise on this language of distortion and representation to present new ways of seeing. This language of capitalism could be folded back onto itself as a new agenda of social equity and climate preservation. Imagine that every new product and every business was required to map the exact locations of source material, labour, transportation and delivery on a standardised map which depicts the real cost of labour and the carbon cost to the environment.

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Figure F: The 10 Pillars of the Green New Deal for Europe 50

Green New Deal for Europe. n.d. “10 Pillars of the Green New Deal for Europe.” Green New Deal for Europe. https://www.gndforeurope.com/ 10-pillars-of-the-green-new-deal-for-europe. 50

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Globalisation and free trade has allowed us to buy, move and employ freely, and often recklessly. Now is the time for the pillars of the Green New Deal to take their place in the new world order. Can we press idle resources into the public service, empower citizens and their communities and end the dogma of endless growth51 to improve the transparency of the production process of goods through cartography? If every new product sold by major retailers was legally required to show a map of the production process to amplify and humanise the labour, reveal the total transport emissions and ethically source materials; I believe our physical demand of the environment and buying behaviours would dramatically shift. The process of standardisation of maps to increase transparency is a way of showing the impact of globalisation without having to say anything much at all.

The Role of Cartography and the Green New Deal in Creating Place Identity The development of place identity in individuals leads to a willingness to take responsibility for their habitat.52 Place attachment theory states that people develop this spatial identity through one’s specific use or appropriation of the environment in which they are enveloped. I propose that the use of cartographic representations through the lens of the Green New Deal climate narrative may be captured to enhance place identity and improve care for and awareness of environmental use. Prioritising the iconography in maps, emphasising green space and public establishments with rich histories allow us to attach our identity to a certain place and encourage us to explore further than the local mall. In short, the humanisation of place through new mapping representations may lead to increased attachment and identity to the environment. The element of otherness or exoticism of the climate crisis is starting to fade slowly. The drastic effects of rising temperatures bringing major natural disasters and destabilisation of society are creeping closer each day. Cartographic representations must play a role in empowering communities and their citizens to make decisions to that shape their future. If the map we are presented with is one of capitalist interests, commercial gain and overcrowded city centres, then there must surely be enough room to distort the map back to prioritising the representation of green space, labelling parklands and highlighting bike routes. A city which one is proud of is one that will be protected by its people through identity attachment.

Green New Deal for Europe. n.d. “10 Pillars of the Green New Deal for Europe.” Green New Deal for Europe. https://www.gndforeurope.com/ 10-pillars-of-the-green-new-deal-for-europe. 51

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CONCLUSION

Mapping is an art, and with art comes abstraction. This subjective interpretation of reality, however, has real world, tangible impacts on how we perceive the physical, social and cultural value of the land. The digital realm has an ability to attach a commercial, political and social agenda to the land which allows humanity to put labels on areas of the earth; a price tag, an ownership title and written rights. The underlying sentiment is that humanity is entitled to the land to inexhaustible extents. Digital, decentralised cartography emphasises this narrative, cheapening nature further by assuming it is something we own in the first place. The purpose of this essay, however, is not to create a perpetrator/victim divide between the core and the periphery nodes. It instead aims to acknowledge the estrangement of periphery cultures which already exists and examine how cartographic representations have further reinforced this dynamic of distortion. My hope is not to condemn map makers, but to shine a light on how the visual simplification of information has a unique power to inform the public conscious with almost no words at all. Furthermore, if we understand this process more thoroughly, we might be able to apply it to transition to new physical conditions, economic models and social hierarchies. Who decides what those structures might be is not for me to say, but I believe the map maker might be the vocal cords of this change. Will we find ourselves with a World Wide Warp of blind self-annihilation, or a World Wide Weapon for narrative creation?

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