ART, SCIENCE, AND POWER IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH CARTOGRAPHY
Publication: Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
Volume 29, Number 2
Abstract
Abstract
The history of Dutch cartography in the sixteenth century is often explained in terms of the opposition between cartography as Art and cartography as Science. It is our contention that this polarization is flawed, based as it is an artificial divide fully established only in the nineteenth century. Between these extremes lies a conceptual vacuum which hides the ideological meaning of the map. Our alternative is to see maps as a form of power-knowledge. Cartography, like painting, is the record of a subjective domain. Map-makers classify and select knowledge to be presented or to be omitted; they state their own involvement in a complex world. Our contention is that maps can also become active agents, helping to impose a reality they pretend merely to mirror.
Résumé
On explique souvent l'histoire de la cartographie nerlandaise du 16e sicle en termes d'opposition entre la cartographie comme art et la cartographie comme science. Notre argument veut que celle polarisation est errone, du fait que cette division artificielle ne fut pleinement tablie qu'au 19e sicle. Il y a un vide conceptuel entre ces deux extrªmes qui cache la signification idologique de la carte. Notre alternative veut que les cartes soient une forme de pouvoir-connaissance. La cartographie, comme la peinture, est la marque d'un domaine subjectif. Les cartographes classifient et choisissent la connaissance montrer ou omettre: ils signifient leur propre engagement dans un monde complexe. Nous soutenons que les cartes peuvent aussi devenir des agents actifs, en aidant imposer une ralit qu'ils prtendent seulement reflter.
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Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
Volume 29 • Number 2 • Summer 1992
Pages: 10 - 19
History
Published in print: Summer 1992
Published online: 12 October 2006
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Cartographica 1992 29:2, 10-19
Cartographica 1992 29:2, 10-19