Doreen Massey’s, ‘For Space’, chapter 11 ‘Slices through Space’.
Maps, Massey writes present space as a surface that is both complete and closed, they provide ‘an order in things’(1), and allow us to find where we are and the route to somewhere else.(2) What has drawn me to Massey’s writing is an interest in her concern with how current Western maps present space as a surface and how she questions this.(3) I am particularly drawn to her thinking that instead of space being a complete, closed, surface that it could be open, and what Massey describes as an ‘ongoing product of interconnections’(4), that would ‘be always unfinished and open.'(5)
Through some recent pieces I have begun to reflect on these ideas, fragmenting a mapping made previously (titled Start SH 755 079). By fragmenting I have been able to disrupt the reading of the piece as a whole, and also open it up to different arrangements.
Some postcards made using areas documented from Start SH 755 079.
Redrawing up Start SH 755 079 over 9 equal sized sheets 40 x 28 cm.
Folding further interferes with the surface.
Taking individual pieces down from the wall and noticing how interesting they are piled up.
In the construction of the work I have been using the OS map as a guide for plotting walk information, creating an order from it. Massey asks whether Western maps are another way of taming the spatial.(6) Am I trying to tame the information through my process by creating an order? I think I am, however there is also a strong desire to open the mapping up again.
(1) Doreen Massey, For Space, London, Sage, 2005, p. 106.
(2) Ibid p. 106
(3) Ibid p. 107
(4) Ibid p.107
(5) Ibid p.107
(6) Ibid p.106
