Beyond Maps and Emotions - Emotional Cartographies

Abstract

The paper explores Emotional Cartography (Nold 2009), an emerging concept and methodology which reunites science, technology and art, theory and practice. Drawing upon critical theory, and going beyond georeferencing emotional states, such cartography is not only about emotions, but also memories, experiences, perceptions, attachments, identities, lieux de mémoire. It is a form of imagination and placemaking by multiple, collective, views – miradas territoriales (Wood, 1992). In the era of “Turns”, building on Emotional Geography (Bondi, Davidson, & Smith, 2007), the paper rethinks Emotional Cartography as an allegory in terms of representation and semantics, both (carto)graphic and lexical.

By looking at mapping practices and meanings, the correlation between emotional, cultural, social, spatial and digital, it traces mapping approaches to subjective, intimate spaces and memories (Blunt, 2003; Jones & Garde-Hansen, 2012), its invisible and hidden layers. Drawing on the dataset – "The Corpus of Emotional Cartographies", it reflects on the “State of Practice”: first, the mapping as a process - mapping actors, methods and techniques; second, the representation and interpretation; and third, the (carto)graphic and lexical semantics (listed in “Emotional Mapping Lexicon”). Ultimately, by sensing and mapping the spatial politics of emotions, using ethnographic methods such as walking methodologies (Truman & Springgay, 2018), Emotional Mapping is tested as a tool for reflexive (spatial) thinking in heritage, like participation (Quintero Morón & Sánchez Carretero, 2017), as a part of a deeper understanding of mapping as a practice, research method, and metaphor. In line with reflexive (critical) approach to heritage, relying on sensory and collaborative techniques for sensing and mapping "multi-layered stories", it argues for the integration of subjective spatial narratives towards the negotiation of place, power, patrimonialization processes and heritage practices.