Paper short abstract:

This paper questions the ways in which maps are and enable vernacular knowledge rather than stand as a substitute for it. As such, maps in Panama are visually apprehended material artefacts that are performed objectifications of social and cultural (self) representation.

Paper long abstract:

During the period of my fieldwork (2003-2004), navigable maps of Panama City and other cities and towns were not commercially available. The mathematical representation of space cartographically in a standard fold-out map is often understood as a substitute for embodied, local, vernacular knowledge. A map's format and scale are two objective built-in limits of design that impact the navigable utility of a map. While acknowledging the role maps may play in wide ranging political projects, a subjective limit imposed on maps publicly available in Panama is the rendering of locations such that they are represented as views but in a map format. The shift from map to view emphasizes subjective, visually enframed vernacular knowledge over the visual representation of mathematical knowledge. This shift is rendered in Panama's maps through bounded areas that represent absences; streets are not shown, areas are not named. Wayfinding and planning possible routes with such a tool is restricted and difficult, suggesting navigation is not what they are for. The functional utility of maps in Panama, which is common with many other places, is not at issue; instead, one is led to question in what way maps are and enable vernacular knowledge rather than stand as a substitute for it. As such, maps in Panama are material artefacts visually apprehended that are performed objectifications of social and cultural (self) representation. These points will be explored with reference to fold-out maps of Panama City and to Las Piedras Pintadas (The Painted Rocks) a map carved and painted into the face of a rock in the Panamanian community, La Pintada, El Valle de Antón.

E-paper: this Paper will not be presented, but read in advance and discussed

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