Maps are everywhere. They illustrate every corner of our cities, countries, oceans, planet, and beyond. Whether we are aware or not, almost all of us use maps on a daily basis, from the simple mind-maps we rely on for our morning commute to the complex algorithms that map our every move, our every action, and, increasingly, our every thought.
We can see how our hometowns have changed over time, the events that have unfolded in our countries, and the way in which the past has shaped and modelled the familiar geography of the present. More than anything they allow us to connect with our forebears, and to explore how the people of the past described, depicted, or attempted to understand our world.
From a reductive pattern drawn in the sand to the most recent smart phone app, maps have been a witness to our development as a species. The earliest maps showed the locations of food and sustenance, valuable commodities, or dangers and enemies. As human societies grew more complex, so did maps. They became a means of defining and delineating people, tying us to our geography, and increasing our sense of belonging and ownership.
Some map makers take us even further outside of the known, using the recognizable format of the map to push us beyond the familiar world and into the fantastical. Sometimes this can be a playful or ideological reimagining of well-known places, transposing or warping real geography into imaginative shapes that comment or critique the foibles of peoples, nations, or empires.
At their worst, maps have been used to justify territorial expansion, limit the activities and movements of populations, govern who owns (and does not own) our planet and its resources. But at their best, maps do not imprison us in our geography, but rather offer us a form of escapism, be it physical, emotional, mental, or even aesthetic.
Others invent places that could conceivably exist within our own world, like cities of gold or undiscovered islands, or that exist alongside it, invisible to the uninitiated and accessed through rabbit holes, wardrobes in spare rooms, or the platform barriers of King’s Cross Station. Some even abandon terrestrial geography all together, presenting us with a true fantasy, and a world outside of our own.
For most people, maps are instantly relatable. We can situate ourselves in a map – where are we from? Where do we live? Where do we want to go? Historical maps go even further, by showing us a different perspective of the familiar or every day.
Maps: From the Familiar to the Fantastical features objects drawn from a period of over 400 years, from 17th century navigational aids to contemporary critiques of modern Britain, but the stories it explores speak to the full reach of human history.
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