News and Articles

'The Map Is Not The Territory'

06/09/07
Alfred Korsybski wrote that ‘the map is not the territory’ – suggesting that to mark lines and boundaries is only to create a version of a ‘reality’ and that there are perhaps as many versions of the same reality for as many people!

The map imagery was scanned from a handmade monoprint of John Snow's 1854 map. It is symbolic in the Soho context because it was used when the physician pounded the streets methodically noting the patterns in a deadly outbreak of cholera. The conclusion that the source was a single water pump in Broad St brought him into conflict with the entire medical establishment, but ultimately enabled him to defeat his era's greatest killer. It's a fascinating story which Stephen Johnson tells particularly well in his book 'The Ghost Map'.

The 'hands' were printed using the forensic technique for fingerprinting. The lines marked on a hand are not unlike a detailed map; a different version of territory, each one recognizable but also unique.

Go to ARTSHED in the Portfolio Section for more images of project from building to completion