Fragment Factory

JOCELYN ROBERT – ‘The Maze’ CD
The Maze is a map of different territories I covered in my recent travels. But the mapped territories are not contiguous: I am the tunnel that links these places and times, I am the border that keeps them together. Now, a geographer who makes a map doesn’t make a survey: these are two different things. The survey – the gathering – comes first, but the mapping process includes several subsequent steps: scaling, removing, enhancing, and adding. Scale allows to grasp a large territory at a glance. The degree of scaling will make some aspects of the territory emerge and other disappear. The second step is the removal. A geographer who draws a map removes a lot of elements in order for others to appear. Then, some elements will be enhanced: on a tourist map, significant buildings will be bigger than scale and coloured, on a navigation map algae in waterways will be larger than life… Finally, things will be added: words, signs, numbers… Data from the surveys is never enough. Words and numbers are never seen in the fields, but they are on maps and play a very important role. They are ideas about the territories, references, links to culture. A map is a story, and the geographer is a storyteller.

WEBSITE