1st Edition

Cartographic Abstraction in Contemporary Art Seeing with Maps

By Claire Reddleman Copyright 2018
    188 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    188 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this book, Claire Reddleman introduces her theoretical innovation "cartographic abstraction" – a material modality of thought and experience that is produced through cartographic techniques of depiction. Reddleman closely engages with selected artworks (by contemporary artists such as Joyce Kozloff, Layla Curtis, and Bill Fontana) and theories in each chapter. Reconfiguring the Foucauldian underpinning of critical cartography towards a materialist theory of abstraction, cartographic viewpoints are theorised as concrete abstractions. This research is positioned at the intersection of art theory, critical cartography and materialist philosophy.

    Table of contents:

    Introduction - From critical cartography to cartographic abstraction: rethinking the production of cartographic viewing through contemporary artworks

    Chapter One – Reconfiguring the view from nowhere: collage and complicity in Targets by Joyce Kozloff

    Chapter Two – The drone’s eye view: networked vision and visibility in works by James Bridle and Trevor Paglen

    Chapter Three – Remote viewing, cartographic abstraction and the antipodes: three works by Layla Curtis

    Chapter Four – Signification in the soundscape: Bill Fontana’s River Sounding

    Chapter Five – Cartographic abstraction: a material modality of thought and experience

    Biography

    Claire Reddleman received her PhD in cultural studies from Goldsmiths, University of London.

    "Cartographic visions and the Apollo’s eye organized, ordered, quantified, and defined the spaces of the modern world. How do we make sense of a contemporary world in which surveillance cameras, drones, and satellites are no longer strange but are our everyday reality? Claire Reddleman’s inspired book brings together critical cartographic studies with the work of artists whose creations depend on maps, drones, and related tools. This, the resulting book, generates theoretical tools for grappling with uncertain times."

    - James Housefield, University of California, Davis