WORT 89.9FM Madison · The Art Of Improvisational Cartography

If you look at old maps, with their ornate borders and fanciful depictions of sea monsters in unexplored territory, you’ll soon recognize the truth of the saying that cartography is as much art as it is science.  Even today, when geographic information systems and wayfinding apps have replaced hand-drawn coastlines with digital pixels, the decisions about how to depict a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional, spherical world have as much to do with aesthetics as they do with objective truth.  So, fine, cartography is an art, but is it a performance art?  Our next guest seeks to prove that it is.  Eric Theise works as a filmmaker, performance artist and geospatial software engineer.  His new performance, “A Synesthete’s Atlas” premiered in Lisbon in 2022 and comes to Madison’s Arts and Literature Laboratory on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here