Mapping thoughts and Radical re-cognition...

Dialog 1 (length indefinite)

Natasha's Provokation


Mapping thoughts and Radical re-cognition...

Most maps contain certain elements, in fact, they likely contain indicators
if not direct reference to all the basic elements- the shore line traces the
boundaries of Earth and Water, topography references ancient glaciers,
telling us about where heat (Fire) does and doesn't settle, and hinting at
the travel of Air off the water, over the hills and through the valleys. Maps
endeavor to limit a specific Place-in-Space, to define not only it's physical
boundaries, but also to fix it in a particular Space-in-Time. A map of your
home neighborhood is like a candid snapshot of a dear friend- it stills a
single moment, a single expression of a creature much more complex,
varied, and impossible to reduce.

What I would like to see is a method of Mapping which allows for motion.
One which shares the classic map characteristics of being a record of
local, specific truth, but which also imparts an impression of time,
allowing for a fuller truth, one which encompasses the waves of motion
that are life. The breath of the human body, the rotation and rise and fall
of the earth... One which recognizes Change as the only true constant.
I want to create a map which reflects experience in time rather than a
representation of stillness. It is, in part, this stilling, stifling, killing of a
fluid entity through static representation which leads to the politics of
domination. Something about the military being the driving force behind
map making? I want to see a map which achieves a goal of knowing,
honoring and sharing rather than limiting, reducing to stereotype, and
dominating. I want to find a way of mapping that makes implicit the
relationship of Time to Space, and begins to re-balance our conception
of truth toward the fluid.

What if we were to truly conceive of space as fluid? Here's an
interesting example. If space were as fluid and changing as my thoughts,
how might I map it? My thoughts, of their own accord, wander and
bounce, endlessly in motion, subject to abrupt change of focus and
random unrelated tangents. If we thought of space as containing this
infinite an array of motion, how might that affect our approach to
mapping it? One of the best ways to map thought is through the
free-write. Stream of consciousness writing is a skill which takes some
practice, but then so is drawing (word for map drawing? cartogrophy!).
It is also limited to linguistic thought or else relies on translation from
sensation and image into written language. But stream of consciousness
writing is like taking a thought walk and recording (or mapping) that walk.
Following this path of consciousness allows room for shifts in the
landscape over time, and gives way to associations, dreams, and
memories all of which are embedded in place and time. In this flow exists
the sacred and mundane alike. The specific and the vague, the sensory
and the logical. This inclusion of all worlds, this wholistic rather than
hierarchical view, creates a certain rhythm necessary for a more
complete and accurate impression of 'the truth' of any given space or
time or space in time or time in space. The unity of time in space is
necessary here. It is the goal. The rhythm results from the bumping up
against – the crash and rub – of wave patterns of thought, and is organic
texture – sound! And so Thought becomes another element. Like the
others – Earth, Air, Fire and Water - it is also a player, a traveler on the
other elements...

This is the human experience. We are made of both water and earth,
and have fire and air running through us. Our lives are fleeting but our
creation lives on. Light, necessary for the existence of life on earth acts
both as a wave and a particle, and it follows that any record of truth must
contain equal parts Space and Time.