What shall we make of the contemporary design of our own minds?
Imaginary Maps, Global Solidarities by Brian Holmes
In a period of political, social, and technological upheaval like the one we’re living through now, when ordinary people find themselves entangled in processes of global scale every day, maps can help us to expand our perception of ourselves, of our present situation and our closest or most far-off possibilities. The stuff of dreams then mingles with the challenge of reality. But how to meet that challenge, the way one meets another human being on common ground?
My conviction is that we need radically inventive maps exactly like we need radical political movements: to go beyond received ideas and orders, in fact, to go beyond representation, to rediscover and share the space-creating potentials of a revolutionary imagination…
If you reflect that the basic elements of Geographic Information Systems, and of GPS-based “locative media” in particular, were developed by the US military for the tracking of enemy movements and the targeting of missiles, and if you further reflect that the same systems are now being massively adapted by the private sector for the management of mobile workforces and the statistical targeting of consumers, a feeling of deep disorientation may arise, concerning “the efficiency of efficiency.” What kind of world do contemporary maps represent? What is it good for? What is the use of “getting some information,” if the results are commercial or military propaganda? Or of “getting somewhere,” if the destination is worthless, even repulsive? What shall we make of the contemporary design of our own minds?