Designs On Signs / Myth And Meaning In Maps

Abstract

Every map is at once a synthesis of signs and a sign in itself: an instrument of depiction – of objects, events, places – and an instrument of persuasion – about these, its makers and itself. Like any other sign, it is the product of codes: conventions that prescribe relations of content and expression in a given semiotic circumstance. The codes that underwrite the map are as numerous as its motives, and as thoroughly naturalized within the culture that generates and exploits them. Intrasignificant codes govern the formation of the cartographic icon, the deployment of visible language, and the scheme of their joint presentation. These operate across several levels of integration, activating a repertoire of representational conventions and syntactical procedures extending from the symbolic principles of individual marks to elaborate frameworks of cartographic discourse. Extrasignificant codes govern the appropriation of entire maps as sign vehicles for social and political expression – of values, goals, aesthetics and status – as the means of modern myth. Map signs, and maps as signs, depend fundamentally on conventions, signify only in relation to other signs, and are never free of their cultural context or the motives of their makers.