Hello world!

Hello world, indeed! So this heading came as a default for the first posting, and I would never keep it but it just seems so apt. And maybe a little ironic?

That having been said, here is some background:

First, some thoughts on the name of the blog, Cartographic Anxiety. For me this works on so many different levels that it’s practically an intellectual pun. It’s originally a sociology term which has to do with a sense of malaise as a result of shifting or unstable political boundaries– or more simply, shifting lines on a map. I think it can also be understood as a delicate and perhaps overwhelming relationship between the oneself and the world. I particularly enjoy the picture in the header as it gives a very literal understanding to the feeling of the world being turned on its head. This particular world map is “upside down” to show relative land masses from a new perspective and point out how they are skewed in the more traditional depiction. More information about this can be found here. There are also some other interesting corrective projection techniques, to stir your own case of some cartographic anxiety!

All of this should of course lead you to the fact that this blog will have nothing to do with maps, mapping, cartography or cartographers in anything more than the most metaphysical/metaphorical sense. One of the reasons that I chose this particular name is because the first time I heard the term, cartographic anxiety, it was in a Sociology class by one of the best professors I’ve had, John Dale. It some how managed to sum up the essence of the social sciences for me. The idea of giving this very heavy nomenclature to something that happens to the most common and uneducated of people (including, but not limited to). It’s almost an air of self-importance? Maybe not quite, but I did chose it with the intention of mild amusement if not irony.

Irony upon irony, I don’t even particularly believe in the relevance of sovereign states, especially in terms globalization. Which is part of the motivation for interning with OneWorld. This particular organization is dedicated to engaging the world through communication and communications technologies. Leaving Washington DC for “employment” and “experience” halfway around the world to New Delhi with OneWorld South Asia, creates its own form of cartographic anxiety for me. It’s this dissonance and wander that I hope to chronicle in this particular blog. So please enjoy whichever part of the narrative strikes you, and be sure to leave some feedback!