Cartographic Transformations and Transmission of Memories

Keywords: Digital Cartography, Story Mapping, Rwandan Life Stories, Oral History, Atlascine
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the influence the mapping process has on the transmission of memory. There is a growing recognition of the potential offered by maps and mapping to reveal, revive, circulate, analyze, and preserve memories expressed in the form of interviews, testimonies, fictions or life stories. This growing interest in mapping memory raises a series of questions related to the selection of memories, the method deployed to map them, the position of the mapmakers(s) vis-à-vis those memories, the cartographic tools and techniques selected and the context in which these maps are presented, shared and mobilized. Once memories have been transformed through the cartographic process, what remains of the original memories, what has been added to them and how does this cartographic transformation affect the life and the meaning of these memories? These questions are of particular importance in the context of historical revisionism. To address these questions, this paper looks retrospectively at the development of the online Atlas of Rwandan Life Stories - that provides multiple cartographic interpretations of 21 stories of Rwandan exiles – to identify key moments of this mapping process and to reflect on their impact on how these stories and memories have been presented, transformed, and even distorted. This paper then reflects on the necessity of better integrating cartographic decisions into map design and on the necessity of developing supporting activities around mapped memories to continuously challenge the role of cartographic transformations in the transmission of memories.