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Map of Cook's voyage around the New Zealand coast.
(Andrew David, ed., The Charts and Coastal Views of Captain
Cook's Voyages)

MAPPING LANDSCAPE

Katrina Simon

Maps are spatial representations which can in turn

stimulate other spatial representations ... and

representation is an act of knowledge construction.

- MacEachron 1

Maps are some of the most commonly used tools in

landscape architecture. They are used to represent

both large and small areas, whole regions and indi-

vidual sites. They can show physical characteristics,

both "natural" and "attificial," such as landform, river

systems, areas of vegetation, infrastructure, roads and

houses. They can also indicate things such as legal

boundaries and controls, which may or may not be

visible "on the ground" even though they are visible

on the map. Other things or qualities may be visible

in the landscape and yet never appear on a map, be-

ing perhaps transient or ephemeral. Maps are pro-

duced for specific reasons and they are selective.

They simplify and edit in order to make certain things

or relationships clearer.

Rachel Potter.

Yet maps are often taken to be a complete and

accurate picture of the world. They are frequently

designed to look autltoritative and scientific. The hist-

ory of cartography is the history of both the chang-

ing ways in which the world has been seen and un-

derstood, and of technical developments that have

altered the ways in which the world could be seen

and represented. The maps that we use today are

based on specific procedures, assumptions and con-

ventions that have become "naturalised"- so famil-

iar that we don't necessarily realise or notice that

they are being used.
1. A . MacEachron, How

Maps Work: Represent-
ation, Visualization and
Design (New York: Guil-
fo rd Press, 1995), vii.

Tracey Moore.

Heidi Monks.

Charting the Unknown

Some maps are particularly eloquent in the ways that

literal and metaphorical discoveries in and of land-

scape are possible . One such image is the chart of

New Zealand made after Captain Cook's first voy-

age around the world in 1770. The general form of

the passage of the Endeavour around the coast. The

map was projected and drawn from a continuous se-

ries of measurements and sketches done on the ship

as it circumnavigated the islands. The map was con-

structed with the physical and mental tools available

the two main islands is very recognisable, as it was a to Cook: in other words, he brought the mechanisms

relatively thorough and accurate survey. There are to make this map with him. Like all maps, this was

some significant "errors" with which most New Zea-

landers are familiar: Banks Peninsula is shown as an

island, and Stewart Island is shown as a peninsula.

The Kaipara Harbour in the north of the North Is-

land, which is one of the largest harbours in the south-

ern hemisphere, is missing entirely, as its narrow en-

trance was not seen or explored. The internal details

of the two main islands are largely generalised from

the landscape visible during the voyage around the

produced for specific reasons (representing the

known world, claiming land for Britain) and it is se-

lective. The map was not a property of the landmass,

or an image or "print" of reality.

The indication of the ship's path also reveals

something about the exploration inherent in the map-

making process. The map emerged gradually, just as

the coast was gradually encountered, revealed and

represented. At times the ship travelled away from

coast. the coast in a seemingly haphazard fashion, while at

One of the most interesting things about this other times it was anchored and Cook went ashore

map, however, is not the depiction of the landform with members of the crew and had a variety of en-

but the curiously erratic dotted line which depicts counters with the landscape and the Maori inhabit-

~
l

ants. Cook's map was produced as part of a process

which annexed and colonised "undiscovered" lands

for Britain. Yet, unlike most modem maps which

anonymously present their information, this map con-

tains an acknowledgement of the construction that

this (and every map) comprises. The dotted line is a

recorder and a reminder of how the map was made,

and by whom. This map is a representation which

has a specific history and purpose, and uses a range

of techniques to clarify, reveal or conceal that pur-

pose . It also represents the arrival and transfer of a

specific system of map-making to a part of the world

where it has now become entrenched.

This particular map from Cook's voyage can

also be read at a more personal level as the process

of recording and unfolding. The unknown is rendered

visible by the process of drawing--once it is drawn,

it can be imagined in new ways, especially by those

who will never actually see it. The way in which it

comes to be drawn is based on a system of conven-

tions which enable the representation of the previ-

ously unknown or previously unrecorded. Value

judgements are inherent in the process, as each map

reveals different notions of"what's worth recording."

Cook's map provides an illustration of the map

as historic artefact, as process and as metaphor, as a

guide to moving in uncharted realms. It is also a re-

minder to present-day inhabitants of these islands that

maps are simplified and distorted versions of reality.

And of course, this representation of Cook's "meth-

ods," "intentions" and "categories" is itself a "map"

with its own formulations and agendas .

Kelly O'Meara .

Margaret McKegg.

Alexis Barr.

2. Daniel Dorling and David
Fairbairn, Mapping: Ways
of Representing the World
(Harlow: Longman, 1997).

3. James Corner, "The
Agency of Mapping : Spec-
ulation, Critique and In-
vention," in Mappings, ed.
D. Cosgrove (London:
Reaktion Books, 1999).

Re-Mapping Rangitoto

This studio took the map as a literal and metaphori- rived from three aspects of cartographic production:

cal device with which to design. Maps have many the cartographic techniques of generalisation, such

uses. They can be tools for navigation and explorat- as exaggeration, masking, combination, displacement

ion; they can provide a template for recording infor- and omission;2 the process of contour interpolation

mation discovered through exploration. They also which has a series of in-built assumptions about

shape our expectations of what we will discover. landfotm; and the mechanics of making a new copy

Maps and plans don't exist in isolation but are part

of a wide range of devices that reflect, organise and

control space, both "real" and "imaginary" space.

This project involved examining a number of

different techniques, operations and procedures of

map-making, and manipulating these in order to cre-

ate a landscape proposal for a 20 by 20 metre site on

Rangitoto. Rangitoto has a status as an icon of pris-

tine nature. The island also resists conventional map-

ping, as it is a field of complex lava flows and ad-

ventitious vegetation. A site visit enabled a system-

atic measuring of transects and mapping of the found

conditions of the landform, vegetation, and other fea-

tures of the site. The specific procedures used as de-

sign operations on these initial drawings were de-

of a map, such as tracing, printing, pricking out, re-

flecting .

All of these procedures were available to be

used on the initial drawings of the site. The mapping

process was thus used upon itself, not as a tool to

reveal the "actual" state of the landscape, but as a

generative act. As James Comer observes, "As a crea-

tive project, mapping precipitates its most product-

ive effects through a finding that is also a founding ;

its agency lies in neither reproduction nor imposi-

tion, but rather in uncovering realities previously

unseen or unimagined, even across seemingly ex-

hausted grounds."3 By manipulating the to~ls by
which we discover and represent landscape, we cre-

ate new landscape possibilities.

Traversing the City

This project again took the map as a literal and meta-

phorical device with which to design. With the maps

of the city that we keep in the glove compartment

and hold in our heads, we navigate and negotiate our

way through the urban landscape. The fabric and terr-

ain of the city itself is shifting and restless, in a con-

stant state of flux. Maps and photographs record this

succession of transitory states. Every state leaves an

impression, which can affect the subsequent state,

just as every map or layer that is created can leave a

physical or mental impression on the design proc-

ess.

The site for this project is presently used as a

carpark. Its distinctive terrain is a result of success-

ive phases of building and demolition and its current

use is yet another temporary phase in the constantly

changing urban landscape. The task of this project

was to create a linear park in a segment of this west-

facing site, exploiting its location to create an alter-

native traverse between two major one-way streets.

Mapping the terrain, vegetation and detritus revealed

a number of similar conditions to the Rangitoto site,

in spite of the highly modified nature of this urban

site.

Again, different techniques, operations and pro-

cedures of map-making were examined. In particu-

lar, a series of procedures of elongation- such as

blurring, stretching, rolling and splicing-were used

to manipulate initial mappings of the site and create

a linear urban landscape. By manipulating the tools

by which we discover and represent the landscape of

the city, we create new urban landscape possibili-

ties.

Heidi Monks. Richard Smith .

Gerrard Carey.