[im] What Makes Place (Ce qui fait lieu)

[Joseph Rabie]

Computer based maps raise a whole series of questions relative to their
    paper predecessors. The question of scale, for example, since
    theoretically, a single computer map is sufficient, as it contains the
    entire globe and one's neighbourhood at one and the same time - one
    just zooms in and out. However, a map of this sort is reduced to basic
    geometric information, topography, roads, land occupation. What is lost
    today is the at close quarters, art-orientated chorographic vision of
    territory, which was written about by Ptolemy and rediscovered in the
    Renaissance. Chorography was used to create mappings that are both
    topographique and topopoetic, to quote the philosopher Edward S. Casey.
    The eye of the artist, sensitivity towards terrain and habitat were the
    driving force.

    I am trying to reflect on these questions in a thesis on "What Makes
    Place" ("Ce qui fait lieu") in which maps play an important part. Part
    of the research has been making an interactive, participative,
    sensitive map of Greater Paris.

    You can visit it here : http://www.mongrandparis.fr

    For English explanations : 
http://mongrandparis.fr/a-map-of-greater-paris-for-the-21st-century/