Carla Lois

The blank spots on a map and the legends that speak of terrae incognitae are among the most seductive sirens of the cartographic imagination. They hint at the existence of unknown lands, yet tell us nothing about what they are or what they might be like. Do such lands even exist? How many types of terrae incognitae are there? What does it mean, and what has it meant, to mark a land as unknown? Why do so many maps of the last five centuries insist on reserving a place for unknown geographies? This book navigates the cartographic unknown, exploring its contribution to the history of knowledge and geographical culture.

Sketch maps, despite their intuitive, informal appearance and seemingly naïve use, are intellectual devices and efficient tools that shape the geographical imagination, regardless of the drawing skills of their makers. By delineating the silhouettes of nations, we express territorial knowledge and geopolitical stereotypes that, although shaped at school from an early age, organized the way we interact with the world. why do we still need to draw maps? What is behind our common and naturalized practice of sketching maps? This innovative book deciphers why and how the intuitive mechanisms behind sketch mapping activate multiple conscious and unconscious knowledges about place and space.