Abstract

Interface, cartographical this chapter I will Play-ground the triadic relation between play, Mapping, digitalStructure, powerPower. I look at how playing with cartographical interfaces is a central and Neutrality, neutral activity to Mapping, digital that invites users to change cartographic landscapes in PlayfulSubversion, subvert, subversive ways, and thus containing potential to changing the Nature, naturalMap, mapping and the spatial relations they invite us to produce. Emergence, emerge, emergent of digital maps, Cartography, digital has changed drastically. Digital maps allow for a greater degree of two-way interaction between map and user than analogue maps. Users are not just reading maps but can constantly Influence the shape and look of the map itself. Used on Video, mobile phones, on our computers or as satnavs in our cars, maps have become more personal—transforming while we navigate with and through them. Digital maps have thus altered our conception of maps as ‘objectified’ representations of space that has been a touchstone for centuries (Anderson 1991; de Certeau 1984; Crampton 2001; Harley et al. 1988). Instead, I will argue in this chapter, maps have become more open to Playful, subjective and subversive practices. Play is understood here as a range of activities that go beyond Ordinary life by taking on a PlayfulAttitude (Cermak-Sassenrath 2013) and as activities of pleasure (Fiske 1993) although not necessarily Fun (cf. Malaby 2007). I will probe is where exactly this room to play resides in the particular case of Mapping, digital and to what extent this gives users Agency. Certainly, the Image of the map has become mutable and seems to be open to play, but that does not necessarily mean that the Power lies solely in the hands of the player/user. How does Power work in such ever-transforming neo-cartographies and what affordances does the user/player have to change Power-relations?