Perceptions, Mapping

If you flip a standard map of the world over it places the two continents that we are least likely to consider prominent in the positions of power. Africa and South America occupy the positions where our brains are used to seeing europe and north america... this is indicative of structures of power and colonialism that were prevalent when the continents of Africa, Asia, and America were "discovered" and these structures of power have carried through into what we see today when we look at dominant discourses in almost all forms of academia.




I want this project to be about mapping, about mapping our own perceptions of the world and the spaces that we occupy. For the next few months I will be collecting maps, most importantly I will be collecting maps from the high school students going on the trek to Nicaragua and the people that we will meet in Nicaragua. I want everyone to draw maps of their worlds as they see them. I will be able to use these maps as a tool to examine self perception, global perception, and ultimately where we place ourselves in the world...