ARC 327R.31 / ARC 386M.43 / CRP 390 / LAR 388.8 Seminar
Fri 9:00am - 12:00pm, SUT 2.110
Open to all ARC, CRP, and LAR students
Nichole Wiedemann: wiedemann@utexas.edu
…if one takes the “map” in its current geographical form, we can see that in the course of the period marked by the birth of modern scientific discourse (i.e., from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century) the map has slowly disengaged itself from the itineraries that were a condition of its possibility.
- Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 1984
The itinerary, or “tour,” documents, or proposes, a journey. It includes places visited –actual and figurative– situated within a narrative of connected events and experiences. Rather than autonomous measures as presented in the “map” or plan, space and time are embedded in a complex, operational structure.
The seminar will explore the itinerary as an approach to spatial representation. Students will be introduced to texts (philosophy, travel journals, fiction) and images (maps, films, photographs, art, scores) to cultivate informed investigations of representation. Cartographic resources at the Harry Ransom Center and the Benson Latin American Collection will be utilized. Paralleling the readings, archive visits and discussions, we will engage in a “drawing” practice (most classes we will draw in the field) as a means for each student to develop a journey of their own.
The course is positioned as a collection of questions rather than an answers. It is a speculation – the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence– through drawing utilizing various media. The products, whether in image or word, are directed toward discovery, or invention, rather than solely reiterating what we have seen.