Mental Maps Assignment

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Most people are familiar with maps that depict phenomena that exist in our visual and physical world: roads, buildings, mountains, rivers. To be useful in a range of humanistic subjects, maps—as visual and graphic representations—must also accommodate subjects that are more challenging to represent, such as attitudes and beliefs. This introductory assignment for a class in mapmaking asks students to clarify and articulate their notions of residential desirability and then design icons or symbols to be placed on the map that would represent those feelings. Using mapping as a means of non-text-based communication, students must think through how graphic representations evoke sentiments as well as be sensitive to effective visual communication for a range of audiences. Novices to mapping may find digital tools limiting for creative expression