Imperiia: a spatial history of the Russian Empire

MapStories

What if the map isn't there to help tell a story - what if the map IS the story?

Maps do not tell stories in the same way books do.

The stories maps tell seem - to the untrained eye - to lack beginnings and endings. Characters. Plot lines. Some people even say that maps are just objective representations of places - that they do not tell stories at all.

But the truth is that within the neatline of any map there is intrigue and drama and nuance and, sometimes, even a grandiose, sweeping view of the world.

Every map tells a story. You just have to know where to look.

Each of these projects sketches the story (or stories) told by a single map (or set of maps). Sometimes it is a matter of putting things together, and sometimes it is a matter of pulling them apart. You will see.

Contents of this path: