Mapping reality

The nearest thing to a holiday for me this year was a trip down memory lane! ……  my childhood. den making fun in the ‘jungle’ close by our house, was recalled when I went to see the film ‘Moonrise Kingdom’. The above map is a  fictitious map created by the film’s director for his island setting of his story, which he chose to call New Penzance Island. The theme of the story is about two young teenagers who run away from home in New England to a nearby island, making camps with fires, plans and mapping is part of their adventure.

These memories probably influenced my choice to partake in the workshop, ‘Campfire on Wild Cat Island’ at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds, this being one of a series of free events currently running there.

Although I’m a bit of a kid at heart, and the event was advertised as suitable for all ages, I thought I might feel foolish among a bunch of kids…..there wasn’t even one! plenty of crayons!……love them!

Dr.Z.Reed Papp, the facilitator and events organiser at the gallery, was extremely knowledgeable about subjects related to her field of study: literature, history and cartography, she presented her material so enthusiastically, conveying the theme in a non ‘stuffy’ way.. .

We were shown a copy of the medieval Mappa Mundi from Hereford Cathedral and asked to consider that no map, even such as Google earth can be a true representation of an area, to do so it would require it  to be the same size! A massive scale globe has been created in British Columbia but to no practical purpose.

The speaker then focussed on mapping in relation to fictional literature. Authors often choosing to  first create a map as a setting before composing their narrative, among them, Ransome’s, ‘Swallows and Amazons’, the first edition manuscript which is part of the University’s, special collections, being made available for us to peruse and handle!; Milne’s, ‘Winnie the Pooh’; Tolkein’s, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and from more recently, the debut novel of Reif Larsen,  about a 12 year old boy cartographer, T.S.Spivet, ‘his’ web site with it’s sepia graphics, very imaginatively  http://tsspivet.com/ captures the setting in a US mining town called Butte, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte,_Montana. Holly Lisle writer of futuristic novels, is another current writer who uses map doodling as a preamble to writing her storylines, this idea appeals to me, however when it came to the practical part of the workshop, creativity eluded me. I went right back to the ‘frozen’ mode of childhood when asked to draw something, representing  reality was not my strongest point. Intriguingly it was during and following an episode of hospitalisation for an acute manic episode, I felt dis-inhibited enough to free up and produce something i was pleased with, this with the aid of the artist Bob Mills of Prescription Art. http://www.oblongleeds.org.uk/node/612

My childhood reading was by design of my parents along more classical lines, not many children’s’ stories, although I had some exposure at school, I guess this explains my present desire to read them, maybe draw a few maps and stories of my own reality.

Mainstream attempts to ‘map’ other peoples emotional experience by using diagnostic tools such as the DSM can be fraught with similar limitations as attempting to build a  global map and could be seen as an exercise in defining reality. Medical diagnosis and treatment for emotional distress does not necessarily lead to the person’s well being.

Su