(Un)exhausted Cartographies. Re-living the visuality, aesthetics and politics in contemporary mapping theories and practices

This thesis is concerned with examining the life and deadliness of the map trope in contemporary Human Geography and the various ways maps and mapping have been re-theorized over the past twenty five years. Arguing that there is presently a feeling of exhaustion and disinterest amongst many human geographers in the use of maps given a shift to postmodern and poststructural approaches that decentre maps and mistrust their supposed objectivity, their representational qualities, and use by institutions to justify certain political actions, it tries to relive the attention in the ubiquity and flourishing of contemporary mapping practices by promoting a re-worked post-representational perspective. Mixing ideas from Cultural Geography, Cartography and Visual Culture Studies, it explores the creation and work of maps through ethnographic fieldwork and a case study of artist engagements with maps and mapping migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. It does so by distinguishing between a figural, operational and forensic cartography which suggest the idea to multiply forms of mapping, not simply revive 'dead' cartography, moving from geographers' discussions of mapping to interdisciplinary experimentation.