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Embodied Cartographies
Embodied Cartographies functions as a living repository and a theoretical foundation for ongoing doctoral research. It challenges the hegemonic view of cartography as an objective science, proposing instead that all maps are situated knowledge systems that reflect the biases of their creators. This archive explores alternative practices that centre the marginalised and the ephemeral, ranging from fluid ontological mapping and psychogeographic experiments to the politics of representation.
This body of work collects the design research and activist practice of Ethan Sheaf-Morrison. By analysing public systems as the direct products of cartographic narratives, the project highlights how the lines we draw on paper dictate the realities of the world we inhabit. It asks how we might move beyond static representations to create "living instruments" that are responsive to human complexity.
This archive explores alternative cartographic practices that challenge dominant narratives and center situated knowledge—from fluid ontological mapping and psychogeographic experiments to geopolitical counter-mapping and the politics of representation.
Layers I–III — The Sedimented Landscape · Emotional Gravity · Deep Mapping
Layer I — The Sedimented Landscape
3D building extrusions form the base: the "Hard City" or State view. Buildings are rendered in negative space (paper white) so the city reads as sedimented infrastructure.
Layer II — Emotional Gravity
A fluid heatmap visualises soft data—safety, anxiety, infrastructural violence—as "emotional gravity." The gradient from acid yellow to ink shows intensity; it ignores physical boundaries like a particulate assemblage.
Layer III — Deep Mapping
Black dots with acid-yellow strokes mark narrative points. Click for thick descriptions: fragments of lived experience, audio, or story. Spatial storytelling sits on top of the hard and soft layers.
Explore
Featured Projects
- Mapping Human/Earth Systems
The Methodological Blueprint
- Google Warming
The Critique of Visual Nominalism
- The Dream Atlas
Deep Mapping the Interior
Methodological Frameworks — Critical Cartography · Fluid Ontology · Radical Simplicity
Critical Cartography
A theoretical stance that refuses the myth of the neutral map. Cartography is understood as a social practice embedded in power, capable of both reinforcing and challenging dominant spatial narratives.
Fluid Ontology
An approach that allows multiple, overlapping ontologies to coexist on the same surface. The map becomes a "living instrument" where hard data (State) and soft data (lived experience) can be held in productive tension.
Radical Simplicity
The design language of this archive: raw borders, high contrast, typography as the primary interface element. Structure over atmosphere—making visible the frameworks and assumptions that shape our understanding of space.