Unmapped

(Below) a section of Gurugram, near Delhi, in India.

On the left is an aerial view; on the right is the street map. Notice anything odd?

(Above) There are many buildings which don’t seem to have a road near them. That’s because this is a poor section, a slum, and no one has mapped it. There ARE roads there, but they may not have street names, and they certainly can’t be found on maps.

I found out about unmapped areas in “The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power”, by Deirdre Mask. She explains that “People often think of their street names and house numbers as banal. But they’re an essential part of proving your identity. Want to register for school? Open a bank account? Build credit and start a business? Show proof of address.” The government is in no big hurry to map these place and give these people addresses…because then they can qualify for aid, and they can VOTE.

(Above) An aerial view of Rocinha, a giant slum near Rio de Janeiro , Brazil. Rocinha is about 350 acres in size, and about 100,000 people live there. (Below) Here’s a closer look:

(Below) Google Maps shows the dark mass of buildings and the woefully few roads that are mapped to connect them.

(below) Bing maps show a few more roads….but why are the buildings missing??? Where did everyone GO??

According to https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/mapping-rios-favelas-180959816/ Rocinha is in the process of being mapped in a project called “Tá no Mapa” (it’s on the map).

I started searching online after reading her book. It’s not always easy to find these places. Mask writes “Native Americans, the largest minority group in North Dakota, have some of the highest rates of poverty in the country. They also disproportionately lack street addresses. Many live in rural locations, where streets have never been systematically numbered and named, and where the Postal Service still does not deliver. They rely largely on P.O. boxes — and a P.O. box doesn’t count as a “residential street address” under the North Dakota law.”

I spent a long time looking at aerial views of reservations, the Dakotas and Arizona. I found an awful lot of very empty space…and some weird mapping:

(Above) This aerial view of some reservation in Arizona shows roads on the road map. But on the aerial map, these ‘roads’ are just gray lines, randomly drawn across the landscape. What is going on?

Here’s the last map, which became rather important:

(Above) The Makoko section of Lagos in Nigeria. On the left is the aerial view, showing hundreds of homes on or near the water. On the right, they magically disappear. Take a closer look:

At least Google Maps indicates that there’s some buildings there. Over at Bing Maps, we don’t even have that. In fact the Bing map refuses to acknowledge all the stilt houses built over the water, and shows just empty blue water (Below).

As I’ve been researching cartography, I kept waiting to find something that inspired a new textile project. Next week, you’ll see the project triggered by the maps of Lagos.