Abstract

The mapping of our world has long been a significant scientific undertaking, which has influenced how we see the world and our place within it. A reconsideration of Mercator, whose work reflected upon an age of unprecedented mapping of both the global and celestial, provides a useful methodological starting point for reflecting upon mapping today when new digital technologies and approaches mean that our collective worldview is once again being radically altered. This chapter is a personal reflection on the legacy of the sixteen century cartographer Gerard Mercator, informed by the author’s artist-in-residency at the Mercator Museum in Sint-Niklaas, in Belgium. Mercator’s legacy is contrasted with the Powers of Ten by Ray and Charles Eames, which is analysed as one of the first examples of ontological mapping; as a succinct merging of different fields of knowledge into a coherent visual narrative. Both of these projects eloquently encapsulate the notion of wonder and the sublime and will be placed in the broader context of visual culture in general, and creative cartographies in particular.