Pandemic cartographies: a conversation on mappings, imaginings and emotions

ABSTRACT

This paper is a response to the pervasive spread of both cartographic materials related to the COVID-19 pandemic and critical commentaries about such materials. Written by four Italian map-scholars with different theoretical backgrounds but similar socio-cultural and emotional concerns, this paper emerged spontaneously, following the impulse to grasp the rapid movement of coronavirus cartographies, particularly online. Through conversations carried out during the lockdown, the authors collaboratively observed how both scientific and governmental, as well as existential and affective features of the pandemic have been informed by cartographic imaginings. This plurality of cartographic visuals and mapping practices, which appeared soon after the coronavirus outbreak, requires exponential research angles. Approaching the pandemic through and in the proximity of maps, mapping practices, map-like objects and creative cartographies, this paper aims to foreground the speculative, empirical and fast-moving expressions of the pandemic’s cartographic imagery.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 cartography
• creative maps
• emotional cartography
• everyday nationhood
• map mobility
• solidarity
• viral maps

Acknowledgments

This article has been published under the frame of the Mobility & Humanities project of the University of Padua’s Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and the Ancient World. The Mobility & Humanities project is funded as a Project of Excellence (2018–2022) by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Notes

1. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

2. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-coronavirus-lockdown-neighborhood-maps/

3. The two maps of solidarity can be accessed here: https://www.solivid.org/lets-draw-a-map/?lang=en and https://www.solidarityandcare.org/.

4. Statistics are available here: https://es.mapa.frenalacurva.net/activity

5. https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/03/05/news/coronavirus_la_cartina_della_cnn_italia_focolaio_del_virus_-250304078/

6. https://www.vanityfair.it/news/diritti/2020/06/04/app-immuni-ribaltamento-immagini-uomo-donna-steriotipi-sessismo

7. Published in the print edition of the 13 April 2020, and available online at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/13/postcards-from-a-pandemic.

8. The column by Emiliano Ponzi is available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/14/an-illustrated-look-italy-now/?arc404=true

9. The Voyage of Italy was published at this link: https://medium.com/channel-draw/the-voyage-of-italy-7c71e8d43bd5. It was further spread through Costantini’s social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

10. The Bloomberg CityLab maps are available at this link: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-coronavirus-lockdown-neighborhood-maps/.

Additional information

Funding

Mobility & Humanities Project of Excellence (2018–2022) funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR).