Arabesques n°98

Library cards: new uses, new territories

July-August-September 2020

The map is not a documentary object like any other.

Its dimensions (for printed maps), its modes of representation and its contents make it a delicate document to apprehend, as digital technology has considerably simplified storage and distribution but made description and use more complex.

The map is of interest to very different audiences, who will focus on its scientific value or its aesthetic, political or strategic value. With its digital mutations, the map is becoming free of territories and is becoming the medium for applications so diverse, so powerful, so heterogeneous, that Jorge Luis Borges' premonition in his famous Del rigor en la ciencia about a " Map of the Empire that would have the format of the Empire and would coincide with it, point by point ," is not far from being realised.