A relational and processual re-cartography of infrastructure: E17 Motorway Landscapes

Abstract

17 Motorway Landscapes proposes a relational and processual re-mapping of the E17 as it crosses the south of West Flanders in Belgium. Motorways are usually conceived, perceived and most often mapped as alien elements superimposed on the territory. To be able – at least partially – to break free from this settled cartographic orthodoxy, the re-mapping of the motorway follows three specific strategies of cartographic exploration. First of all, the motorway landscape is cartographically de- and recomposed according to a relational rather than to a topographical logic, thereby revealing alternative measures of rhythm and contextual reinterpretations of scale. Second, the motorway landscape is mapped as a process by incorporating the previous state of the selected elements into the maps and by furthermore stressing their transformations in relation to the E17. Lastly, the motorway landscape is reimagined as a thick, albeit fragmented body, by means of a content-specific symbolization scheme, designed to reflect attunement and relationality between different object categories.