[Sci-tech-public] MIT STS Colloquium, Feb. 23

[Randyn A. Miller]

MIT STS Colloquium**

Monday, February 23, 2015
4 PM Talk | 3:30 PM Reception
E51-095

Negative Networks, Zombie Projects, and Multigenerational Science: 
The Successful Failure of the International Map of the World

Bill Rankin, Yale University 
and 
Samer Alatout, University of Wisconsin

The International Map of the World was a massive collaborative project to make a uniform atlas of the earth in unprecedented detail; it was first proposed in 1891 and remained a going concern for nearly a century. By some measures it was one of the most successful mapping projects in history, especially compared to better-known collaborations like the Carte du ciel. In 1913 its standards were given the force of an international treaty signed by nearly every country in the world, and thousands of maps were eventually published under its name. But by the 1970s the map was dismissed as “cartographic wallpaper” and is now seen as a “sad story” of naive internationalism. How should we evaluate this kind of project, which met or exceeded its initial scientific ambitions only to fade slowly into oblivion? My approach distinguishes the network of practitioners from the project of mapping – each had their own rhythms, and the intergenerational change of two World Wars and postwar decolonization affected each in different ways, both politically and epistemologically. At stake here is not just the fate of this particular project, but larger methodological questions about success, failure, and temporality.

**This colloquium has a pre-circulated paper component. If you plan to attend and would like to use the paper to prepare please email me directly at randyn at mit.edu <mailto:randyn at mit.edu>. 





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