An interdisciplinary workshop between geographical research and research-based design
4 - 6 June 2026 | Halle (Saale)
Maps and geovisualisations are powerful mediators between spaces, places, people and things that influence our perception and our everyday interaction with our environment. Critical mapping approaches analyse and reflect on this role and work out how maps and geovisualisations become instruments for the production of specific social realities. At the same time, alternative approaches and new forms of geographical knowledge production are emerging, which can be categorised as counter mapping, platial GIS, place-based GIS and spatial humanities. This is accompanied by an opening up or even democratisation of production: activists, designers, journalists and artists are now creating maps and geovisualisations in order to create new visibilities, alternative approaches and counter-hegemonic world views. They often subvert traditional ways of producing geographical knowledge and describing the world in order to challenge established strategies of world appropriation and develop other forms of representation. Such “critical geovisualisation” can therefore be described as an attempt to develop reflexive geographical practices that experiment and work with participatory, narrative and digital approaches as well as alternative forms of knowledge transfer in the knowledge of the social and political situatedness of the production of maps and geovisualisations.
Following the workshops in 2024 and 2025, we will once again bring together different perspectives and approaches under the title New Approaches to Critical Geovisualisation, which challenge the power of maps and visualisations on the one hand and design new forms of geographical knowledge production on the other. In doing so, we aim to bring together approaches, processes and discussion contexts that have often been negotiated separately to date.
The workshop will take place from 4 to 6 May 2025 in Halle (Saale) and is jointly organised by Pablo Abend, Anna Unterstab (both Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design), Boris Michel, Nora Küttel (both University of Halle), Finn Dammann (FAU Erlangen Nuremberg), Lea Bauer and Francis Harvey (both IfL). The event will be held at the Campus Design of the BURG Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.
Programme
Thursday
12:30 – 13:30 Joint intro
Karolina Babette Kaiser: Mapping of interconnectedness (Social Knitting I)
13:30 – 15:30 Parallel sessions
INFRASTRUCTURE
Atlas of the Cryophere – Boris Michel & Henning Francik
Current Atlas – Florian Schimanski
The Path of the Hatted Poles. A cartographic story about buried pipes, inaccurate locations and abandoned dreams – Matteo Bettini
Global networks, private power, participatory reconquest – Julian Peschel
Maps in/as Media
Visualising (re-)presentational possibilities in news maps – Julie Deborah Fischer
Move with me – Alex Gekker
Maps as Tactical Media – Max Kanderske / Christoph Borbach
Critical News Deserts’ Cartography – Helena Atteneder / Mandy Tröger
On the cartography of complex narration in one-shot films – Roman Mauer
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break
16:00 – 18:00 Workshops
- De-conflicting maps: Francis Harvey and Mela Žulević
- How do we orientate ourselves in the city? A critical examination of (still far too often) traditional paths: Tania Mancheno and Svenja Bierwirth
Dinner together (self-paying)
Friday
09:30 – 11:00 Parallel sessions
Multimodal Cartography
Between sight and trace. On the resistance of Sike’s “cartography” – Mirka Dickel
It’s about time. Digital community maps painted using watercolours – Gregory Gan
Humus Sphere Reserve – Daniel Wolter
Mapping ecological crises
Weathering edges. Critical mapping of the petroleumscape in Stavanger, Norway, in the climate crisis – Sirrah Hamann
Between data and dialogue. Geovisualisation as a bridge in climate-resilient spatial planning – Knoll / Meier / Karner / Majcen / Stöger / Sulzer / Zandler
Definitions of Deforestation in Remote Sensing based Deforestation Cartography – Sabine Schulz Blank
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 13:00/15:00 Parallel Sessions
More-than-human
Multi-Species-Mappings. Entangled Communities Berlin Ostbahnhof – Julia Köpper
More-than-Human Mapping – Janina Ebner / Nina Möllering
Disorganising the rubbish dump – Maleen Paula Rüthers
Counter-mapping
Creative & narrative strategies of critical geovisualisation – Ulrike Felsing
“Hic sunt vigiles”. The ÜberwachtAtlas as a critical geovisualisation of ‘dangerous places’ & MWVZ – M. / A.
Critical exploration of the application of mental mapping in displacement research – Gambashidze / Boretski / Löwis
Vernacular Mapping as Symbolic Conflict in the Urban Environment – Veronika Sharova
13:00 – 14:30 Break
14:30 – 16:30 Workshops
- Choreography. Notation and production of movement: Gerko Egert
- Down to Earth: Rieke Lenz, Severin Halder and Katrin Singer
16:30 – 17:00 Break
17:00 – 18:00
Karolina Babette Kaiser: Mapping of interconnectedness (Social Knitting II)
from 18:00 Intercultural Kitchen, exhibition and poster presentation
Saturday
09:30 – 11:00 Parallel sessions
COUNTER-CARTOGRAPHY
Global history and positioning with Sinthia C. Batista, Paul Schweizer and Philippe Rekacewicz
IN THE DILEMMA OF FORM
Designing counter-mappings – Iz Paehr and Bianca Herlo
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:00 Final discussion
Venue:
Campus Design,
Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Neuwerk 7