Nikita Sazonov

My project is dedicated to the research of the unity of places from the cartographical perspective, with a focus on the practices of place mapping, scaling, and locating. On the one hand, the creation of maps can be seen as one of the fundamental practices through which humans relate to places, and as an epistemological framework for forming the identity of places. On the other hand, it is crucial to show that cartography encompasses more than mapmaking practices; the cartographical vision often corresponds to the material transformation of places according to mapped abstractions. Speaking historically, such “material cartography” rarely consists of peaceful actions; rather, it leads to destructive consequences and sometimes creates non-places. My project aims to show the limits of material cartography by investigating the practices of nature transformation. These practices are associated with the industrial and agricultural programs within the so-called “Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature” proposed by Soviet communism. One of the most radical practices of material cartography in the XX century, with disastrous consequences in the XXI century, the Plan embodied radical ideas of the USSR as a Union, a unity of places. I will explore how far the transformation of place can go; how cartography can replace and displace places; and in which ways the places themselves can resist the power of unifying transformation. I hope to demonstrate the significance of folk cartography which was historically developed as an alternative to the abstractions of imperial cartography. Throughout its past and contemporary history, folk cartography has paid attention to the unique situatedness and design of places. Studying the case of folk cartography can help us develop epistemological perspectives and research methodologies to investigate the aspects of a place’s own cartography that transcends human dimensionality and understanding. To demonstrate the possibilities of today’s digital folk cartography, I plan to engage the experiences of the digital platform ferations.world, which I co-created within the Posthuman Studies Lab initiative. The concept of ferations considers places as autonomous cartographic assemblages with their own visual identity and political-ideological dimension. One of the subjects of the thesis, Sosnovsky’s hogweed (Bärenklau, or Heracleum), is a good example of feral cartography. Massively overgrowing the territories, mapping, replacing, and displacing other biological species, the plant draws its own vision of a world with no place for humans.