{"id":106,"date":"2019-07-17T21:03:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T21:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energytechnologies.climateactionchildhood.net\/?p=106"},"modified":"2019-07-17T21:03:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T21:03:34","slug":"tracing-colonialism-maps-and-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energytechnologies.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/2019\/07\/17\/tracing-colonialism-maps-and-conversations\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracing Colonialism-Maps and Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Whilst working on the project, we spent an extensive amount of time at the Lapworth Museum at the University of Birmingham. Given the nature of the workshops, students were encouraged to investigate the space and engage with the various toys and games on display. This included the opportunity to take a selfie with a life size cast of a dinosaur\u2019s skeleton, and to engage with a giant, interactive light up globe of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the game which attracted the most attention was that of a\nlarge floor puzzle depicting a map of the world. The puzzle itself prompted a\nnumber of in-depth and poignant conversations between the students and staff\nand amongst the students themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake (real name anonymised) and I had an\ninteresting conversation, sparked by the fact that he could easily name all of\nthe Caribbean Islands; he explained that the source of this knowledge came from\nhis familial and ethnic background. He mentioned that he was particularly\ninterested in the Middle East, specifically Syria, Qatar and Lebanon as he had\nseen a lot about these countries in the news.
\nWhen the map had been fully pieced together, he stood over it, pointed at\nBritain and said \u201cbut I don\u2019t understand, how did this little country take over\nthe whole world?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umair, who was stood nearby explained that \u201cBritain\ntook over the world because it was more technologically advanced and the rest\nof the world was primitive\u201d. Jake shook his head fervently and a number of\nalternative perspectives were provided, including the role of colonialism and\nthe subsequent imperialism that controls the Global South to this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial conversation shifted its focus\ntowards the migrant crisis and the role of borders when migrating across land.\nThe students used their fingers to trace an outline of the best and worst\nroutes into Europe, followed by a further discussion regarding why the UK was\nsuch a desirable location. The consensus was that crossing the sea was too\ndangerous, despite there being less borders to cross and that land routes would\nbe safer, given that there was little risk of drowning and that Fortnite-esque\nfortifications could be built on land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversations about migration and race were\ncarried through into the following week\u2019s lesson, which began at the school and\nconsisted of a walk around the area in order to take in key local sites of\nenergy interest. Whilst on the walk, I found myself conversing with Jake again\nabout the puzzle activity last week. He explained how the activity really\nresonated with him on a personal level due to the racism that he, his family\nand friends had experienced in the past. \u201cIt makes sense, I didn\u2019t realise the\nhistory behind it, if it\u2019s taken hundreds of years for racism to develop, then\nit\u2019s going to take hundreds of years to remove it, right?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, British schools use and teach the\nMercator projection map, initially created in 1569-the same map that was\npresent on the giant jigsaw. The map was created at a time when Europe was\nseeking to establish dominance, thus holding a strong imperialist agenda. The\nmap was literally drawn along the colonial trade routes and as a result of this\nbias, European countries were depicted significantly larger than they\nphysically are. For instance, Canada and Russia appear to take up\napproximately 25% of the Earth’s landmass, when in reality they occupy a mere\n5%, and countries in the Asia and Africa are presented as considerably smaller\nthan their actual size (The Economist, 2015). Furthermore,\nBritain is aptly placed as the centre of the world, to appear more intimidating,\na placement that was emphasised when Jake traced the routes that colonising\nships would have taken to various parts of the world, manifesting itself into\nspider legs emerging from the British Isles. Interestingly, the origins of jigsaw\npuzzles are inherently linked to maps, given that in the 1760s, European\nmapmakers would paste maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reflecting on students\u2019 interactions with the map jigsaw, and\nour conversations, Donna Haraway\u2019s seminal work \u2018Situated Knowledges\u2019 (1988)\ncomes into play, especially in relation to the avid questioning of the map and\nall that it represents. In \u2018Situated Knowledges\u2019, Haraway describes the\nperspective of objectivity as\nimpartiality and a “view from above, from nowhere” (1988:589), as a\nperspective which hides a universalised male, white, heterosexual and human\nperspective which sits at odds with the students who were predominantly young\npeople of colour. This renders all other positions invalid and denies\nsubjectivity, voice, and presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haraway (1988) also uses the\nmetaphor of seeing and visions within her work on \u2018modest witnesses\u2019, which in\nturn is particularly fitting given that the map in the Lapworth provided a very\nspecific viewpoint of the world. The map puzzle serves as a tool to enact a\n\u201cconquering gaze from nowhere\u201d and \u201cto represent while escaping representation\u201d\n(1988:581), acting as omnipotent and immaterial, but materialising everything\nthat its gaze obstructs – absent countries, contested border lines, escape\nroutes out of conflict zones, mythical country sizes and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was interesting throughout the\ninteractions with the floor map and the follow-up conversations were the\ncritical visualisations made by the students. Perhaps due to previous\nconversations regarding similar topics, coupled with a gut-feeling that the map\nwas just plain wrong, the students were able to question the proportionality of\nthe map, the absence of certain countries, the flows of migration and how\ncolonialism came to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversations held were wrapped\nup in wider discussions with the students about rocks, energy technologies and climate\nchange. This foray into maps, colonialism and imperialism was an important line\nof flight, given that it is inherently connected and disconnected to the\nconcept of energy. These conversations are important as it reminds us that\ndiscussions about climate change are not universal but are instead patterned by\ndifferent forms of social difference).
\nThe critical questioning skills displayed by the students,\ninitiated through the practise of a floor puzzle activity served as an\ninteresting tool for the students to question the violence implicit in visualising\npractices, thus prompting them to ask themselves, consciously or\nsubconsciously: \u201cwith whose blood were my eyes crafted?” (Haraway, 1988: 585).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Peter Kraftl and Arooj Khan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

G.D. (2015) Why World Maps Are\nMisleading. Available at: https:\/\/www.economist.com\/the-economist-explains\/2015\/01\/06\/why-world-maps-are-misleading<\/a> [Last\naccessed: 16\/07\/2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harraway, D. (1988) Situated\nKnowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial\nPerspective. Available at: https:\/\/philpapers.org\/archive\/HARSKT.pdf<\/a>\n[Last accessed: 16\/07\/2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCann, G. (1988) Master Pieces: The Art History of Puzzles.\nLondon: Collectors Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst working on the project, we spent an extensive amount of time at the Lapworth Museum at the University of Birmingham. Given the nature of the workshops, students were encouraged to investigate the space and engage with the various toys and games on display. This included the opportunity to take a selfie with a life … <\/p>\n

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