From Points to Pixels: Feminist Approaches to Mapping

Feminist interventions have instrumentally shaped critical perspectives in mapping. Yet, feminist mapping has often been erased or considered niche within both GIScience and critical GIS conversations. Drawing on recent work in data feminism, design justice, and feminist digital geographies (among others), I engage with a feminist mapping framework to reveal and challenge systems of power within spatial data, map design, and mapping processes. In this talk, I will discuss “points” and “pixels” as two dimensions of spatial data and two sites for feminist intervention. First, map icons or “points” are tiny pixel-based symbols that locate people, places, and events saturating our digital lives. Despite their ubiquity, map icons often go unseen and unquestioned. Through a series of feminist icon design workshops, I asked mapmakers to incorporate feminist principles in their redesign of icons. Next, I turn to satellite data in news media and explore the use of “pixels” as a mode of digital storytelling from above. Through a series of interviews, I unravel the politics of commercial data production, the visuality and seduction of satellite data, and the broader processes of creating pixelated stories. In sum, I argue for feminist interventions in mapping and GIScience, more broadly.

Speaker: Meghan Kelly, Syracuse University