Plotting Truths questions the narrative of the implicit bias of truth people project on maps through an expectation that maps are tools for understanding the world. Constellations maps plot the astrological events of the sky, but long before humans approached this scientifically, stories and images were applied to star groupings as a form of understanding them. In a similar vein, the term gerrymandering came about in 1812 because of the redrawing of a senate election district in Massachusetts. A political cartoon was drawn to satirize the new district in the form of a “dragon-like monster.” The image seen in the shape of the district builds on the history of human understanding through visual stimulus, as was done with constellations, but also questions the nature of the unusual shapes of congressional districts and the nature of their mapping. Through considering the storytelling of constellation forms with the shaping of congressional districts, Plotting Truths, questions our relationship with maps as images accorded undue credibility and as bearers of information for consumption while asking the viewer to reconsider them as tools of subtle propaganda.
