Bird´s-eye view of São João da Madeira

Abstract

This map is inspired in the tradition of creating Portulano charts in the Portuguese discoveries and the urge to describe the world through observation, from the golden era of Dutch painting. In this impetus to describe the world, we travel the places and draw. But why do we draw? We draw because we want to be lost. Because only when we are lost, we can find ourselves again. Aren’t these drawings symbolic notations of our experience of places, and therefore, maps of our world consciousness?