Act of mapping. Atlas of imagined realities

The common perception of maps as 'scientific' images and objective records of topographic features has undermined the role of ideology in their evolving form and use. This thesis intends that the act of mapping and the map content is not only a function of available technique and existing topography to be seen as a shallow concept, but is also related to enhance social and political values in the city and urban life that induce its form of development and representation. According to this, maps are represented not free form values and symbols but acts of intention and interpretation through selective graphical tools used by the map-making. The development of the cartographic representation of the city is looked at in parallel with the development of the city and the urban life, and the frequent presence of maps in our everyday. The aim is to link cartographic fact with the context within which it was produced. It is a research on the influence of the cartography in the mapping production in all the spheres, since architectonic, geographic or artistic. And as a result of the theoretical content, to explore graphically in an Atlas, some selected artistic currents with the goal of showing since the past, representative maps that somehow stand out their generation and became influence in time, and how, as a result, nowadays, we have the theme ‘act of mapping’ represented by artists, cartographers, geographers, physics, architects, or even ordinary people.