Cinematic Cartography: Scale, Analysis, Topography
When
Please join us for the first event of our Spring 2026 Colloquium series!
SGDE Professor and Director of GIST Programs Chris Lukinbeal presents his book, Cinematic Cartography: Scale, Analysis, Topography
Abstract: Cinematic Cartography: Scale, Analysis, Topography (Routledge 2025) uniquely bridges the conceptual gap between the history of geographic and cartographic thought and contemporary film theory. With this presentation I explore how cinema relates to the individual and collective experience of geography, arguing that we are active participants in a complex web of mental and representational geographies. Central to this understanding this is the relationship between cinema and cartography via the cartographic paradox. The cartographic paradox highlights the mutual yet contradictory relationship between projectionism (maps and the static view from above) and perspectivalism (cinema and the mobile tour from below). This is explored through the lens of Ptolemy’s tripartite spatial hierarchy: geography, the mapping of the whole world; chorology, the study of regions and territories; and topography, the humanist practice of describing localized places. Central to this hierarchy is the concept of scale and how it differs in cartography and cinema, however, given the time constraints of this presentation, you will have to read that argument in the book. I apply this conceptual framework – map and tour, Ptolemy’s hierarchy – to four cinematic case studies on (1) topography, (2) chorology, and (3) geography. I conclude with a case study on (4) geospatial cinema which explodes the paradox and the scalar structure of these categories.
This talk is free to attend and takes place in room S107 of the ENR2 building on Friday, March 6, 2026 from 3:30-5pm. All are welcome!