A map is not a tracing

Today’s inspiration for #Mapvember comes from Deleuze and Guattari’s writings on the rhizome. This is one of the passages in A Thousand Plateaus (ATP) that I return to again and again:

Make a map, not a tracing … What distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward an experimentation in contact with the real … The map is open and connectable in all of its dimensions; it is detachable, reversible, susceptible to constant modification. It can be torn, reversed, adapted to any kind of mounting, reworked by an individual, group, or social formation. It can be drawn on a wall, conceived of as a work of art, constructed as a political action or as a meditation … A map has multiple entryways, as opposed to the tracing, which always comes back “to the same.” The map has to do with performance, whereas the tracing always involves an alleged “competence”. (D&G ATP pp 12-13)

To me this is the essence of #CLMooc, #DS106 and the whole participatory HOMAGO culture. Don’t copy (trace), but remix. Ignore instruction. Flout, subvert. Pirate, appropriate, make it your own. Refuse to acknowledge plagiarism as a problem. Honour the artists, writers, poets and musicians you admire by making your own versions of their work. Inspire, and be inspired.

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