CONTENTS
[click each to view]

INTRODUCTION
Alexis Bhagat & Lize Mogel


MAPS
Unnayan | Chetla Lock Gate, Marginal Land Settlement in Calcutta, 1984
Institute for Applied Autonomy with Site-R | Routes of Least Surveillance
Trevor Paglen & John Emerson | Rendition Flights 2001-2006
An Architektur | Geography of the Fürth Departure Center
Pedro Lasch | Guias de Ruta / Route Guides
Lize Mogel | From South to North
Jane Tsong | the los angeles water cycle: the way it is, not the way it should be and one day will be
the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) | New York City Garbage Machine
Brooke Singer | The US Oil Fix
Ashley Hunt | A World Map: in which we see...

ESSAYS
Jai Sen | Other Worlds, Other Maps: Mapping the Unintended City
Institute for Applied Autonomy | Tactical Cartographies
Visible Collective & Trevor Paglen | Mapping Ghosts
Maribel Casas-Cortes & Sebastian Cobarrubias | Drawing Escape Tunnels Through Borders
Alejandro de Acosta | Latino/a America: A Geophilosophy for Wanders
Sarah Lewison | Our Land is Changing-- Soon Yours Will Be Too
Jenny Price, Jane Tsong, Ellen Sollod, Lize Mogel, DJ Waldie, Paul S. Kibel | Drawing (on) Water in Los Angeles
Heather Rogers | The Power of Garbage
Kolya Abramsky | Struggles Over Transition: Emancipating Energy?
Avery F. Gordon | A World Map

CREDITS
Tactical Cartographies (excerpt) | Institute for Applied Autonomy

In taking up the term 'tactical' in an arts context, we link cartography with 'tactical media,' an approach to art production that privileges critical social engagement. Since the early 90's the tactical media label has become something of a house brand for a host of widely divergent media practices embracing themes of politics and empowerment. Particularly, the term has expanded from its origin in interventionist art to ultimately include a wide variety of "alternative" and "indy" media strategies. In considering the term here, we emphasize its connotations of instrumentality.

At root, tactical media is about intervention - it is concerned with creating disruptions within existing systems of power and control. Less a methodology than an orientation, it is fundamentally pragmatic, utilizing any and all available technologies, aesthetics, and methods as dictated by the goals of a given action. Tactical media events are necessarily ephemeral - they exist only as long as they continue to be effective; once their utility has been exhausted, they vanish into thin air. While it may form a part of a long-term strategy, tactical media itself is concerned with temporary destabilization rather than permanent transformation.

Extending these notions to spatial representation, then, we claim that "tactical cartography" refers to the creation, distribution, and use of spatial data to intervene in systems of control affecting spatial meaning and practice. Simply put, tactical cartographies aren't just about politics and power; they are political machines that work on power relations.