Land of Meaning

Maps of Meaning

Land of Meaning is an interactive map that represents several elements from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s lectures about mythology, religion and psychology. In his first book, Maps of Meaning, Peterson frequently uses metaphors with physical objects or sceneries (decisions as paths, culture as a protective wall, the unknown as a sea, etc.) when describing abstract concepts. This got me thinking if it would be possible to create a world where these different elements coexisted.

The result was a map illustration and an interactive website that describes what each area represents, how different myths and popular stories could be represented as a trail along this imaginary land, and how different political ideologies see the world as a specific area of the map.

Process

I drew inspiration from different types maps that sacrifice accuracy of perspective and scale in order to highlight the subjective importance of the objects. Some good examples are old siege maps depicting the positioning of troops, treasure maps which represent the stages of a journey and touristic maps which highlight landmarks.

After the general layout was set up, I went through the myths and stories described in Maps of Meaning, trying to mark the trail though the different states referenced in each story. In this way I resolved to add extra details, like the spark of Order that can appear in the depth of Chaos and vice versa.

The symbols I used to represent Order and Chaos are the same ones generally used in myths. Chaos is natural, wet, cold, darkness and vegetation. Order is artificial, dry, hot, light, man-made, stone. The areas unbalanced towards Chaos contain dense harsh vegetation taking over ruined human constructions. On the other hand, the unbalance towards Order is represented as arid terrain and human constructions are monolithic and threatening

As the illustration grew in complexity, I decided to set up a website with interactive features that explained each part of the map symbolises and how different myths could be represented as journeys across this land.