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Bill Rankin is a historian and cartographer. His mapping activity is focused on reimagining everyday urban and territorial geographies by pushing techniques of statistical information design and rethinking everyday cartographic conventions. His maps have appeared in several publications and exhibitions, including articles in Perspecta, Harvard Design Magazine, and National Geographic and shows at Harvard University and the Toronto Images Festival; several of his maps are also traveling with ICI’s “Experimental Geographies” show through 2010. Most of his cartography can be seen on his website, www.radicalcartography.net. His historical research is about the changing technologies of cartography and navigation in the twentieth century; he is currently finishing a PhD on this topic at Harvard.
My academic home page is here. My Wikipedia alter-ego is here. SELECTED WORK IN CARTOGRAPHY ESSAYS AND PUBLISHED MAPS
“Cartography and the Reality of Boundaries,” Perspecta [Journal of the Yale School of
Architecture] 42 (forthcoming 2009). Essay and maps about neighborhood demography,
“community areas,” and the Chicago School of Urban Sociology.
“Local Food is Not Always the Most Sustainable Food,” Harvard Design Magazine 31
(forthcoming Autumn/Winter 2009–2010). Essay and maps about the geography of
agriculture in the United States.
“Arctic Land Grab,” National Geographic Vol. 215, No. 5 (May, 2009): 108–124. Maps about
seafloor mapping missions, oil exploration, territorial claims, and the politics of the UN Law
of the Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
“Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America.” ArchitectureBoston (forthcoming, 2009).
Comparative analysis of subway-network topologies. (Collaboration with Jeanne Haffner.)
The Cargo Chain, a pamphlet and wall map about intermodal transport, published by the Center
for Urban Pedagogy, Brooklyn, 2008. Maps of global and North-American intermodal flows
and infrastructure. (Collaboration with Labor Notes, the Longshore Workers’ Coalition, and
Thumb Design.)
EXHIBITIONS
Selection of digital posters to be included in “Medium Resistance” exhibition curated by
Nicholas Kripal, Richard Hricko, and Philip Glahn of Crane Arts and the Tyler School of
Art, in conjunction with “Philagrafika 2010: The Graphic Unconscious,” Philadelphia,
March–April 2010.
“A Landscape of Specialization” and “The Density of Food.” Maps and animations about
American and global agriculture. Included in “Ecological Urbanism,” an exhibit at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design curated by Gareth Doherty, March–May 2009.
“We The People?” and “My Cities.” Maps about American Indian sovereignty and personal
urban geographies. Included in “Experimental Geography,” an Independent Curators
International exhibition curated by Nato Thompson and Daniel Tucker, traveling 2008–
2010. Published in Experimental Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and
Urbanism, Nato Thompson, ed. (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2008).
“Exploring Nice, Mapping Nice.” An interactive project on tourism in Nice, France. Included
in Toronto Images Festival “Transposing Geographies” exhibit curated by Christina Battle
and Sara MacLean, 2006. (Collaboration with Kayte Young.)
“Radical Cartography” solo exhibition at Adams House Art Space, Harvard University, 2003.
Featured in the Harvard Crimson, November 14, 2003.
LECTURES AND RADIO
Invited artist and lecturer for “Remapping the Desert: Phoenix,” a multiyear artist research
project sponsored by the Future Arts Research program at Arizona State University. October 2009.
“Cartography and Urban Analysis,” lecture to the Harvard Graduate School of Design summer
program, July 2009.
Guest on BBC 4 radio program, “Shifting Meridians,” discussing the history and politics of
time-zone maps. Aired May 21, 2006.
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