Maritime Cargomobilities: The Impossibilities of Representation

Steinberg, P. E.

Abstract

This chapter has related a history of attempts at representing the space of maritime cargomobilities, and it is largely a history of failure. Cartographic efforts that attempted to depict the ocean as an external and empty space of seamless movement inadvertently have drawn attention to a nature that will prevent limitless time-space compression. It first reviews some of the historic ways in which cartographers have integrated artistic images onto maps in order to represent the ocean as a space that is both essential to, and ideally annihilated by, the cargomobilities of capitalism. The Forgotten Space, the capitalist fantasy of an annihilated ocean has become a reality. Today, in an era of intensified and regularised global processes and production chains, this often means drawing attention to cargomobilities, especially in their most significant form: maritime transport. These are undertaken by shippers, labourers, consumers, artists, cartographers and others as they knowingly or unknowingly engage with the spaces and artefacts of maritime transport.

Citation

Steinberg, P. E. (2015). Maritime Cargomobilities: The Impossibilities of Representation. In T. Birtchnell, S. Savitzky, & J. Urry (Eds.), Cargomobilities: Moving Materials in a Global Age (35-47). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315866673-3

• Publication Date: Apr 22, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 3, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 17, 2024
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 35-47
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Book Title: Cargomobilities: Moving Materials in a Global Age
• Chapter Number: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315866673-3
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1644272
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415720953