Cartography was also used as a method of making one’s and someone else’ thinking visible, in alignment with the idea that ‘to design is to invent strategies for visualizing information that make new interpretations possible.’ Maps hence were considered to be ‘powerful abstract, synthetic, spatial representations’. The students immersed into how different kinds of ‘maps’ work, how meaning is derived from maps and how meaning is embedded in the construction of maps. 

The unit, facilitated by Sudebi Thakurata and Mahesh Bhat, had several components of exploring ways in which the many representational choices inherent in mapping interacted with information processing and knowledge construction. Through the processes of decoding the mapped information, it was further explored, how the resulting insights can be used to make informed symbolization and design decisions through nonverbal and multicultural communication. Maps were viewed from multiple perspectives as documentation, as representation, as portrayal, as graphic communication---as to how people view the world. The value was not in the accuracy of the maps but the act of mapping as a powerful process of documentation of historical, sociological, artistic or geo-political importance.

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