Jordan Boan, "Maps, Knowledge, and Power"

Throughout history, maps have been used as a means of the wealthy/aristocracy to control the perceptions of their rivals and those whole are socially beneath them. During the Renaissance, decorative emblems, though having no cartographic qualities, were used to illustrate the political meanings on the maps they appeared on. In the opposite manner, maps that used little to no illustrative methods tended to create the illusion that the areas with a boundary were void of people and so any cultural concerns could be ignored. This sheds particular light on how we as landscape architects should render everything from plans to diagrams to perspectives. If we want to call attention so anything, be it people, ecology, architecture, or even plant materials, we must allow people to see those things in the work we present. If we ignore certain aspects of a design, it is more likely that our clients will ignore those aspects as well.