How we define ‘the Edge’ is the question we at AATE are most frequently asked. Where are we situated in response to the various challenges we are now facing  – inequality, the multi-faceted consequences of the climate emergency – and how we understand and make sense of our place, our location in the world. Mapmaking is one of the fundamental ways humans are able to imagine this world. Through maps, the unknown is made visible and understandable. Re-mapping serves to improve our understanding of where we are and what surrounds us. It can make the complex simple, and reveal the complexity behind the apparently straightforward.

EVENTS

Galway

Mayo

Our provocation for the festival is (Re)Mapping! Through a range of events and activities we invite the public to experience the invisible networks and connections in the spaces that are meaningful to us. “Re-Mapping ”  asks us to look at how we see ourselves and our city, the countryside and our communities, and focus on the dynamic relationship between the natural and the man made and how this can be revealed to enhance the experience of the architectural landscape.

Acknowledging both the value and limitations of the map as a tool, Re-Mapping allows us to  present new interpretations of mapping that do not exclusively depend on the map as artifact, but as something that lives and continues to unfold -  we want to radically rethink the values that govern the relationship between us and the world we inhabit. If we are to restore balance in our social, political and cultural contexts  - we need to find new ways of collaborating together.

Together with our architects, planners and designers we need to imagine if our world was redrawn not based on territories, the socio-political structures and cultural hierarchies that inform traditional mapmaking but conceptually via diagram ideas and concepts rather than physical places. The emphasis is on the our environment as social community, on behaviour, our interdependence and rituals. 

We need a roadmap for change, for different ways of seeing and understanding what surrounds us.  “Re-Mapping ”  asks us to look at how we see ourselves and our place in this world, and how we might describe it to those others we share it with. Every experiences of ours  is equally valid and meaningful; we all need to be part of the process of creating a world that works for everyone.