Joost GrootensBlind Maps and Blue Dots

Trained as an architect and self-taught graphic designer, Joost Grootens is interested in the structure and organisation of data. In his latest book ‘Blind Maps and Blue Dots’, he explores ‘the blurring of boundaries between map producers and users’. Digital modes of production have made us all potential creators of content as well as avid consumers of it. Using three cartographic practices as examples: the blue dot in the Google Maps location feature, the Strava global heat map of the fitness app’s users’ activity, and the ‘Situation in Syria’ maps created by a teenager in Amsterdam showing the evolution of the Syrian conflict, Joost Grootens analyses and stages through graphs and diagrams the gradual blurring of the distinction between production and use.