Maps are key, non-neutral tools for transforming reality. Historically, maps have been used to plan military actions, for instance, or to promote the exploitation of cities and regions for tourist purposes.

More recently, in a bottom-up process, social movements and community initiatives have appropriated the art of cartography in order to advance their own goals, often working against the grain of the powers-that-be.

At the same time, the boom in digital technologies has had a huge impact of the field of cartography. Social networks and easy access to new methods of representation mean that citizens can now build their own depictions of reality based on numerous sources of information. The free software movement and the free data that it entails have played a crucial role in these initiatives, offering everybody access to a huge arsenal of tools and databases on which to base their work.

Mapping Asturias is a research project that lies within this contemporary mindset. In the local Asturian languague, “mapa” means an example, model, sample, or a place that serves as a model for something. In this sense it can be used as a superlative, such as in the phrase “eso ye la mapa las mazanas” for example, which would translate as “that’s the best place for apples (mazanas)”, or “the land that produces the best fruit.” Mapping Asturias aims to produce a model of good practice in the field of citizen cartography, inserting it into the dynamics of the commons and free culture.

The idea for the project came up during the workshop “What to Map? On methodologies and participative construction of tactical cartographies” which was held during the Situation Room at LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre between January and March 2008. A wide range of different critical mapping projects that have been undertaken in recent years in Seville, Malaga, Barcelona, Istanbul, Venice and the Strait of Gibraltar were presented during the workshop. Mapping Asturias aims to follow in their wake.

The project revolves around a number of different core themes that go from technical concerns – the development of free software – to experiential issues such as the compilation of data by means of citizen consultation. It ranges from a global scale, with the organisation of an international meeting on this issue, to a local level, such as the participative digital mapping of Asturias.