This map is a kind of text or, better yet, a good example of the discourses of measurement. Measurement, of course, is central to a map since everything is drawn to scale. A certain length of real space becomes one inch of map space. With this reduction, then, we understand a whole system of reductions: for instance, on this map height and depth disappear and become flat; details of the terrain--trees, alleys, sidewalks, houses--disappear, and the ways to traverse a city become prominent. In a sense, numerous locales are washed of their reality, and what is left is their abstractness held in relationship to each other. (17; my italics)As one might expect, maps play a role in a project like Postcrossing. Every person's profile on the site has a graphic like this, that pinpoints the location of their mailbox. The mailbox in this case serves as synecdoche for the user: my mailbox is here, therefore I am here.
Of course, the map is interactive and the user can zoom in to a more exact approximation of the location.
This is as close as a casual browser of a profile can get. Once a user has an address, however, the address can be easily searched on Google maps. If someone gets my address and is curious, they can see what my house looks like or, more accurately, what it looked like the day Google recorded it.
Cintron notes: "In a sense, numerous locales are washed of their reality, and what is left is their abstractness held in relationship to each other." Postcrossing flips this idea in a couple of ways. Because it is reliant upon both digital media and a tangible object, locales that would normally be abstract become more real. The act of sending or receiving the tangible object (the postcard) mitigates abstraction. The text of the map is superimposed on and melded with the text of the postcard. The text of the postcard can be broken down into several subtexts: the image, the handwritten message, the stamps, and any decoration the sender might use.
This card is for a Round Robin I participate in frequently. It's based on the alphabet, so the card must match the given letter in some way. The little rat drawing is there because this member collects rats drawn by fellow Postcrossers. If a map is a discourse of measurement, as Cintron contends, then a postcard traversing that distance closes the distance gap. If I can hold an object in my hand and read what the sender has to say about the image or what they did that day or, if they've bought the card while on vacation, what their trip was like, I no longer view the country of origin as an abstract. For example, Ukraine and Malaysia are in the news quite a lot recently. In the past, I may or may not have paid much attention to what was happening there depending on my level of interest in the place or events. Now, I "know" people who live in those countries. I wonder if the people I've met are affected. Although the postcard image is as flat and two-dimensional as a map, it is made much richer, much more tangible, with the inclusion of the personal touch of the sender.
Works Cited
Cintron, Ralph. Angels' Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and the Rhetorics of the Everyday. Boston: Beacon, 1997. Print.
The mailbox/map post was one of my favorites. It's interesting you say, "If someone gets my address and is curious, they can see what my house looks life or, more accurately, what it looked like the day Google recorded it." Google maps are so interesting because they revolutionized maps in that we can actually view a photo of the physical place. But this almost makes the relationship between people and place more abstract because people passing by become part of the landscape. When someone takes a postcard they frame it just right (which you said in one of your posts). When Google drives by they just capture it as is whether that's an accurate representation or not. One is the ideal framed representation of a place and the other is just the coincidental nature of a place
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