OFF THE MAP: NEUROTHERAPY AND THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SELF

“What does it mean to be lost? You don’t know where you are but you also don’t know where you are going. You can get lost in your own internal mind as well as in the external world. You can lose yourself as well as lose your way. When you are not you, when you are outside the landscape of self that you have known, how do you find your way home? What happens when you are off the map?”

This project questions our ideas of mental illness and wellness through the lens of cartography and mapping. It consists of two books: a drum leaf bound codex, and a fold out accordion book. The larger book contains the 6500 word essay that forms the conceptual center of the project: it addresses my experiences receiving neurotherapy treatment for anxiety and depression, woven together with concepts from psychology, the history of cartography, GPS mapping technologies, and pre-technological methods of land navigation. accompanied by photographs overlaid with historic sailing maps. It is accompanied by photographs of nondescript urban and rural landscapes overlaid with historic sailing maps. The navigation-related sections of the text create a metaphorical context for questioning what it means to be lost and found internally — a questioning that is situated within larger cultural narratives of mental health, ultimately challenging the validity of our ideas of what it means to be lost, both within our own minds and in the world around us.

Main book text has a soft cover drum leaf binding. 28 pages. 5” x 7.5” x 0.5”
Accordion book: 5” x 7.5” x 3/8”
Both books are contained within a black slipcase.
Two slipcase versions: hard case with diamond shaped inset, or soft case with circular cut out.