Map Room Conversations: Mapping Objects

ABSTRACT This article presents a summary and reflection on our ‘Map Room Conversation’ at the RGS‐IBG Annual International Conference 2024. ‘Mapping Objects’ comprised a session that sought to link together commonalities between two collections from the Royal Geographical Society's archives, both of which had been the focus of PhD research projects based at the Society (both projects were funded via the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme—see https://www.rgs.org/our‐collections/research‐using‐our‐collections/collaborative‐doctoral‐research ). The pair of talks considered three‐dimensional aspects of map‐making, both the objects and methods involved in producing maps, and the construction of maps in three dimensions in the form of relief models. The discussion centred on the knowledge required to use and produce the objects, their users, audiences, and varying verisimilitudes. Following earlier calls to refocus cartographic research from representations towards practices (Kitchin and Dodge, Progress in Human Geography , 31, 2007), this collaborative session sought to enliven the objects of mapping and modelling, while interrogating the assumptions of infallibility underlying their usage. Centring audience participation and encouraging their interaction with the archival materials, this Map Room conversation illuminated the varying ways we can envisage and respond to the processes of mapping practices.