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Text

Broad Creation Date

2026

Language

English

Location

Portland

Abstract

This dissertation examines the poetic-science expression of knowledge in the medieval Arab maps of the Book of Curiosities, understood through what I theorize as a carto-degenerative aesthetic. I argue that these maps represent a significant renewal in cartographical spatiality by intersecting artistic abstraction and mathematical sophistication, producing a hybrid conception that I define as spatial degeneration.

This approach recognizes that cartographical space is no longer a one-way, prescriptive framework representing controlled statements of the past grounded in ideal forms, as shaped by concepts of scientific schema and rationality rooted in reason. Therefore, I revisit the issue of cartographical space as an epistemological shift that presents new interpretative possibilities based on a hermeneutical methodological approach (provisionally called degenerative epicureanism), to establish a theoretical and philosophical practice of diverse modes of knowledge centered on connectivity, multiplicity, and diversity. By theorizing the map in this way, the dissertation advances a renewed understanding of spatiality informed by ancient and contemporary philosophical approaches alongside investigative artistic practices. Such an approach positions cartographical space as a hybrid orientation—a spatiality of Otherness that resists closure.

Central to this analysis is Michel Serres’s philosophy of the multiple,read through Lucretius’s ancient atomism, not as a fixed concept but rather as a cross-interdisciplinary strategy. This strategy enables the intersection of art, science, philosophy, archaeology, and ecological thought, opening passages between disciplines and fostering a transformative and relational understanding of knowledge.

In dialogue with Serres, the dissertation engages Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s rhizome as a multiplicity, Michel Foucault’s heterotopia as a heterogeneous ensemble of relations, Homi Bhabha’s hybridity as a liminal space of in-betweenness and Jacques Derrida’s Khôra as a radical Otherness. Together, these perspectives support alternative, non-positivist approaches to conceptualizing cartographical space.

Keywords: Multiplicity, Rhizome, Heterotopia, Hybridity, Khôr

Disciplines

Art Practice | Arts and Humanities | Philosophy

Publisher

Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts

City

Portland, ME

BETWEEN GEOGRAPHY AND POIESIS:SPATIAL DEGENERATION IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC CARTOGRAPHY ANDCONTEMPORARY DIRECTIONS IN ART



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