Nothing taunts the human mind like a censored map. We simply can’t resist the urge of filling in the blanks, wondering what’s wrong, getting the eerie feeling someone is trying to cover up. It all comes back to our belief in that maps is a represenation of reality, which rarely is the case.
“That was the first I ever heard of shadowed Innsmouth. Any reference to a town not shown on common maps or listed in recent guidebooks would have interested me, and the agent’s odd manner of allusion roused something like real curiosity.”
H.P. Lovecraft, »The Shadow Over Innsmouth«
At a wedding dinner, I was told a fascinating story. A guy at my table was a photographer and has a special interest in taking shots of airplanes in settings where they shouldn’t be. A narrow genre, but not without objects to shoot.
One day, a friend of his e-mailed him Google Map coordinates of an abandonded Swedish military aircraft in the middle of a forest. He printed the map and drove the same weekend to take photos.
After a few hours, he took an exit off the highway and drove on roads that became narrower and narrower until he turned onto a small dirtroad in the middle of nowhere. Then the map started to become inaccurate.
Although it was dense forest on the map, the road suddenly opened up into a field, and in the middle of the field there was a wired fence blocking the way, complete with floodlights and cameras. There was nothing for him to do but turn back and go home.
I got a chill down my spine when he told this. Of course, the explanation is simple and nothing like the “X-Files” mystery it appears like.
Naturally, this is just a military installation of some kind that has been censored on the maps (clone tool works nicely with forests). The plane was probably abandoned somewhere well away from the buildings and they missed removing it.
However, since we want to view maps as actual representations of reality, we instantly start building theories. “Hey, what’s wrong here?”
Every cat-owner knows that the worst thing you can do to a cat is closing the door behind you in a room. They go crazy from not knowing what’s happening in there. Humans are pretty much the same way when it comes to stuff that’s been removed from maps.
This is an efficient storytelling technique. If you want the reader to dwell on a setting’s mysteries, just make sure to point out that’s it not on any maps. The reader automatically goes, “hey, what’s wrong here?”
Last week, there were reports on a Soviet ghost town, Skrunda-1 in Latvia. It was abandoned in the 90s. Since it was home to two gargantual radar stations during the Cold War, the town wasn’t on any maps.
That the sale of this Skrunda-1 was noted in international media (AP and Reuters had stories on it that were picked up) is because it had a veil of secrecy to it. This was not a special case as no Soviet military facilities were marked on maps, but just by pointing out this fact, people go “Hey, what’s wrong with Skrunda-1″?
Trevor Paglen is a photographer that has modded the lens mount on his standard Canon to accept high-powered telescope lense. This way, he can photograph secret locations from miles away, taking shots that weren’t meant to exist. He’s also written Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World”.
He’s the cat that’s clawing behind the closed door, and we’re standing just behind him trying to get a peek inside – only because we’re not allowed to see it.
Humans are trained to solve puzzles and recognize patterns. A spot that’s removed from the map drives us insane since we don’t get enough information to decode what we’re seeing. Then we must compensate the lack of information by completing the image ourselves, and just like conspiracy theorists deep in Montana we begin by asking ourslves: “Hey, what’s wrong here?”
