JOCELYN ROBERT

he Maze is a map of different territories I covered in my recent travels. But the mapped territories are not contiguous: I am the tunnel that links these places and times, I am the border that keeps them together. Now, a geographer who makes a map doesn't make a survey: these are two different things. The survey - the gathering - comes first, but the mapping process includes several subsequent steps: scaling, removing, enhancing, and adding. Scale allows to grasp a large territory at a glance. The degree of scaling will make some aspects of the territory emerge and other disappear. The second step is the removal. A geographer who draws a map removes a lot of elements in order for others to appear. Then, some elements will be enhanced: on a tourist map, significant buildings will be bigger than scale and coloured, on a navigation map algae in waterways will be larger than life... Finally, things will be added: words, signs, numbers... Data from the surveys is never enough. Words and numbers are never seen in the fields, but they are on maps and play a very important role. They are ideas about the territories, references, links to culture. A map is a story, and the geographer is a storyteller. So I turned into a geographer and made The Maze as a mapping process. In The Maze there are lots of field recordings, many of which have seen their time scale change, some have had elements removed, other enhanced, and there are also musical elements added here and there, which tell more about the feelings of the places and travels. The Maze is both a journey and a story. (label info)