Joanna Boehnert
The Mapping Ecologies of Mind and Nature (MEM&N) project develops an autoethnographic mapping method that supports ecological learning with relational and participatory processes. I use this experimental method to engage with some of the anthropologist and cybernetician Gregory Bateson’s (1904-1980) most influential neologisms, starting with “epistemological error.”
With autoethnographic narratives of my own experiences growing up on the Lake Erie watershed in Ontario, I explore manifestations of epistemological error across the three ecologies: the personal, the social, and the environmental. These intersecting ecologies take form with different methods: autoethnographic narratives, network diagrams, and ArcGIS StoryMaps. Combining autoethnography with mapping supports situated knowledge at the intersection of theory, personal experience, and socio-ecological context. Autoethnographic ecologies mapping expands the language of mapping to include the mapper-observer-designer in the mapping process. Ecologies maps on the ArcGIS StoryMaps online platform provide an online example of relational-participatory knowledge on Gregory Bateson’s key themes. The method and the MEM&N project itself will be described in detail in an upcoming publication.
KEYWORDS: mapping, autoethnography, Gregory Bateson, epistemological error
