JulietJFall, to geopolitics
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Happy to be presenting my book & comic project tonight at the University of Cagliari, during an interdisciplinary seminar as part of my Visiting Professorship.
As I've been spending the past few days translating the 'comic' section of it into French from the original English, and will be presenting this in Italian, it really makes me think about how language shapes how we think and write about the world, beyond images.

Slide showing the three sections of the book, 1. Locking the line; 2. Making the line; 3. Holding the line; each with a choice of drawing to illustrate the theme. The first shows a fence used; the second a hand holding a historic map; and the third shows workers laying a border stone.

JulietJFall, to comics
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

A four-page comic exploring borders, home and belonging, in a special issue on Counter/cartographies in the journal "You are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography", ed. by Eden Kinkaid &
Cassidy Schoenfelder.
(Reference: Fall, J.J. 2023 Beating the bounds. "You are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography". Vol. XXIV; 22-24.)
Full open-access issue: https://lnkd.in/eG4z4zJC

Black and white line drawings of two people on a bike, and map outlines as background. Text: « BEATING THE BOUNDS » IS AN ANCIENT CUSTOM, OBSERVED IN PARTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES THAT INVOLVES TOURING LOCAL LANDMARKS EVERY FEW YEARS AND SWATTING THEM WITH BRANCHES OR STICKS TO MAINTAIN A SHARED MENTAL MAP OF PARISH BOUNDARIES. ARMED NOT WITH COMMUNITY BUT WLTH MAPS, PHONE APPS, GUIDEBOOKS, ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS, HISTORICAL TREATIES, BLOCKS AND FENCES, WE BEAT OUR BOUNDS.
Image shows a line drawn moveable fence with red and white plastic tape, as though stretching over a map. The state border is marked in red, and the part across the border, in France, is faded and hard to see. GEOGRAPHERS TAUGHT US THAT BODIES CONNECT THE GLOBAL AND THE INTIMATE. SO WE TRIED THINKING THROUGH OUR MOVING BODIES, MAPPING OUR CHANGING WORLD, EXPERIENCING NEW DIVISIONS AND CONNECTIONS IN THE LANDSCAPE. WE REDREW OUR MENTAL MAPS, FOLLOWING THE LINES.
Image shows two people on bicycles, drawn from the back, as they contemplate a closed road, barred by large concrete blocks. Lower down, a girl blows bubbles across a fence. The bubbles turn into red dots on a map, showing the closed and open border passage points attached to a no entry road sign. MAYBE WE HAD NEVER TRULY EXPLORED OUR WORLD BEFORE THE PANDEMIC. MAYBE WE HAD JUST TAKEN OUR MOBILITY AND PRIVILEGE FOR GRANTED AND HAD SIMPLY ACCEPTED THE LINES DRAWN ON OFFICIAL MAPS? THE CRISIS RESHAPED OUR LANDSCAPES TEMPORARILY CLOSING, THEN REOPENING, THE BORDER CROSSINGS. IT MADE US WANT T0 GO AND BEAR WITNESS. IN DOING S0, THE LINES REDREW US. THREE YEARS LATER, OUR BODIES ARE STILL BEATING, MAPPING OUR LIVES AND LANDSCAPES ALONG THE LINES.

publicdatalab, to instagramreality
@publicdatalab@vis.social avatar

A new article examining COVID-19 testing situations - moments in which it is no longer possible to go on in the usual way - on Twitter published in Social Media + Society, co-authored by @NoortjeMarres @gabrielecolombo @lbngr @jwyg Carolin Gerlitz & James Tripp.

https://publicdatalab.org/2023/09/25/covid19-testing-situations/

JulietJFall, to random
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Teaching about geography & comics this week and next at the Università degli Studi di Cagliari.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Great 1st practical session today at the Uni degli Studi di Cagliari, having a go at drawing movement, organizing space on the page & thinking about framing & focus. Hurray for the students!

I am doing all this teaching in Italian & it reminds me of how lucky I am to usually not have to work in a 2nd or 3rd language, unlike many in academia. 😩😅🤪
@academicchatter @geography

JulietJFall, to geopolitics
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Want to see atmospheric yet often really mundane border photos? My online 🇨🇭🇫🇷 walking journal is moving here, as I’m enjoying this new online atmosphere. (I’m freezing new posts on Twatter & just ‘name-holding’ my account.)
Link to last post on one of the longer earlier threads:
https://twitter.com/julietjfall/status/1571476764269871104?s=46&t=9RfIT2qARWZk8ZBEIES9Vw

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

It’s surprising to me how many border stones are carved erroneously. It’s almost embarrassing — but perfectly delightful too! — how much time and money must have been invested to lay this one with an S (for 🇫🇷 Savoie) carved backwards (🇨🇭was G for Geneva on that one). Or maybe it was done on purpose as a subtle insult?
(One advantage of my mini-border-crossing adventures is that I get to visit French boulangeries. For research purposes, obviously.)

The other side of the same border stone, with a large G carved in it.
A field, blue sky and the silhouette of the Salève mountain, with a flock of pigeons in the sky. They must have been picking over the freshly-harvested wheat field. The back of the field is actually the border.
The author’s bike on a messy street dug up by roadworks, but the photo is taken sitting on a pleasant wooden table in front of a boulangerie in France, with two baguettes steaming hot peeking out of a shopping bag.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Landscape as archive: find the old Caserne des Douaniers in Perly.

An archive sepia picture of the Caserne des Douaniers in Perly, near Geneva, dating from before 1914. The road is broad with old houses two-story houses. The Caserne was built to house border guards, in a distinct three-storey style with decorative gabling applied below the roof.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

1970s TV archive on the Swiss border and border guards in Geneva, and on how rivers and bodies of water were used to help trace the borderline (weren't TV programmes slow paced back then? Rather refreshing!): https://www.rts.ch/archives/tv/information/la-suisse-est-belle/11280287-geneve-frontiere-deau.html

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Not walking today, but exploring the state archives, and the Mappe Sarde dating back to when parts of what is now the Canton of Geneva where part of other kingdoms. Just beautiful to see the mini painted landscapes, in still-fresh watercolours, showing places we have walked.

1744 map from the Geneva state archive
The original map from which the first image was copied, from Geneva state archive
The title of the 1744 map, showing the spelling St Jullien in pink and blue watercolours

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Sunday morning wandering and cycling around between past and present, in slight drizzle, chasing border stones & French boulangeries.

In case you missed it, a short comic stemming from this walking & drawing border project is mentioned here: https://mastodon.social/@JulietJFall/111427226794927481

The same place as the previous image, only photographed today.
Swiss/French border stone 62A at the Bardonnex motorway border passage point, photographed close up, showing the card Geneva flag on one side.
Swiss/French border stone 61A near to the Bardonnex motorway border passage point, in the woods, covered in light lichen. It dates to 1993 when the border was moved to allow for the construction of the new motorway. The side showing the letter S, for Switzerland, is visible. Autumn leaves rest on the ground.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

More archive work today, seeing the original documents & accompanying maps of the Treaty of Turin establishing part of what is now the 🇨🇭🇫🇷state border, formerly Geneva & Savoie/Sardinia. Just gorgeous to see it in person, and wander across the pages. Although these docs have been scanned, seeing them in person and gazing at them at an angle, allows you to see the amazing artistry (those little tree shadows!).

An extract of a hand painted watercolor map from 1816 showing the border area passing through the village of Soral.
Map extract showing lots of tiny hand painted trees in small groups, with amazing detail.
The original Treaty of Turin, bound in parchment paper with a special seal dangling from it in a silver box and tassels. The author’s hand is visible.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Term-time is ended, the archives are closed, and we are back outside celebrating the beginning of the holidays by walking! Walking the wiggly borderlines along the Foron river, where the border is unusually not in the middle of the stream but along the right (Swiss) bank. France has full rights over the water. Interestingly, 🇨🇭and 🇫🇷 haven’t formally agreed on the exact location of the border here and discussions are ongoing.

Birderstone 99 on one side of a bridge, with a wiggly line on top indicating that the river follows the stream.
Information sign about the practical effects of the border on local farmers
French sign saying “Service Fiscal attention passage interdit” and assorted barriers stopping vehicular passage, but open to pedestrians

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates.

Another border stone by a path of water in the winter woodland, with number 168 on one side.
Yet another stone by a stream, with a large S on one side (Savoie). The stone is standing in water, as the whole landscape is boggy.
The border stone is actually surrounded by water on all four sides, as the river has carved around it. The border passes through the middle of the stream.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Sometimes, my walks lead to unexpected marvels. It started out today as a quest to find old border buildings near Moillesulaz (🇨🇭) / Moëllesulaz (🇫🇷) but they were all apparently flattened & replaced with a shiny new (& super useful!) cross-border tram & modern blocks of flats or administrative buildings. So, a frustrating start if nostalgia is your thing. But what happened next will surprise you, as they say...

The same location as the previous photo, in which the road has been hugely broadened with new tram lines separated from the road traffic
Same location, on the Swiss side.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

We joined up with the border & continued upstream, along the river Hermance. The border now runs down the middle of it here (here it was formerly along the talweg, i.e. following the deepest bit of the river bed). It is a picturesque and languid river meandering in a rural landscape punctuated by the usual border infrastructure: border stones, disused border guard buildings and rusting signs and fences.

A border stone un the foreground, next to an old stone bridge. The Swiss old border guard’s house is visible in the background
The typical 1910 architecture of the Swiss border post houses, designed by Marc Camoletti
Border stone 2016b, in the mud by the river Hermance

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • GTA5RPClips
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • cubers
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • osvaldo12
  • ngwrru68w68
  • ethstaker
  • JUstTest
  • everett
  • Durango
  • normalnudes
  • Leos
  • mdbf
  • khanakhh
  • tester
  • modclub
  • cisconetworking
  • anitta
  • tacticalgear
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •