1 Introduction

The following considerations on the representation, especially thematic-cartographic, of inverse landscapes represent an operationalization of fundamental considerations on postcritical cartography (Kühne 2021a) and presents the considerations on deviant cartographies derived from this way of understanding cartography (Edler and Kühne 2022a, 2022b). Succinctly put, critical cartography criticized the power position of professional cartographers in the generation of ideas about space, their positivist basic attitude, and the non-accessibility of spatial data to the public by cartographic offices. Professional cartography was to be replaced by counter-mapping by people without cartographic training (among many: Counter Cartographies Collective et al. 2012; Crampton and Krygier 2005; Harley 2002; Kent 2017; Kim 2015; Weissenrieder 2023; Wood and Krygier 2009). Even though postcritical cartography follows the constructivist stance of critical cartography, it draws a different conclusion from the critique: it does not reject traditional cartography as outdated, but understands it as an approach to interpreting the contingency of world. Decisive for whether deviations from previous cartographic practices have a functional effect is—according to postcritical interpretation—the criterion of opening life chances (in the sense of Dahrendorf 1979). Life chances arise not least from the possibility to choose the most suitable among many options. In this respect, the morally motivated exclusion of (here cartographic spatial interpretations) of critical cartography has a dysfunctional effect.

Starting from the basic attitude of the contingency of society, self, and language, as described by Richard Rorty (1997, 1998), we derive the contingency of landscape (as social construct) and (cartographic) representation (as graphic translation of language see in this context: Edler and Lammert-Siepmann 2010; Freitag 1971, 2008; Steinkrüger 2017). One concept aimed at capturing the contingency of landscapes is that of the inverse landscape (Kühne 2013b). This concept aims to represent that landscape, both in its social constructedness, its individual experience, and its material manifestation, does not necessarily have to be as it presents itself, but that other landscapes are possible on all of these three levels (see in this context also: Edler, Keil et al. 2019; Kühne 2018, 2019). The aim of this paper, then, is to translate the concept of inverse landscapes into a cartographic mode of representation that makes explicit the contingency of landscape and the language of cartography.

1. To this end, we first address the introduction of the concept of inverse landscapes, from which we derive basic considerations for their thematic-cartographic representation, which serve to increase life chances by becoming more concerned with hybridities, being contingency-sensitive in conception, and expressing the neopragmatic attitude of irony. And before an application of these principles is made using the example of Louisiana, whose material landscapes are particularly characterized by contingency, a brief characterization of Louisiana and, in particular, coastal land loss and oil and gas industry activities in coastal space is provided. In the final conclusion, we address the potentials and challenges of cartographic engagement with inverse landscapes. The concept of inverse landscapes is as follows.

The concept was developed in the context of addressing the relationships between landscape and power (Kühne 2013a, 2013b). A starting point of the concept lies in the considerations of Gerhard Hard (2008, p. 268) on spatial (or landscape) manifestations and non-manifestations. He outlined these in terms of remarks on subject excursions: In "every halfway good, i.e., also: methodically reflected (social) geographical excursion […] (today hopefully by default) not only asked what of society, economy, ecology and history one can see or develop in the space, in the landscape, in the terrain, but also what one does not see why (although just that might be far more important for the given topic)—and what one perhaps only believes to see because one has projected one's possibly even wrong prior knowledge onto something that might mean something completely different".

Inverse landscapes (in the sense of Kühne 2013a, 2013b) are situated—as already addressed in the introduction—on the level of the social construction of landscape, their individual experience as well as in the material world, which are individually synthesized to 'landscape' due to social convention. At the level of the material world, inverse landscape includes objects and constellations of objects that could not manifest physically, but could be manifested, whose manifestation could not be manifested due to lack of power resources of their stakeholders. We understand power here, following the classical understanding, as "any chance to assert one's own will within a social relationship, even against opposition, regardless of what this chance is based on" (Weber 1976 [1922], p. 28). For example, the power resources to build a light rail line are higher than those to maintain a road for automobile traffic. The social construction of landscape is based on conventions of viewing objects together to form landscape, especially based on aesthetic and ecological interpretations, categorizations, and evaluations (in more detail: Berr 2020; Burckhardt 2006; Kühne 2021b; Wylie 2007). The conventions, however, differ because of professional, regional, cultural, social, etc. contexts. For example, the understanding of landscape shared in the mainstream of landscape planning discourse may exclude suburban spaces (Hokema 2013; Prominski 2006), the inclusion of these spaces is thus inverse in this discourse (here, the contingency of understandings of landscape becomes particularly clear, as a landscape view of these spaces is possible but discursively excluded). Individual affection for landscape also includes numerous inversions: thus, the socialization of landscape does not encompass all possible understandings of landscape; it can be limited to aesthetic aspects, for example, but exclude ecological ones, which would then be part of the individual inverse landscape.

This understanding of inverse landscapes is strongly related to human action, which we understand with Max Weber as "a human behavior (whether external or internal doing, or letting or tolerating) [if and insofar as] the agent or agents associate with it a subjective meaning" (Weber 1976 [1922], p. 1). In our further remarks, we will take a broader view of the concept of inverse landscapes, thus also detaching it from its conceptual power-centeredness and aligning it more closely with the concept of contingency. In this respect, we understand inverse landscapes in the following as such landscapes, regardless of whether they are social constructs, individual references, or material objects synthesized into landscape, which are not pronounced in this form, but are possible at a certain point in time in a certain space. The previously developed understanding of inverse landscapes thus becomes a special case of the now expanded understanding of inverse landscapes. The expansion now also allows contingent processes in the material world to be brought into the concept of inverse landscape that are primarily natural in origin (i.e., not due to the distribution and exercise of power).

2 Cartography as a Contribution to Increasing Life Chances: The Importance of Hybridities, Contingency, and Irony

The normative understanding of science in general, cartography in particular, underlying our considerations is—as alluded to in the introduction—that of maximizing life chances by Ralf Dahrendorf (1979, p. 55) "Life chances are opportunities for individual action that result from the interrelation of options and ligatures." Before going into the concepts of option and ligature in more detail, we look at the normative component of the life chances concept: This follows on from the dictum of Karl Popper's (2011[1947]) that history 'in itself' has no meaning. Rather, meaning must be given to history. From this Dahrendorf concludes (1979, p. 26), the meaning of history is "to create more life chances for more people". Let us return to options and ligatures: options can be defined as "choices given in social structures, alternatives of action" (Dahrendorf 1979, p. 50) whereby they are "open to the future" (Dahrendorf 1979, p. 108). By ligatures, Dahrendorf understands "structurally pre-drawn fields of human action. Individuals, by virtue of their social positions and roles, are placed in bonds or ligatures" (Dahrendorf 1979, p. 51). Following the temporal classification introduced above, they can be understood as ties to the past. Ligatures form "in a certain sense the interior of the norms that guarantee social structures in the first place" (Ackermann 2020, p. 141). In terms of the emergence of life chances, options and ligatures are constitutively bound to each other, because "ligatures without options mean oppression, while options without ties are meaningless" (Dahrendorf 1979, p. 51f.). With regard to the development of life chances, however, there is an asymmetry between options and ligatures: while options always expand life chances, ligatures remain ambivalent: on the one hand, they give meaning to options; on the other hand, they restrict options, for instance, through generalized and individually unreflective moral ties (Kühne et al. 2023a, b).

If the maximization of life chances is made the normative basis of (cartographic) representation, it can be concluded that the goal is to create options and to critically question ligatures, and to follow them where they give meaning to options, but to reject them where they remain in (often merely moral) convention. In this sense, it is necessary to develop considerations for modes of representation that have a functional, especially a meta-functional deviance to current forms of (cartographic) representation (Edler and Kühne 2022b). In this sense, we understand functional deviance as the deviation from a set norm that contributes to an increase in life chances through an increase in knowledge (formal or substantive). Metafunctional deviance can be defined—following Edler and Kühne (2022b)—as a special case of functional deviance in that it deals with cartographic standards in an artistic, playful, or ironic way. It encourages a "critical distance to a self-evidence of one's own society" (Dahrendorf 1968, p. 63), whereby in this context, especially, the social mechanisms of the construction of space are meant. Deviant representations, whether in terms of the selection of topics, data, or methods of representation, or the combination of these, aim to raise awareness of contingencies (more elaborately: Edler and Kühne 2022b; Kühne and Jenal 2020a; Kühne and Koegst 2022).

A central element of such a (re)presentation is irony. It arises on the one hand from the awareness of contingency, on the other hand from the awareness of the invalidity of conclusive vocabularies. (Rorty 1997). In other words, there is no vocabulary that can claim to be valid in all contexts and at all times. This is also true for cartography as well as its forms of representation. It is bound to a society that wants (or has to) orient itself intersubjectively spatially. It has produced forms of representation which (here especially in topographic cartography) have produced a high degree of standardization in survey, transformation from three to two dimensions, and forms of representation. This especially for a society that sought to domesticate world (Stichweh 2003) to unify it by means of binary codes and thus to make it conceptually available. In the context of an increasing awareness of the hybrid (Kraidy 2005; Latour 1993; Nederveen Pieterse 2005; Zierhofer 1999) and the contingency of world (Kühne et al. 2022; Raaphorst 2018; Reckwitz 2011), such strategies of accessing the world are no longer sufficient; representations that clarify these hybridities and contingencies therefore become necessary. But not only the contingencies (also the hybridities that cannot be clearly grasped and measured) suggest an ironic approach to the representation of the world; irony is also a sign of the awareness of self-contingency, i.e., an awareness that one's own knowledge, which was believed to be secure, the mastered methods of world construction, and the abilities of linguistic and graphic representation have become contingent.

3 Characteristics of a Cartographic and Graphic Design Based on Contingencies Using the Example of the Representation of Inverse Landscapes

Cartographic and graphic representations can, as shown, contribute to the enlargement of life chances. This is not limited to orientation in material and immaterial spaces but extends to representing or creating contingency. For the example of the concept of inverse landscapes (which in turn was developed to illustrate contingency), the following will provide considerations for the conception and design of contingency-sensitive cartographic and graphic representations.

The (cartographic) representation of inverse landscapes thus implies the necessity of dealing with a triple contingency:

  1. 1)

    First, the understanding of landscape is contingent, varying in cultural, social, generational, etc., contexts.

  2. 2)

    The approaches to 'landscape', its aesthetic or ecological construction, as well as methodological approaches to the recording of its foundations, are contingent.

  3. 3)

    The methods of representing what is now understood as 'landscape' are becoming more contingent not only as a result of ever more extensive technical possibilities, but also as a result of an increasing awareness of ambiguity.

A contingency-sensitive form of representation (inverse here) means making these triple contingencies visible (in the course of current possibilities also of audiovisual cartography, also audible; Edler, Kühne et al. 2019; Lammert-Siepmann et al. 2017). Different possibilities can be worked out for this purpose:

  1. a)

    Focusing the presentation on the actual purpose of the presentation. Or negatively spoken: the omission of all information that does not serve the purpose of the representation. This is especially true for the topographical basis of a thematic-cartographic representation, to limit oneself to the representation of those objects that are necessary for the statement and, if necessary, its contextualization. At this point, the relation of the considerations made to the pragmatistic foundations of neopragmatism becomes clear.

  2. b)

    The selection of topics that are at least marginally related to the usual. Whereby this can turn out very differently in different professional and nonprofessional contexts. Here, a broadening of what is understood by 'normality' takes place. For a long time, the scientific (in this case cartographic) treatment of ephemeral phenomena (such as sounds and smells) was not considered opportune.

  3. c)

    The selection of methodological approaches that lie at the edge of conventions. This concerns, for example, subjective methods, which are now increasingly used in the spatial sciences and whose results are also presented in cartographic form.

  4. d)

    The elaboration of forms of representation that are located beyond conventions. This concerns, for example, the use of individually designed (especially speaking) signatures in relation to 'classical' representational contents of cartography (even topographic–cartographic). However, this also concerns the unusual use of signatures. Here, it has to be considered whether and to what extent the (intended) users of the representations are able to decipher such representations as ironic.

These possibilities can be combined, as long as the question, the purpose, and the intended users justify it.

In the following, we will not only deal with cartographic representations, but also with other visual representations, which are designed against the background of the above considerations. For the clarification of certain statements—since the development of corresponding printing techniques—the photo has received a prominent meaning in publications, since it seems to depict 'the objective reality' in comparison to the previously widespread drawings. In view of image cropping, choice of depth of field, optimization of color saturation, possibilities of image post-processing up to the removal or addition of objects, and more recently also the AI-assisted generation of photography-like images, this understanding of 'photos as depictions of reality' can hardly be sustained (see in this context: Breckner 2010; Schlottmann and Miggelbrink 2015). We do not follow the consequence of renouncing photo-based representations because of the power asymmetry between photo-producer and photo-recipient. This is not least due to the possibility of photo-based representations to depict complex contexts by concrete examples (1) and the complexity of the (visually perceivable) world (2). Aware that photo-based representations are also expressions of social and individual constructions of the world, we derive two forms of representation:

  1. 1)

    To illustrate the constructedness of photo-based representations, we transform them into comic-strip-like representations inspired by the Ligne Claire, which was coined by the cartoonist Georges Prosper Remi (aka Hergé). This style is characterized by clear edges, the abandonment of hatching, shading, and color gradients. As a result, they are characterized by areas of uniform color. On the one hand, such a form of representation makes clear that the depiction is by no means a simple 'depiction of objective reality'; on the other hand, that the depiction—as a result of its distance from the conventions of visual representations in the sciences—directs a (self-)ironic view of one's own position in the world and of the world. Through this, not least, contingency is made clear.

  2. 2)

    To avoid the perspective dependence of viewing complex objects (and everything beyond the sphere in a closed, otherwise empty interior space, exhibits complexity; see basically: Papadimitriou 2010, 2020, 2021), we create collages on a particular theme. In doing so, the multiplicity of illustrations is able to open up to readers the possibility of developing a multi-layered (visually bound) understanding of complex objects. Even if the basic problematic of photographic images—presented above—remains (but can be minimized, for example, by refraining from image processing), the collage expands the contingency of alternative interpretations of what is depicted.

If the goal is to combine multiperspectivity and irony, both forms of design can also be combined.

We demonstrate the application of the considerations elaborated in this section below using the example of regional geographic grants to the U.S. state of Louisiana.

4 The Louisiana Coast: From Activities of the Oil and Gas Industry and the (Associated) Coastal Land Loss

The U.S. State of Louisiana, located at the north of the Gulf of Mexico, is characterized—especially in the south, which will be focused in the following—by the deposits of the Mississippi delta, the shape of which changed constantly before the modern embankment measures. The political history of the state records French, English, and Spanish colonization, and in parts a brief period of affiliation with the independent Republic of West Florida, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America. Not least because of this checkered history, immigrations of people of different origins took place. Before the victory of the Northern states in the American Civil War, the extensive agriculture was based not least on the enslavement of people. In addition, Louisiana was the destination of displaced French Canadians (Cajuns), and the indigenous population was also displaced to the fringes of the ecumene (here especially the coastal area). Until the early twentieth century, Louisiana's economy remained heavily agrarian (and to this day the primary sector of the economy accounts for an above-average share of economic output by U.S. standards). At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the extraction, and later the processing, of petroleum intensified. The oil industry also created well-paying jobs for people with low qualifications, and the state's tax revenues increased, which, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, allowed a massive expansion of the technical and social infrastructure. After the boom period of high oil prices between World War II and the 1970s, the subsequent phase of low oil prices meant, on the one hand, cost-cutting measures and measures to increase productivity in the petrochemical industry, and, on the other, lower tax revenues. The consequences included waves of layoffs in the oil industry, but also savings by the public sector. However, measures to promote the creative industries, especially the film industry, were only able to create a few jobs for people with a low stock of social and cultural capital. In particular, people with a low endowment of symbolic capital are vulnerable to natural threats (such as hurricanes), but also to anthropogenic threats (such as air pollution; detailed among many: Colten 2012, 2018, 2021; Hemmerling 2007; Kühne et al. 2021; Kühne and Jenal 2020b; Kühne and Koegst 2023a; Kühne et al. 2023a, b; Mathewson 2014; McMichael 1961; Morton et al. 2006; Olea and Coleman 2014; Pelot-Hobbs 2021; Yodis et al. 2016).

In consequence, Louisiana is a state in the United States that faces multiple challenges as a result of its natural foundations, its management of them, and cultural and social specifics: In addition to an ethno-eco-social polarization of its population, Louisiana faces the consequences and collateral effects of more than a century of oil and, increasingly, natural gas extraction and processing. Linked in part to the actions of the petrochemical industry is the loss of land in southern Louisiana.

The extraction of crude oil and natural gas is particularly prevalent in the northwest and south of the state because of the widespread deposits. Processing is located along the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge due to the favorable transport conditions and the relatively unregulated handling of residual materials by the authorities. As a result of the extremely high cancer rates between Baton Rouge and New Orleans—even by national standards—this area is also referred to as 'Cancer Alley', and this particularly affects African-American populations who—as a result of a lower endowment of economic capital—live in settlements near refineries (and other industrial plants; Gottlieb 1980; Lee and Black 2017; Singer 2011). Petroleum extraction and transportation in particular promotes coastal land loss in southern Louisiana, through subsidence resulting from the extraction of petroleum (and natural gas), through the construction of canals that also allow saltwater to enter freshwater areas and thus kill erosion-inhibiting vegetation, through leakage (with the same effect), through the eroding wave action caused by shipping induced by the extraction and transportation of hydrocarbons. These processes exacerbate coastal land loss caused by tectonic processes (glacial isostatic equalization), but also sediment loading (especially of the Mississippi River), loss of areal sedimentation caused by leveeing of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, but also by draining wetlands, among others; added to this is sea-level rise due to anthropogenic climate change (see in summary: Bernier 2013; Kühne and Koegst 2023a, 2023b; Olea and Coleman 2014; Scaife et al. 1983). The result is a space that, due to its hybridity, can hardly be subjected to a binary logic of either/or, since, on the one hand, sedimentary surfaces and vegetation in this space are highly mobile, and reconfigurations can occur after each hurricane event; on the other hand, the subsidence of the area as well as the rise in sea level destroy the notion of a stable delineability of land and sea (Kühne and Koegst 2022, 2023a, 2023b).

Both 'landlossscapes' and 'oilscapes', landscapes whose construction is shaped by certain processes, in this case the petrochemical industry and land loss (although in this case these may overlap), are particularly suited to illustrating the contingency of landscape (on the production of 'scapes' see fundamentally: Appadurai 1990). Oilscapes, because in recent decades, the unintended side-effects of the largely oil-based economy (already mentioned above, the aspects hazardous to health, but also the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, microplastics, etc.) have been subjected to an increasingly critical discussion and alternative ones are being discussed. Landlossscapes, because they illustrate the contingency of landscape constructions, not least through their hybridity as mentioned above.

5 Inverse Landscapes in Louisiana: in Cartographic and Photo-Based Representations

In the following, we will now present some (cartographic) representations that were created on the basis of the considerations on contingency and neopragmatism, using the example of the land loss—and oilscapes of Louisiana. In the figure captions, the assumptions of the respective contingent development are presented, as well as the considerations underlying the respective cartographic or graphic representations. At the end of the section, we will connect the cartographic and graphical representations, both in terms of their design and content, to the considerations made earlier about contingency and life chances.

We begin with the representation of inverse landscapes, since contingency can be shown particularly clearly here. Figure 1 shows a cartographic representation of an inverse landscape as it might present itself had the oil and gas industry not impacted the marshlands of southern Louisiana.

Fig. 1
figure 1

The cartographic representation of an inverse landscape assuming that there are no oil reserves on the Louisiana coast. Accordingly, it can be assumed that there would have been no reason to construct canals in the marshes. According to this reasoning, the "Gateway to the Gulf Expressway" would not have been constructed either, since it was essentially built to connect port facilities serving the oil and gas industry. The cartographic representation was created by overlaying two separate maps, first, a section of the map showing the 2022 condition (from: Kühne and Koegst 2023a), this is comparatively detailed and designed in lighter color tones, on the other hand the cartographic representation of a contingent, inverse state. This representation is dominated by darker hues, and the contours are more roughly outlined to make it clear that it is a representation of a contingent, hypothetical state. On the one hand, to facilitate comparison, and on the other hand, to make clear the contingency of the representation, the overlap of the two cartographic representations is not done with constant transparency; rather, it is designed in such a way that the overlap of the representation representing the state of 2022 increases from the northeast to the southwest (illustration: Olaf Kühne)

Full size image

The construction of inverse landscapes not only enables the reflection of hypothetical current states, but also offers the possibility to develop contingent developments for future states. Figure 2 deals with the representation of such a state as calculated in different projections and against which extensive coastal protection measures are taken (see for example: Nittrouer et al. 2012; Tewari et al. 2019; The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana 1999).

Fig. 2
figure 2

The inverse Landlossscape as a projection into the future, here as a combination of photo and comic-like representation: large parts of the marshland, which is still evident in the photo, have disappeared on the left side of the image. To facilitate the comparison and at the same time to illustrate the constructedness of the representation, the transition between the two parts of the image is chosen to be relatively broad (illustration: Olaf Kühne)

Full size image

Whereas the two previous figures presented were concerned with the (hypothetical) material dimension of inverse landscapes, focuses Fig. 3 on the representation of contingency in relation to the common-sense interpretation of landscape.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Compared to the inverse landscapes presented up to this point, this one is less focused on the contingency of material spaces that underlie landscape syntheses, but on social patterns of interpretation, valuation, and categorization themselves. Petrochemical industry facilities are not commonly associated with the aesthetic judgment of 'beautiful.' As a result of their environmental impact, they are also subject to an often-negative moral judgment. In this respect, they are not considered symbols of the old European unity of the true, the good, and the beautiful. The illustration shown sets itself above this norm by placing the petrochemical plants around Lake Charles in the context of a romantic approach (here as a quotation of the motif of the person turning his back on the viewer and looking at the scenery with him). The comic-like depiction of the person sitting in the cone of light, contemplatively absorbed, is in turn at odds with a choice of color that associates a polluted atmosphere. The helicopter mounted in the picture underlines the technological character of the landscape. Toward the left edge of the picture, there is a progression to the original source photo (without the shore with bench, person, lamp, etc. in the foreground). This kind of representation in turn illustrates the contingency of landscape constructions (photo and image processing: Olaf Kühne)

Full size image

With the following Fig. 4, we leave the representation of inverse landscapes and deal with contingent constructions of current material spaces interpretable as landscape. First, we thematize the 'Oilscape' of Norco, a city between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, located immediately on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, by means of a reduced cartographic representation combined with a comic-book depiction.

Fig. 4
figure 4

A (carto)graphic representation of Norco, Louisiana, in the Cancer Corridor. The close interlocking between the petrochemical industry facilities and the settlement becomes clear here. To represent this, on the one hand, but also to illustrate the contingency of landscape constructs on the other hand, a comic-like elevation representation with a cartogram representation (as an extended black plan) was shown here. This is also intended as a counterpoint to the widespread representations of petrochemical plants, which aim at an experience in the aesthetic mode of sublimity (cf: Löschnigg 2017; Loveland 2018; photo and image processing: Olaf Kühne)

Full size image

As discussed in the previous section, collages are particularly suitable for a multi-perspective engagement with a space (here interpreted as a landscape). The breadth of the representation of the contingency of landscape constructions can be further clarified by integrating into the collage representations that do not merely reproduce photographic images (as in Fig. 5). With the manifold possibilities of the design of collages, contingency can also be made clear beyond the design—as shown here through alienation—for example through overlapping arrangements and/or also gradients, we have refrained from both here, since these stylistic devices have already been used in other figures.

Fig. 5
figure 5

A collage which aims to illustrate the multiple impacts of hydrocarbon extraction, transport, processing, and consumption on landscape. The span of contingent constructions of the 'oilscapes' is made clear by the polarity of documentary photographs on the one hand and comic-style representations on the other. Especially, the image processing in comic style facilitates the representation of atmospheres, whereby certain structurally formative elements are emphasized, and details are faded out (upper left image). However, it is also possible to create reminiscences of idyllic representations of historical postcard depictions (center right image). The widespread sacralization of the profane is also found in Louisiana, in relation to petroleum, which appears in the naming of street names as well as in the naming of a settlement (images bottom right and second bottom right). Here, the comic illustration underscores the message more clearly than the photograph. The Blue (bottom left) and Golden Hour (bottom center), which are popular in the pictorial treatment of landscape, allow objects to appear in particular contrast. Figuratively, the image in the center combines the steps of processing (refinery) and consumption (recreational boating) of oil (here at Lake Charles). This reveals a double tension: on the one hand, between different morals, such as hedonistic and ecologistic, and on the other, between the widespread anesthetic contemplation of industrial objects and their appearance, which stimulates experience in the aesthetic mode of sublimity. The image at the bottom left is less stimulating to experience in the mode of the sublime; here, the light of the Blue Hour emphasizes the geometric structuring of the urban landscape, which is further emphasized by the smoothing of details by means of processing as a comic image. Given Louisiana's dependence on oil and natural gas for power generation (about four-fifths), it is clear here that even New Orleans is unlikely to be lit currently without these fossil fuels. In central position, with the double surface, a comic-like oblique air representation over a refinery (EXXON in Baton Rouge) is represented. With the aim of facilitating a three-dimensional experience of the space, a flock of seagulls was mounted here. To illustrate the influences of the oil and gas industry and its products, as well as the consequences and collateral effects associated with them, at all scales, the collage united images ranging from a macro-perspective to a perspective integrating numerous objects (photos: Lara Koegst and Olaf Kühne; image processing: Olaf Kühne)

Full size image

From the descriptions of inverse landscapes, an ambivalence in relation to life chances becomes clear: The representations themselves are an expression of contingency, they use options (also of a current technical kind) to question ligatures that find expression in cartographic conventions of representation. On the other hand, the mappings also represent the results of unintended side consequences of the struggle for life chances, which can also lead to the loss of individual life chances: The struggle for options, which found expression in the extraction of oil and natural gas and provided remarkable incomes (and thus options) for numerous people, including low-skilled ones, and helped to modernize Louisiana, also meant—generally for other people—an extension of ligatures (see Dahrendorf 1992, 2007 for more detail). These ligatures, in no small part, set at the corporeality of human beings by depriving them of opportunities to live in certain environments, of which, as shown, the extraction, transportation, processing, and consumption of oil and natural gas are a part. This particularly affects a vulnerable population that has adapted to the specific ecological conditions of coastal Louisiana, i.e., has worked out options in this space that, however, disappear upon relocation, because they are not practicable in the other spaces (such as special fishing techniques upon relocation inland; Burley 2010; Hemmerling et al. 2020, 2022; Kühne and Koegst 2023a). At this point, the unequal distribution of power becomes clear, which manifests itself in the unequal distribution of life chances: thus, while the oil and gas industry has the power to also reshape physical space according to its own system logics, the indigenous or Cajun population of the coastal region does not have the power to shape (or maintain) physical spaces according to their needs. A landscape that meets their needs does not manifest itself in physical space, but is found solely as an inverse landscape (this becomes clear in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2).

6 Conclusion

The (cartographic) (re)presentation of landscape is subject to a threefold contingency: first, the contingency of the social and individual construction of landscape itself; second, the modes of approaching landscape (e.g., aesthetic and/or ecological), connected with different methods of obtaining information about landscape; third, the contingency of representations of landscape. In this respect, our effort—following Richard Rorty's reflections on contingency and irony—was to develop basic considerations and their exemplary presentation. A contingency-oriented approach to landscape is particularly evident in the choice of a topic that lies beyond the mainstream of research. In our case, it is oilscapes, as the physical manifestos of the oil and gas industry are generally considered rather anesthetic. We followed the focus of the representation (already inherent in pragmatism) on the actual purpose by a strong reduction of what is represented in cartographic representations, but also in relation to the representation of images. The latter was done in particular using the comic style of Ligne Claire. The use of photographs was done in particular to create a counterpoint with regard to contingent modes of representation that can be understood as modes of world creation. These modes of representation are located beyond (cartographic) conventions of representation, which is based not least on the use of methods of transferring data into representations that resort less to exact reproduction than to creative interpretation. In this respect, our representations can be understood as the result of an operationalization of neopragmatic philosophy into a spatial scientific, here especially cartographic, context.

The effort to clarify landscape-related contingencies becomes particularly clear in relation to the representation of inverse landscapes. These are conceived as contingent landscapes in such a way that they depict possible, but not necessary landscape structures and processes. These contingent landscapes are not solely related to the material dimension of landscape, but also refer to individual as well as social landscape constructions. Especially, the representation of inverse landscapes requires forms of representation that make clear that it is not about the depiction of 'real' states, but about the representation of contingent constructions.

A contingency-sensitive representation of the world—here a graphic and cartographic one—requires the justification of decisions. This results not least from the consideration that the world can no longer simply be depicted but is subject to a cascade of interpretations before it is depicted. These interpretations are to be disclosed to the readers, so that they can form a picture of the decisions made, agree with them, or critically question them. This has the consequence that the explanations become more extensive than is the case with classical investigations, whereby, however, the transparency is increased.

Our approach of neopragmatic representation of contingent landscapes does not imply a rejection of classical 'positivist' cartography as demanded by 'critical cartography'. Positivist cartography had and has still an important function of orientation in spatial contexts. Neopragmatically, this means: the form of representation follows the purpose of representation, which, if necessary, can only be adequately achieved by positivist representations. Positivist cartography, if nothing else, provides a central reference point for the representation of contingencies. Not least, evolving cartographic representations have emerged in engagement with positivist approaches. In the plurality of (cartographic) interpretations of the world, positivist approaches represent one (for a long time hegemonic) interpretation of the construction of the world, they are thus today one (legitimate) among many.

The explanations given show the potentials of (cartographic) representations for understanding the contingency of spaces (here interpreted as landscape), but also the potential of neopragmatism for the theoretical reflection of cartographic practices. Building on the basic considerations presented here, further possibilities of representation can be developed, especially in Virtual and Augmented Worlds, but it can also be further explored to what extent a theory of cartography can be developed on the basis of neopragmatism, which is not based on the rejection of other basic theoretical positions, but on integration, complementarity and further development, whereby our remarks fit into the context of postcritical cartography by metadeviantly suggesting a contingent interpretation of the world.