A Blank Map vs. A Blank Page

There are crucial differences between a blank map and a blank page. Unlike a blank page, a blank map:

• is designed by a cartographer
• is a frame
• represents a space or "territory"
• has orientation
• is readable
• has accuracy
• suggests scale (though may sacrifice exactitude in favor of visual utility)
• is informative (unavailability of data does not equal nonexistence of data)
• is something unexpected

There is nothing so perfect as a blank map. A blank map represents:

• simplicity
• all that can still be discovered
• infinite creative possibilities
• a clean slate
• a future of one's own making
• the difference between emptiness and nothingness
• freedom from error
• freedom from distortion
• freedom from bias
• organization
• openness
• changeability
• purity
• unity
• an unformed universe waiting to be shaped

Below are pages from the Carte Blanche Atlas of Uncharted Territories.  The softcover edition is currently available from Lulu.com for $12.

According to webmaster Craig Conley, there are fundamental differences between a blank page and a blank map. A blank page is empty, whereas a blank map suggests space and orientation and is still designed by a cartographer. Conley takes this one step further, presenting blank maps suggested by history, folklore, or literature such as a landscape purified by snowfall, the unknown path Cleopatra must have taken after Actium, or what Babel looked like before it was built.