Maps Unfolded

The Miura Map Folding Algorithm is one of the first instances where mathematical and geometric nodes of enquiry meet map-making. Large maps have been made for millennia and have been folded into smaller rectangles for ease of carrying always, and their tearing at the nodes where the horizontal and vertical lines meet is also a reality. Cloth and canvas backing are time-tested solutions, but Koryo Miura, the mathematician's eponymous folding pattern was the first to be applied as an innovative geometric solution to this problem. The grid proposed was not rectangular but ever so slightly rhombic.

While this may seem like an esoteric joining of the cartographic with the geometric, but geometry is at the heart of the discipline of cartography - from how trigonometry was employed to do the first scientific survey of the length and breadth of India, to how the height of Mount Everest was first measured, and how our globe - which is a slightly bulged sphere, can actually be translated into an absolutely flat map (a mathematically impossible task, but solved with approximation in real life).

Curated by Prshant Lahoti, this exhibition is a collaboration between Kalakriti Archives, one of India's largest private repositories of historic maps, and architect and origami artist Ankon Mitra. The maps featured in this exhibition include traditional Indian pilgrimage maps, printed bazaar maps, and city maps, each offering a window into society of the past and present. 'Through this exhibition, we have tried to juxtapose the precision behind the science of origami and cartography,' says the curator.