The article “Spatial Stories” is written by De Certeau puts some comments on the relationship between space&place and tours&maps, which really fascinates me.
What interests me most is the relationship between maps and tours. In general, it is pretty difficult to figure out the differences. However, Mr. De Certeau’s explanation refreshed my original thought. Maps are more like a definition, while tours are likely to relate to a movement. Maps already told us the destination, the only thing we need to do is to follow the instructions. Comparing to maps, tours require more imagination and curiosity. Every step we take in our tour is a process of exploration. Though maps have a boundary, tours are ever-expanding. What we see, we feel, we smell are also tour. The core of the tours is the process and is mobility. The core of maps is destination and data statistics and is still.
Fu Shitong,3035772585
Good effort in trying to interpret the definition of “maps” and “tours” in your own words. However, it would be helpful to weave in some direct references from de Certeau’s text as directions – the description of the “maps” type “are made for the most part in terms of operations and show “how to enter each room”; the “tours” type “is a speech-act (an act of enunciation that “furnishes a minimal series of paths by which to go into each room.” (de Certeau 1984, 119). The “maps” type illustrates the relationship between “places”, whereas the “tours” type relies on the relationship between bodily movement and “places”. I would argue that “maps” and “tours” are inseparable just like “places” and “spaces”, therefore, I don’t entirely agree with your point on maps having boundaries and that tours are ever-expanding. “The map […] collates on the same plane heterogeneous places, some received from a tradition and others produced by observation.” (de Certeau 1984, 121) – in the history of cartography, cartographers made “tours” to survey the “places” unexplored and compile the observations on maps. Therefore, maps are also ever-expanding because of the “tours” that it embodies.