A cosmogram is a two-dimensional geometric figure that represents a cosmology, or an understanding of the universe. The practice of cosmography has a deep and widespread human history, as a means of inscribing and encoding memories by drawing connections between people and places through space and time. Cosmograms can position people in relation to a broader configuration of things, marked by a series of convergences and events between people and places [1].

 

John Tresch, an historian of science and technology and Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, defined the cosmogram as “Inscriptions of the cosmos as a whole” and as a  neutral concept “It is just a general class of things that humans make: representations of the universe as a whole. And it has taken many, many different forms in history, and cross-culturally. All cultures have cosmograms”. During the century the cosmogram was used to represent how the world works fitting together humans, all the divisions of nature, all the divisions within human society, and then the divinities around it or above it”i[2].

 

Cosmograms are about how we compose and trace connections that we hold to be the world we live in (including ideals and parts not ‘materialized’ currently). They deal with our sense of how and with what we perceive our world works. For these reasons the cosmogram can be used as a tool capable of putting  foreground aspects in certain aspects and downplays or hides others.

 

The success of this concept derives in fact from its versatility which finds ever greater diffusion in the most diverse disciplines, from the history of ideas, to urban planning, to ecology, to economics, to information technology and beyond, given its ability to hold together given material and interpretation.

 

[1] https://sonicacts.com/archive/interview-with-john-tresch-on-cosmograms [

2] https://cosmogramofharlem.weebly.com/what-is-a-cosmogram.html