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Abstract: What's the relationship between GIS and the political subject? In an effort to address this question, this paper traces the movement from the map to GIS. The map is shown to be the performative utterance of the state, one that supports its national discourse and narrative. GIS, on the other hand, is shown to be a device of neoliberal governmentality, its non-representational economic practices, divided discourse and subjectivities. Despite the seemingly hopeless situation surrounding GIS, however, certain simulation and modelling practices are attempting to construct subjectivities out of economic neoliberalism's fractured narratives. They do this by reading meaning into otherwise mathematical datasets and models. These practices could form a basis for queering GIS. This article is developed through research carried out as part of the Machine Feeling project funded by both Cambridge University's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (hereafter CRASSH) and Aarhus University. The paper began as a presentation at a workshop based at CRASSH which resulted in a shorted publication entitled Digital Modelling. It was then developed into a larger piece and delivered at Transmediale Festival 2019. Proceedings from both events were then compiled into a special issue of the Transmediale journal ARPJA. The festival, which is due to celebrate its 30th anniversary next year, and journal have wide appeal in digital media circles, especially through social and online media. The special issue includes articles by artists, designers and other academics based in the social sciences and the humanities from Europe, the US and the UK.

What's the relationship between GIS and the political subject? In an effort to address this question, this paper traces the movement from the map to GIS. The map is shown to be the performative utterance of the state, one that supports its national discourse and narrative. GIS, on the other hand, is shown to be a device of neoliberal governmentality, its non-representational economic practices, divided discourse and subjectivities. Despite the seemingly hopeless situation surrounding GIS, however, certain simulation and modelling practices are attempting to construct subjectivities out of economic neoliberalism's fractured narratives. They do this by reading meaning into otherwise mathematical datasets and models. These practices could form a basis for queering GIS.

The field of cartography, as the study of the history and meaning of maps is in decline. It is being ingested into what might, on the surface, seem like a continuation of the discipline but in fact is not. I'm referring here to the practices of digital modelling. I'm not by any means bemoaning this loss. Contrary to what one might imagine, the map is a relatively recent practice dating back only to the 1500. Its lineage coincides with the emergence of the disciplinary sovereignty and state power, what Archille Mbembe might call necro-political power. The map in that sense is a descriptive performance of state territory. Without a map, the state would not be conceived of as a thing, a map-able object with borders and edges. State borders are brought into being through mapping. The map becomes the icon or as Benedict Anderson claims the logo of the nation state and this icon with its definite borders erases the lineage of its construction. What I'm proposing here is that it is not that the map was transformed into a digital map but rather that digital modelling as a practice cannibalised the remnants of a dying tradition for its own gains. It saw how effective mapping had been to extend sovereign power, its territory and sought to utilise it. It is cartography that gets subsumed into the emergent field of spatial analysis. However, with modelling the extension of power is no longer bound to the land. Therefore, the trajectory of the move from mapping to global information systems (hereafter GIS) is not a linear progression but rather a disruption and displacement of the map by the model. In fact, most applications that later become the digital map didn't have a map to begin with. They were created in order to forecast population information for the user by city officials, planners and businesses. The so-called maps, such as the OXAV and SYMAP were complex and had their own symbols with an accompanied user manual that explains how they were to be interpreted. None had a drawing of the terrain or land. I want to question the role of digital modelling more generally. Digital Modelling is pervasive in most of what might be defined as the digital, from CGI, 3D modelling, models of high frequency speculative trading algorithms, Google's Baysian search term suggestions all the way to machine learning and neural networks. But just like the map the model erases traces of its lineage so it's important to unearth them.

The chapter begins with the question of critique, mainly how and why does one critique but more importantly why does no one critique effectively anymore. Such is a sentiment echoed by Bruno Latour in the paper Why has Critique Run out of Steam? He states: "It does not seem to me that we have been as quick, in academia, to prepare ourselves for new threats, new dangers, new tasks, new targets. Are we not like those mechanical toys that endlessly make the same gesture when everything else has changed around them?"(Latour, 2004:225). According to Latour, the absence of principles is to blame. As he puts it, critique has battered through all claims to a ground and the lack of a sure ground argument has backfired. The result is that there isn't even a sure ground for criticism. Without a ground, it's hard to differentiate a rigorous critical claim from a conspiracy theory. That's why conspiracy theory books are best sellers. Latour mourns the death of critique. In its remnants lies a whole industry denying the Apollo program. My claim is that the absence of principles transforms critique into an issue around the strength of evidence and the credibility of the testimony. Effective critique is synonymous with a counter-testimony of a reliable witness. A witness is someone who is present at the time of an event, often a crime, and is able to testify before the law. They are able to give direct evidence in relation to the events. However, they often rely on foggy memories and blurred vision. It is not too difficult for the defence or prosecution to put the reliability or credibility of the witness in doubt. Here is where the role of making comes into play. More often than not, in the post-critical age, a testimony, or counter-testimony, is not simply uttered but is rather constructed. Latour is the first to admit that a critique has to be made. As such the eyewitness is no longer a person but a photograph, a video or other forms of surveillance. Juries are more decisive when they are presented with the facts, the evidence, more often submitted as objects as opposed to a fuzzy testimony of a witness. Critique, or counter-testimony, is a material process enabled by infrastructure. Is a practice-based question of physics, chemistry and the material forms of agency. Given all this this chapter explores further the role of critical making as counter-testimony. From aesthetic practices of forensics, counter-forensics to the role of labs in media archaeology and investigative practices, I will tell the story of makers that present their objects as a counter-narrative to pressing socio-political issues. More importantly, however, I will address the issue of how critical making practices can establish credibility in a world of fakes and loss of belief.

The social wealth fund opens up important questions of common ownership and democratic control. It can also serve to start a conversation around the ways in which we value socially useful goods. The production of socially beneficial economic activity through the social wealth fund could, and should, not consider 'profits' as an economic metric. Instead, every time a socially beneficial task is completed, such as tasks implied in social care services, the provision of universal basic services, or production of additional housing, the social wealth fund accounting system could record the 'cost' of the task rather than the 'profit' made from delivering the service. Here are the reasons why this is a good idea.