Tracé van het nieuwe kanaal tussen de Rijn en de Maas, ca. 1627 1627 - 1629

Curator: Here, we have "Trac\u00e9 van het nieuwe kanaal tussen de Rijn en de Maas," a print, an engraving on paper, made around 1627 by Frans Hogenberg. It's striking, especially the deliberate depiction of labor and resources expended to construct that canal. What's your take? Editor: It really makes you think about the connection between geography and commerce at that time, almost like infrastructure as destiny! What do you see in this piece, beyond just a historical document? Curator: For me, it's about the *making* of space, not just its representation. Notice how the engraver painstakingly renders each town, each fortress, but gives primary focus to the new canal, it's as though the tool itself reshapes the world. And those inscriptions? They reinforce that control—literally branding the landscape. I wonder, what implications arise with such reshaping endeavors? Editor: So, the very act of creating the map emphasizes human manipulation and its impacts? I'd never considered how mapmaking itself could be an intervention, altering material reality through imposed control! Curator: Exactly! How might the accessibility promised by the canal mask a shift in labor relations, power, the imposition of trade? Or ecological ramifications as a result of engineering this trade passage? What do you think, who benefits from such an extensive modification of the land? Editor: It's made me rethink how infrastructure projects, even historical ones, were never neutral. There were real winners and losers depending on if you're a town upstream, downstream, if you're involved with logistics or if your land will be reappropriated, really shifts the power! I’m learning how the means and implications of the medium itself are inextricably linked to larger economic shifts.