Accident or Design
Mapping the State started as a request to contribute to the exhibition Liminal as part of Irish Design 2015. When we suggested that what we wanted to do was map the state we didn’t quite appreciate what this would involve. We know we wanted to use design as a process to engage with scale, organisations, culture and change. We didn’t so much want to solve a problem as start a conversation that might identify opportunities and discover something new.

We chose to use the 1937 constitution as a start-point. The constitution outlines the main arms of state such as judiciary, legislature and executive arms of state. The nature of the relationship between these is open to interpretation and has evolved over time. Based on this framework we started to look for information on the various agencies, organisations and bodies using various government publications and websites. This process highlighted the inconsistency and unreliability of the information and the challenge in getting an overview of the state as a whole.

Much of the online and published information existed in the form of basic organisational diagrams. These were usually limited in their scope and focused on hierarchical structure of the organisations they represented. We felt that the final map should have an attractive quality that presented the information in a less overtly hierarchical way. A geographic map has more of the qualities we were looking for. As a form it encourages the viewer to explore, discover and imagine the ‘landscape’ and ‘pathways’ that exist within it lines and contours. It establishes a language that opens up the discussion to a wider public. Our initial sketches explored the texture and character of what makes a map look real, considering how the viewer interprets the texture and rhythm of what appear to be geographic forms. To achieve the right level of realism we based elements of the coastline, islands and lakes on different locations from around the world.

The overall structure and main landmass was informed by a breakdown of 2015 government expenditure by department. This gave us a series of masses that we clustered around core government decision and law-making, public services, and departments concerned with industry, culture and areas of economic activity. This approach was not exact by any means but gave us a frame of reference. Our intention was to keep a degree of objectivity to the map and to avoid drifting into polemic.

The expenditure figures and top line structure of the executive was supported by information from the UCD Geary Institute of Public Policy. The institute have been tracking the various statutory bodies over the last ten years. Their database formed the basis of the various islands mapped and connected the departments.

The map was supported by a range of diagrams that outlined the structure legislature and judiciary.

The link between government departments and the agencies connected to them was depicted in the form of various ferry routes. The nature of these connections is unclear – they could be fiscal, oversight or influence. In this version of the map there is generally only one route from each island to the mainland. In reality the connections are more complicated that that.

The Department of Arts, Heritage and The Gaeltacht is remarkable by its relative size to other departments on the map and the congestion of the ferry routes connecting it to the various cultural institutions in its care.

Relative to other departments the Department of Justice & Equality has the greatest number of islands within its waters.

Giving shape to the islands
To give another layer of interest to the map we based some of the islands on existing locations. Van Diemen’s land is one such example and was used as a reference when creating the Revenue Commissioners.

Other notable islands include Irish Water. While Irish Water and Gas Networks Ireland are both part of Ervia they have ferry routes that lead to different government departments suggesting some of the governance challenges that exist. The submerged island to the west is Bord Gáis Energy – it is no longer a state asset since being privatised. Another submerged island is Aer Lingus, the remnants of which can be seen to the east of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

As some islands such as Bord Gáis Energy sank others such as Allied Irish Bank emerged when they were bailed out by the state. The shape of AIB is based on the Cayman Islands. As can be seen with the detail below the map presented us some interesting proximities.

The geographic spread of the embassies and consulates are represented as an archipelago of islands whose position correspond with their position on a world map. All islands are linked by ferries back to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Exhibition & Reception
Various stages of evolution of the map were exhibited as part of Liminal in Milan, Eindhoven and Dublin. The map has been published and distributed by Zero-G as a printed map and is also available online at state.zero-g.ie. The map has also been featured in press and on television which has helped to widen the discussion and has has provided us with many suggested updates and corrections to the map. It has been interesting to note that when various government agencies and departments have been in touch with feedback they have adopted the language of the map to explain their perspective. Land-bridges, archipelagos, the mainland and ferry routes have examples of a common language that has emerged from the project and assists academics, political scientists, journalists, and the wider public engaging across disciplines and silos of interest. We hope that this common ground provides a space where we can identify opportunities to improve state communications, services and engagement with its citizens.

The Zero-G Mapping the State team: JP O’Malley, Ciarán ÓGaora and Stephen Ledwidge.

Credits
Concept & Creative Direction: Ciarán ÓGaora; Research: JP O’Malley; Production Design: Stephen Ledwidge; Design Team: Will Rice, Robert Chapman, Jean-marc Bradford. Collaborators and advisors: Emer Coleman, DSRPTN; Niamh Hardiman, UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy and UCD School of Politics and International Relations; Muiris MacCarthaigh, School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast; Colin Scott, Principal of UCD College of Social Sciences and Law, and UCD School of Law, Mark Hargaden, IT, UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy; Nuala Haughey, TASC; Gary Murphy, School of Law & Government, DCU; Bride Rosney; Eamonn Casey; The Copper House

Mapping the State was commissioned by Alex Milton, Director of Irish Design 2015, as part of Liminal, Irish Design at the Threshold. © Zero-G, 2015

The full map and additional information can can be viewed at ​state.zero-g.ie