HYPERRHIZ 12 (/HYPERRHIZ12/) » INTRODUCTION Introduction: Mapping Culture Multimodally NANCY DUXBURY AND CRAIG SAPER This special issue of Hyperrhiz uses the phrase cultural mapping to describe both a practice and an emerging interdisciplinary field. With multiple roots extending through theory and diverse areas of practice, from artistic inquiry to community planning, cultural mapping reflects the spatial and placed-based research in cultural and artistic studies, architecture and urban design, geography, sociology, cultural policy and planning, and e-media studies. Its recent adoption within a variety of disciplinary areas has necessitated new methodologies, perspectives, and disciplinary objectives. Many of the contributions to this special issue of Hyperrhiz originated in the international conference, Mapping Culture: Communities, Sites and Stories (http://www.ces.uc.pt/eventos/mappingculture/), which was organized by the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, May 28-30, 2014. The conference explored both conventional and alternative approaches to mapping cultures and communities in an international context. Emphasizing the importance of linking practice-based knowledge and experience with academic research, the event was tied to two lines of research: explorations on the role of artistic interventions in the development of more sustainable cities (Duxbury, 2013; Hristova, Dragićević Šešić, and Duxbury, 2015; Culturizing Sustainable Cities project (http://www.ces.uc.pt/projectos/culturizing)) and work on cultural mapping methodological approaches (Duxbury, Garrett-Petts, and MacLennan, 2015). As part of the conference, a special plenary session brought together the work of the Making Interdisciplinary Inquiry Visible research group, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This session explored the "visual turn" in research— especially the role of artistic methods in mapping culture and representing research visually. Craig Saper, Lynn Tomlinson, and John Craig Freeman participated in that plenary session. Will Garrett-Petts' organizing of this plenary session grew directly from his multi-year and multi-faceted project, the Small Cities CURA (Community-University Research Alliance), which sought not just to collect statistical demographic and economic data on the quality of life in small cities, but to appreciate the changing mood and expressions of those places. To map these aspects, the researchers needed to approach the aesthetic dimensions of mapping culture. An international research group sought to appreciate the texture and mood of community growth and change by using multimodal and artistic practices. This entire issue of Hyperrhiz, which includes only a few of the participants in Garrett-Petts' international study group, addresses similar issues and stresses the same importance of appreciating the design aspects of mapping towards addressing social problems. The critical and creative works selected for this special issue of Hyperrhiz – augmented with a few additional complementary projects – stood out for their use of artistic approaches to map and to present the knowledge produced through these mapping processes in non-textual multimodal means. This issue is divided into three sections: Augmented Maps, Conversing With Maps, and Meta-Mapping. ABOUT Nancy Duxbury, PhD, is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal, and Co- coordinator of its Cities, Cultures and Architecture Research Group. In addition to ongoing research on cultural mapping methodologies, her current research focuses on "culturizing sustainable cities," examining both the integration of culture in local sustainability planning and community engagement through environmental-artistic projects. She is a member of the European Expert Network on Culture, and was Chair of the Policies group of a European research network on "Investigating Cultural Sustainability" (2011-2015). She is also an Adjunct Professor of the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Canada, and was co-founder and Director of Research of the Creative City Network of Canada. She is lead editor of Cultural Mapping as Cultural Inquiry (http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138 (Routledge, 2015). Craig Saper is a Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Program at UMBC in Baltimore, and previously the Bearman Family Foundation Chair (2012-2015) and Program Director (2012-2015). He was previously on the faculty at Indiana University, University of Pennsylvania, University of the Arts, and the University of Central Florida, where he was the Director of the Texts & Technology Doctoral Program (2002-2005). He is the author of Amazing Adventures of Robert Carlton Brown: Real-Life Zelig of the Twentieth Century (2016), Hyperrhiz 12 SPECIAL ISSUE: MAPPING CULTURE MULTIMODALLY SUMMER 2015 EDITED BY CRAIG SAPER AND NANCY DUXBURY