Towards a Forensic Atlas for Threshold Territories
Countermapping the U-1277 Wreck
Leonor Carvalho
This research proposes alternative representations of the U-1277 submarine wreck, scuttled by its own crew off Leixões in 1945, through graphic and editorial design. Drawing on sonar imagery, bathymetry and visual records, it constructs a speculative cartographic system that opens other ways of seeing and knowing the subaquatic territory, through post-representational cartography and forensic countermapping, in three iterative cycles of definition, assessment, design and revision.
The outcome is an atlas of loose plates printed in gold on black paper, whose structure builds an argument about what it means to map a shipwreck and how design produces knowledge about territories that conventional cartography cannot reach. The framework offers a transferable model for other threshold territories.
Ficha técnica:
Ano: 2026
Dimensões: 10 pranchas soltas, 320 × 420 mm cada
Materiais: Dez pranchas soltas, toner dourado sobre cartolina preta.
Produção e acabamentos: Cartas construídas a partir de sonar de varrimento lateral (OceanScan-MST, 2024), batimetria, registos de mergulho da Submania e fotografias históricas.
Recursos e créditos: Desenho digital em Procreate, montagem em Adobe Illustrator 2026 e processamento espacial em QGIS. Desenhos e textos originais da autora.
Unidade Curricular:
Dissertação/Projeto/Estágio (2.º ano) — Projeto
Orientação: Emília Dias Costa
Palavras-chave: Forensic Countermapping, Speculative Cartography, Underwater Cultural Heritage, Sonar Imagery