INVISIBLE BORDERS
Counter-Atlas of the Road
Marrakesh → Lagos · 2026
INVISIBLE
BORDERS
COUNTER-ATLAS · MRK – LOS · EST. 2026
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INVISIBLE BORDERSCOUNTER-ATLAS · NAVIGATION
Field atlas
Estimated route mapmap
Eighteen estimated stops, nine countries, Marrakesh to Lagos.
Follow the roadlive
Live progress and published dispatches, for anyone following the road.
Field conditionsweather
Live air quality, dust, UV, daylight, moon and country facts per chapter.
Welcomestart
What this prototype is and how to use it.
Field lognotes
Daily observations, refusals and corrections.
Media atlassound
Photographs, sound recordings and route fragments.
Road essaysdrafts
Draft writing from the road.
Archive
Galleryphotos
Published photographs from the route.
Blogwords
Field dispatches and road writing.
Listeningaudio
Voice recordings and ambient field audio.
Method
Brief
Premise and intent of the Counter-Atlas.
Five registers
Capture, counter-cartography, care, listening, assembly.
Lineage
A genealogy of counter-cartographic practice.
Method and reading
Vocabulary, sources and field rules.
Route chapters
Morocco
01Marrakesh02Essaouira03Agadir04Tan-Tan05Laayoune06Dakhla
Mauritania
07Nouadhibou08Nouakchott
Senegal
09Saint-Louis10Dakar11Tambacounda
Mali
12Bamako
Burkina Faso
13Ouagadougou
Ghana
14Kumasi15Accra
Togo
16Lomé
Benin
17Cotonou
Nigeria
18Lagos
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Field lensespick your practiceschange →GE
Who built this
Gerardo Ezequiel
Spatial data, sustainability, cartography.
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Chapter 02 · Morocco

02
COAST→LABOUR

Essaouira

(Atlantic wind, port, ramparts)

12 OctMorocco · coastanchor

The Atlantic begins. Whose work keeps this port moving?

For whom? · By whom? · Under what care?

Field conditions · liveFull reading →

Reading conditions…

Capture · By whom?

Record one sound that would change the meaning of your best image here.

Sound note · 15 s

Record one sound that would change the meaning of your best image here.

Sign in to contribute

The ◉ photo button records a fragment. Voice and note record the field decision around it.

What kind of trace is this? · 0 answers
anonymous

Tap the reading that matches this chapter. The thermometer shows how different field lenses read the route.

PhotoWritingFilmResearchPublic artTransdisciplinary

Provocation

What does the wind here make audible that the image cannot show?

Field log

Pair one photograph with one sound so that neither stands alone as the record of this coast.

Route scaffolds: images and sound seeds↓

These are route scaffolds, not confirmed stops. Each point holds a Wikimedia image slot, a Freesound query and a blog prompt so the road can replace the estimate with lived material.

Ramparts of Essaouira.
Wikimedia Commons

Kayaky · CC BY 3.0

Milestone 02 · Chapter 02

Essaouira

Morocco · Estimated sequence 02

Atlantic orientation waypoint

The first Atlantic stop. Notice how the wind reorganises the day on a coast that has always faced outward.

Care note

Keep names, faces and voices private unless consent, context and a reason to publish are all clear.

Freesound API seed
Atlantic wind desert road border ambience
Aerial view of Agadir.
Wikimedia Commons

Marco Riss · CC BY-SA 3.0

Milestone 03 · Chapter 02

Agadir

Morocco · Estimated sequence 03

Southern Atlantic urban hinge

A rebuilt modern port city. Read the seam between the working harbour and the resort frontage.

Care note

Keep names, faces and voices private unless consent, context and a reason to publish are all clear.

Faro de Sidi Ifni and walls.
Wikimedia Commons

Anass Sedrati · CC BY-SA 4.0

Milestone 04 · Chapter 02

Sidi Ifni

Morocco · Estimated sequence 04

Coast and desert threshold

A former Spanish enclave where coast meets desert. The architecture still carries an older border.

Care note

Keep names, faces and voices private unless consent, context and a reason to publish are all clear.

Camel statues at the entrance to the town of Tan-Tan, Morocco.
Wikimedia Commons

Said456 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Milestone 05 · Chapter 02

Tan-Tan

Morocco · Estimated sequence 05

Road south along the Atlantic Sahara

The road formally enters the Sahara here. Mark the camel gateway as a threshold, not a backdrop.

Care note

Keep names, faces and voices private unless consent, context and a reason to publish are all clear.

+ 9 more milestones in the media atlas.

Read the field method↓
Status
Estimated stop
Country
Morocco
Leg
176 km from Marrakesh
Practice
Sound + image

Port edge

THRESHOLDocean edge, desert road, border timewaitMap duration, not only crossing

Wind, ramparts and the working harbour

Essaouira is an estimated first coastal stop: a walled Atlantic port of fishing, trade, music and wind. The ramparts and the working harbour sit beside a tourist economy that the field note should not mistake for the whole city.

What success looks like

A strong fragment lets the wind and the labour of the port lead, rather than the postcard ramparts.

For whom?

Who is visible as picturesque and who is doing the unphotographed work?

By whom?

Record one sound that would change the meaning of your best image here.

“Record the conditions of a place, not only its facade.”
Field rule · this prototype
“A port is a relation between sea, work and waiting.”
Counter-Atlas note