Mapping and data visualization play an instrumental role in most projects at the Beirut Urban Lab and are considered core components of its research methodology. The map is recognized as a tool for researching, analyzing, and representing urban phenomena as much as it is a tool for public engagement, advocacy, and media activism. Through this platform, we question the conventions of cartographic design and challenge the authority of the map as objective evidence and an instrument of power. The theme seeks to engage new mapping technologies critically, experiment with inventive approaches to visualizing spatial information, and use the map as a key dissemination channel by providing ongoing geographic documentation of the city where data is collected, processed, visualized and shared with other academics, researchers and the wider public alike.