The Folded Map is a project about Renaissance polyphony. And yet it is also about philosophy, art, and science. It begins with the claim that polyphonic music is part of the world, part of knowledge, and inextricably bound to the histories we inhabit.

With a map, we may wander, evade cul-de-sacs, and hunt for treasure. A map is a provisional thing, reflecting the varied topologies of each time and place. It depicts not terrain as such, but our colourful attempts to parse it, navigate it, and know it.

Polyphonic compositions explore a similar gap between sound and representation. They behave like conceptual art: alternative readings can be made audible, incompatible possibilities allowed to coexist, and the apparent unity of the musical work tested against the documents through which it survives.

A folded map brings unexpected regions into proximity. It creates productive distortions. It becomes portable. A map must be folded before it can be read: the useless totality of the unfolded sheet becomes a sequence of partial views.