This is a great project on mapping the history and narratives of a journey/terrain. A sort of map that is more interesting than the territory that Houellebecq proposed.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=k&om=1&msid=103763259662194171141.000001119b4b42bf062c2&msa=0
Looking to use video and record data on a journey, much like Stephen Shore has done on his journey's across america but only through photography. Just multimedia and more forms of it. I'd like to merge the projects Poetry Atlas & History Pin and maybe this atlascine.org that I recently saw but not just Canada.
See http://artcarto.wordpress.com/cartography-narratives/ for more about Story Maps.
More about the project 'Jay Crim and Shekar Davarya spent the summer of 2002 driving across the country on Route 66, collecting interviews with the people who live, work and travel on the old road. The audio, video and images on this map are the result of that summer, and offer a glimpse into what life was like on the now-decommissioned highway and what remains for those who still travel the road. The America's Highway project was intended to create both a history lesson on America of the past as well as a travel guide for visitors on 66 today. The work was supervised by Professor Bill Leslie, History of Science Department and Mike Reese, Center for Educational Resources, The Johns Hopkins University.'
Route 66 Story Map
Escape the Map
This ad for Mercedes Benz is really intriguing how google maps vernacular infiltrates reality. Escape The Map
Its been out a while the ad and had meant to post sooner. It is intriguing because I imagine that a projection on the road with the street view would help with sat nav's as opposed to trying to glance to your right to see a sat nav. You could just stare at the street. Would be cool.
But from a mapping point of view I was interested as it mixes the hyper real through the vernacular of google maps with reality. Now from my experiences I had learnt that hyper real was associated with the postmodern and specifically baudrillard 'the map preceedes the territory'. Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal.
Having looked at a recent paper by Sébastien Caquard, Cartography I: Mapping narrative cartography. See here: http://phg.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/06/0309132511423796
Sebastien points out an interesting view of the story map, this is the fictional representation, the story map as Sébastien Caquard puts it;
‘map is more interesting than the territory because it is an idealized simplification of a complex – and often depressing – reality. This resonates with the idea that in the postmodern world most of the time the hyper-real appears joyful beside the deterioration of the environment to which it refers (Westphal, 2007).’
See now this idea of the postmodern hyerreality being joyful is what I remember with Baudrillard and simulacra's, but I wasn't aware of the map is more intersting than the territory a point illustrated by the latest novel by Michel Houllebecq entitled La Carte et le Territoire (The Map and the Territory) (2010).
I'm not sure how we're supposed to weigh between Baudrillard or Houllebecq, but like how Sebastien says they follow with this idea of the joyful presentations of reality. Many of the these joyful selections that have been crowd sourced by google maps.
'Paraphrasing Houellebecq, in other words, ‘Google Maps are more interesting than the territory’.'
This leaves me very intrigued that the story maps that Google are providing are more interesting than reality, much in the repsect that this Escape the Map ad by Mercedes Benz particularly realises well.
It makes me want to visit, or at least try to read the videos / papers that transpire from this: Cartography & Narratives
Meanwhile, read more about the different perspectives on the map and the territory here
I have been trying to get Vism.ag/Vol 4 available in print away from P.O.Demand services and got decent prices too, but still trying to find investment to do a long enough run to realistically make it viable. But... I will try to get an ebook available of it soon and the reason I bring it up is that there are a few selections of work by Denis Wood in the online sample and there's a review of his book Everthing Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas that I'm sure will be of essential reading to cross reference with the thoughts of the Story Map and fictional cartography. (the word fictional still distracts me as google maps work on a degree of truth, they arent made up).
Anyhow, happy hols everyone and will try to get more posts up. In the mean time, follow @visualthinkmap on twitter for more of what I see, just less analysis.
Edinburgh Creative Map
Edinburgh is the latest creative map to be rendered, vism.ag/edinburgh. Mapped in collaboration with creative-edinburgh.com launching Thursday 3rd November, 6 - 8pm at The Cube, 47 Leith Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3AT.
Identified as one of the 9 creative 'hotspots' in the UK by Nesta, this location has some great places on offer. From Edinburgh printmakers studio, Analogue Books, The Fruitmarket Gallery @fruitmarket to round the corner Stills photography gallery, there appears to be a lot of bustling creativity that the platform of creative-edinburgh.com @CreativeEdin will be sure to promote and keep you abreast of its output both nationally and internationally.
Creative Maps share knowledge of creative facilities in the world, or more specifically Edinburgh's area to help you in your creative and innovative endeavors.
Be it Galleries, Museums, Theaters, Bookshops, Arts Centers, Magazines, Studios, Design Companies, Craft Shops
Nearby on Thursday 3rd November, go check it out 6 - 8pm at The Cube, 47 Leith Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3AT
Check out the interactive map to see all the locations on Edinburgh's Creative Map vism.ag/edinburgh
Know any places in Edinburgh that aren't mapped? Sign up and add your own through vism.ag/sharegems
More info: @CreativeEdin
Sheffield Creativity Google Map
http://vism.ag/sheffieldcreativemap
Inspired by Laura Mansfield's manchester map. http://vism.ag/k
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Sheffield-Creative-Cartography/897124
see more: http://inkandplay.tumblr.com
Shape My Language
Love this! Every student, designer, person has to have the ability to immerse themselves in type physically rather than just mentally. .
Mapping Knowledge
A new map of knowledge based on electronic data searches in which users moved
from one journal to another, thus establishing associations between them.
A new map of knowledge has been assembled by scientists at the research
library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It is based on electronic data searches in which
users moved from one journal to another, thus establishing associations between them.
The map includes both the sciences and the humanities in a hub and wheel
arrangement, with the humanities at the center and the sciences arrayed around
them. The arrangement fell out naturally from the data and is not contrived,
said Johan Bollen, the leader of the research team.
In the map, published in the current issue of PLoS One, it has some great clustering and is excellant to realise through distance and colour their revelance to each other. The journals are color-coded as follows: physics, light purple; chemistry, blue; biology, green; medicine, red; social sciences, yellow; humanities, white; mathematics, purple; and engineering, pink. The interconnecting lines reflect the probability that a reader will click from one journal to another on the computer screen.
Similar maps have long been constructed on the basis of footnotes in one journal’s articles that refer to articles in other journals. Dr. Bollen believes that his electronic click map better represents scholars’ behavior than does citation analysis, as the footnote method is called.
from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/science/16visuals.html?_r=2
found here: http://www.twine.com/item/123nz0p3g-ry/visual-science-map-of-knowledge-nytimes-com
Blank Canvas
Reminds me of the artists christo & jean claude wrapping the arch way in italy and other places. The commercial is called 'Blank Canvas' and questions what would be possible if all design ideas could start from a blank piece of canvas. Great changing of our perspectives and making us re-see the world which a good designer/artist learns to do.
Learning to Look: A Handbook for the Visual Arts (Phoenix Books)(visual thinking), good book by joshua c taylor.
The all new Ford Kuga, which may just make it State side in a few years, combines Ford's new kinetic design with all-wheel-drive and on-and-off-road capability. How well Europe will receive this new CUV will be known when the Kuga goes on sale in June.
The commercial was directed by Danish director Nicolai Fuglsig, who also directed guinness domino ad which was a great triumph for their brand I think returning them back to their surreal, quirky, mexican-look brilliance started by amv bbdo with Snail Racing (bet on black) by directed by frank budgen, Swimmer by directed by jonathon glazer & of course Surfers by j glazer (who also did dreamer with those great squirrels).
Now Guinness made you visually think.
Anyhow veared off from Nicolai's great wrapped blank canvas ad, the music is by French singer Camille.
Brilliant
from here: http://visualthinkmap.ning.com/video/video/show?id=2168552:Video:2345
more info: http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080522.004/ford-kuga-commercial-makes-cl-debut
Black Box
Think it is the black box that kept details of the flight maps. Well here are a few excellant visual exanples of flight mapping.
The first is great, although when you click on the tab flight maps, and then select a country for flights too, it does just assume that the flight originates from the uk. hence uk - paris. dont know if you're able to change the origin of the flight. but look nice and clean visualisations and so highly informative.
from here: http://www.flightmapping.com/maps/files/europe/FRANCE.asp
found here: webuser magazine - issue 197 p69 25th september in their forum form BedstrofromAP
The study for Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was driven by the presumption that the
airport itself would be relocated off-shore, and subsequently required an investigation into the implications that this could have on the Netherlands.
Not as clean and clear as the first but equally creative and informative.
Bank Space Sky Onion Visualisations
1.2.
3.4.
Awesome visualisations by Theo Deutinger Architects.
1. China
vs. Worldbank in Vrij Nederland
Vrij Nederland issue Nr. 17/18; 2008 features a world map, which compares the
top ten money streams of the Worldbank versus the top ten foreign direct
investments of China. Underlying one can see the expected GDP growth per country
for the year 2007. While the Worldbank’s core task is to help world's poorest
nations, most of its money is lent to countries with double digit growth rates.
I particularly like the subtle shades of grey for the countries and then the
bold blue & red sprouting from world bank and china much in the style of
their invasion, presence affecting these countries. (much like dads army, uk).
Then some handy pye charts for stats keyed to their colour.
producer: Theo Deutinger in collaboration with Pieter van Os
http://www.td-architects.eu/?id=4
2. Building
up Space
50 years ago the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 was launched by the
Soviet Union, inaugurating the rage to occupy outer space. Currently, the U.S.
Strategic Command monitors 12.771 satellites and other large objects with about
10cm in diameter orbiting the earth. Out of these 12.771 objects only 872 are
active satellites, while most of the remaining 11.899 monitored pieces are
dysfunctional and considered ‘space debris’. Together with millions of other
smaller pieces of debris generated by spacecraft explosions or by collisions
between satellites, they form a rapidly growing dangerous nebula, causing a
major threat for damage on satellites and spacecrafts. The power released by a
1cm piece of space debris is equivalent to a hand grenade. While our lives on
earth depend more and more on GPS satellite support, the space they are imbedded
in becomes more and more threatened. As an American General puts it “…our
space architecture is very fragile.”
Very interesting subject matter to think that their is that much floating
above our atmosphere. Never imagined that scale.
Producer: Theo Deutinger
http://www.td-architects.eu/?id=96
3. High-Rise
Buildings
Out of the 191 countries that are counted by the United Nations only 81 (42%)
to have a building that is higher than 100 meter. Still, lining up the highest
buildings of these 81 nations according to their geographical proximity creates
an impressive skyline.
I really love this visualisation. Firstly it is great how they collate all
the high rise buildings and they layer it with a little design/illustration with
a silhouette of a sky line. Then there's also the gradient from blue to white
for the sky. It tells you the height of each building and its name, location and
they're sectioned Asia, Europe, Africa & America. It then has outer rings
showing scale at 200 metres & 300 metres to offer comparison between.
I kept questioning why circular, would it work better along a straight scale
to serve as like a bar chart? But I think it is served best as a circle because
it gives me the sense of the earth, rhetorically emphasized with the orange/red center
core (contrasting brilliantly with the blue sky), and the buildings grow out of
it trying to reach the planes in the sky and even satellites in space to give
you a sense of scale. Admitted a bar chart would probably be easier to adjudicate
their size in comparison, but it would change it all.
It would probably have to be smallest to largest changing the continent
grouping. It wouldn't have this great notion of height with the earth as the center
that these buildings grow from to reach satellites. It wouldn't be half as intriguing
as it is now.
Producer: Theo Deutinger, Johannes Pointl, Beatriz Ramo
http://www.td-architects.eu/?id=49
4. Onion
Again great sense of scale with how much the onion is exported form the
netherlands and how little they need to import. Also very informative as to the
amount countries import with a convenient key of size, colour and scale of cost
with the arcs/lines connecting the nodes/countries.
Producer: Theo Deutinger
http://www.td-architects.eu/?id=58
Four excellant visualisation, and there are many more at their site that I haven't
shown here.
Notebook Route Map
This is showing the visual communication of my thoughts on page(s), (9 pages). A visualisation through the journey of my investigation on the terrain of thoughts.
They meander accross the double page spread and mostly are connected via their physical position, i.e. a train of thought finishes, it restarts at the same point at the edge of the page on the next.
They were experiments to see how I visualised my ideas. Whether their physical arrangement through the notebook of my research, ideas, investigations helped me understand better. Re-Re-Reinvestigation.
The second image (route map) is for others to use, simply overlay it on any terrain thou wishes squire, your own notebook pages, maps etc. Then visually think and elicit thoust own topographic connections and routes.
It is quite a conceptual abstract notion to take the visual direction of my thoughts on page(s), the journey of my investigation on the terrain of thoughts and utilise this route with alternative content/terrain. Really like the abstract/organic lines mixed with geometric shapes bringing a bit of order to my thoughts (chaos).
Some experiments I have created, playing with that great notion of 'the map is not the territory' - baudrillard. Hence investigations into what is the territory, and can you utilise maps in different territories. Spatial arrangments intensifying/enhancing cognition. Got me buzzing.
Hope they're interesting.
The creative commons - attribution - non commercial - share alike