Mapping

I was having issues creating my second post so I wrote it down to post when I figured the problem out.

Real Post Date: 2 / 11 / 2011

The whole concept of creating a map as art was strange to me and seemed a bit cliche at first. Then, after we watched the video of Julie Mehretu, it became more clear to me. Before the beginning of this week my ideas for this project were leaning towards cliche. My first idea was to recreate my childhood neighborhood with my memories as landmarks and in a cartoon childish manner. Other then this, the rest of my ideas involved portraying the USA as the bully of the world. I am not one to bash my own country or have considerable hatred towards it, but it does seem to be a well known idea that is controversial.  My sketch of Uncle Sam swallowing the world made me think of mankind as a whole destroying the world. I am in a sustainable design course which I find affecting the way I think and approach certain things. After the beginning of this week I began to think deeper. Deforestation has been effecting the world since mankind began domesticating animals and since the invention of agriculture. It has been a snowball effect. People continued to keep destroying more and more of the forests with giving little to nothing back. It has become more aware to us as we become more educated about the world. However it is not something that is a high priority of the world yet it is one of the most important. In my piece I want to capture the history, effects, and physical impact on the world deforestation has had. I enjoy mixed media and want to continue exploring the materials I could use. I love using ink because of the limited control and the unique bold markings that come from it. I also love the feel of maps with the bold solid lines that seem to mean something important and supposedly are accurate. I plan on somehow incorporating these aspects strongly into my project. I also enjoyed the Question related to an art piece not having an ending or conclusion. This is going to be something I want to take into consideration. It creates a nice concept for the artist and the viewer. The artist is given the opportunity to put down personal things but not so others are able to know what it is. It is if you are writing in code that you only know how to decipher. It also creates a mystery intriguing viewers and allowing them to interpret the piece in a way that relates to them. My most recent idea is to create a piece representing the deforestation of the world. I am not entirely sure how I am going to create something without an end or conclusion, but I want it to come off progressively but never reaching climax. I want it to make people think what will happen if it continues and hopefully they are thinking of only negative conclusions. It is funny because we talked about Utopia at the very beginning All but one of my ideas is contrasting to such an idea. I guess it is easy for me to think negative about the world, yet I never find myself saying I do not like my life. I think it is because I do not know what I want out of life but I know what things I want to change. As a more difficult exploration of mapping, I could challenge myself to get to understand what my utopia would be.

Here are some mapping examples that caught my eye browsing for ideas...

By Students at Don Mills Collegiate Institute    
This picture I thought was a unique way of using mapping, the anatomy, and also contrasting two different mappings.

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By Benjamin Edwards

This one caught my eye because of the bold colors and bold lines. Also the digital feel alone gives the mapping sense to this picture.

 

Taken in Stockholm. Photo By: Nicholas Claude
This would be my favorite picture I came across. It appears so simple and effortless and it brings into the childhood feeling that I explored in my mind. The red markings also makes me thing of the children book about the little boy and his magic crayon that brings things to life.