Map Music: Map Ref. 41°N 93°W by Wire

Posted on June 23, 2014 by marleen

Weird, but I don’t have any map song posts yet on Maps and the City! So, what better way to start with this one. Thank you Melle for introducing this classic to me (so you should thank him for my music education). Enjoy Map Ref. 41°N 93°W by Wire (1979).

“An unseen ruler defines with geometry
An unrulable expanse of geography
An aerial photographer over-exposed
To the cartologist’s 2D images knows
The areas where the water flowed
So petrified, the landscape grows
Straining eyes try to understand
The works, incessantly in hand
The carving and paring of the land
The quarter square, the graph divides
Beneath the rule, a country hides

Interrupting my train of thought
Lines of longitude and latitude
Define and refine my altitude

The curtain’s undrawn
Harness fitted, no escape
Common and peaceful, duck, flat, lowland
Landscape, canal, canard, water coloured

Crystal palaces for floral kings
A widespread waving span of wings
Witness the sinking of the sun
A deep breath of submission has begun”

Guardian Map Quiz

Posted on June 13, 2014 by marleen

Something awesome for a Friday: check out this ‘Can you identify the book from its map? – quiz’ by The Guardian. Worth your time. I must admit I only scored 6 out of 10.. Go go go! Here’s one of the questions to get you warmed up:

Good Night Jewellery – Wake Up Post

Posted on June 9, 2014 by marleen

I can pretend it did not take ages since my last post, but that would be unfair. I haven’t had much time for Maps and the City lately, which is a shame. Was there not enough cool map stuff out there? Definitely not! There’s more than enough beautiful and cool design things going on. So the good news is, I’m back with loads of inspiration. Here we go, let’s start with one of my recent finds on Etsy:

These cufflinks, rings and necklace pendants are handmade and called Good Night Rome, Good Night Berlin, Good Night Warsaw: you get the idea. The image on this jewellery is based on satellite night photos. The artist (Simon from FruitBijoux) added some gold metal particles to the surface to create a shimmering view on the city. Very pretty if you ask me!

Get Lost in Straetview: 17th Century Amsterdam

Posted on April 22, 2014 by marleen

Looking for a good reason to visit Amsterdam this Spring? The Amsterdam-based maritime museum Het Scheepvaartmuseum just openend a great exhibition on their Atlases. Very high on my to do list, as you can imagine.

If you can’t really book tickets to Amsterdam anytime soon, you’re still lucky: today the museum launched the website Straet View (think Google Street view goes seventeenth century). Great fun to wonder around seventeenth century Amsterdam.

I’ll keep you guys updated about when I’ve visited the exhibition because there will be a lot more map fun in The Atlases (so be careful… that post might still trigger you to visit Amsterdam real soon!).

Development of Golden Age Amsterdam

Posted on March 27, 2014 by marleen

Look at this: great visualisation of the development of the city of Amsterdam from 1600 to 1700. Enjoy! (Credits: Stadsarchief Amsterdam)

DIY Map lamp

Posted on March 3, 2014 by marleen

Great idea if your interior could use some mappiness. Roomed.nl suggests you chop a globe in half and turn the halves into lamps. Awesome if you ask me. Don’t know whether my boyfriend can actually take more map stuff in our place, but there’s only one way to find out!

Marginalia in cARTography

Posted on February 23, 2014 by marleen

From next week on, there is an exhibition on show in the Chazen Museum of Art called Marginalia in cARTography.This exhibition (February 28 until May 18) explores the visual discourse between marginal artistic images and the maps where they appear, as this marginalia sheds light on the content and purpose of the maps, their authors and patrons, and on the historical period when they were made. The exhibition also explores cartography as an art form, with a focus on the representations in the map margins. Guest curator is Sandra Sáenz-López Pérez, an Spanish art historian who specializes in the iconographical analysis of maps and the artistic interest of historical cartography.

If you don’t happen to be around the corner of Wisconsin (like me), you might like the fact that the catalogue is downloadable here.

Map: Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula, Map, Amsterdam, 1635, 41 x 54 cm., Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Map Art by Coen Pohl

Posted on February 17, 2014 by marleen

Looking for a special gift for a friend who’s crazy about Amsterdam? What about this limited edition art print? This Amsterdam city map by Coen Pohl measures 100cm x 100cm (limited edition 1/100, €680,-). Check out Zart design.

Biblical Map

Posted on January 31, 2014 by marleen

This is gonna make the theologians in my family happy, I think! Check out this Tube Map with Paul’s Missionary Journeys. I can’t wait to hear the feedback from my fam.

Neon is the new Black

Posted on January 10, 2014 by marleen

Cool map alert! These Neon Maps City Posters by Jay Powell might be the perfect map for your living room or office. They are suitable for framing and there are various cities to choose from: Moscow, New York, Melbourne just to name a few. Ah, and countries too! And… if your region/city/country/favourite intersection is not on the list yet, you might just get it by backing the project on Kickstarter! Check it out, you only have 6 days left.