When we talk maps, there is always the perception issue: who determines what is on a map and what is not? Well, here we have a map project focusing on precisely that. These maps by Carlos Romo Melgar from Madrid are an automapping project: cartography of someone’s personal world. You will immediately see the ressemblance with a medieval Mappa Mundi. Only in these Cosmographies it is not a monk reflecting on the world, but a metropolitan.
As Carlos puts it: “Nowadays we are surrounded by maps (exact and geographical maps), which sometimes have informations we don’t really need to get guided through a city. Cosmographies are a sort of record or archive of personal facts and experiences. The center of that cosmos is the person who looks around himself, and represents what he sees, through his past experiences. I find that is a different way to approach to a city, by the irrelevant opinions instead of the stablished facts from an authority.”
Check his website, you can also buy the Cosmographies there (contact Carlos through e-mail). To top it off, he even makes tailor made maps, to make sure the cosmography reflects your own experiences in a city. Carlos: “I usually talk to the client, and ask for their experiences. From several interviews I get the facts which I represent on the maps.” Well, tailor made or not, looking at these makes me want to go back to Madrid instantly. What a great way to portray a city!
So, I stumbled upon this map on Pinterest, a cool Mondrian style world map. It was posted on a blog called College Life DIY by Vanessa. And I am so happy she did because it let me to the site of ArtPause. It just won’t get much better than this site… Jawdropping map designs all over the place. Yay! I will only post two here, please go their Etsy site to see all of there amazing prints.
This is not the Tube Map you normally see of London. On this one you can see what stops are accessible for wheelchairs and how many aren’t because of steps. Looks like a whole part of town is quite hard to reach, to put it mildly.
This is a pretty cool tip! June Caravel, a London based A Cappella singer from France, made a song about London consisting of words present in over 50 street names of the city. London Song is a witty song featuring the street names in the clip also. What I like most is the map showing all different locations June went to film the different parts in the clip. Awesome! Check out this singer on her website to learn more about June and her music.
I blogged about a cool map wallet before, and recently a friend emailed me about a new one. This is a wallet I would love to pull out of my bag, even in a business meeting. Nice design, with an even nicer map detail of downtown Berlin. It is called the Millionär and is a design by the German brand Tausche. The Millionär is available in black/gold, red/gold, olive and ivory. And great news: Tausche has a webshop!
Thanks for sharing map things with me guys! Yesterday my friend V. mentioned this nice website: Map your Mind. This website enables people to share their personal memories and stories about the city of Utrecht. You can sneak into someone elses head by checking out their personal city mind map. But also, you can add your own. Amazing concept, worth your time! (The website is in Dutch)
PS: Oh and there is also one in English, with nice tips about the city by Danniel.
Boy, do I like the sound of that! Maps and music, it even alliterates. So when Maria Popova (who always posts really cool things on Twitter as brainpicker) mentioned a map where metro lines make music by crossing, I was interested. Alexander Chen created Conductor, an interactive string music instrument consisting of the New York subway lines (its actual schedule). Check this out, it is nicest to watch on the website www.mta.me, and then read more about it on the blog of Alexander. And if you keep the page open in another window while writing (for example a blog J ), it turns out the musical outcome is rather calming!
Who says maps are static? Since we are no longer surprised by the idea of looking at a tiny screen of a navigation system instead of properly -and I must admit it is sometimes very unpractical- folding out a roadmap of France, the interactive use of maps no longer really shocks us. But still, once in a while it is nice to see an example of a real interactive map. Especially the following example, it is a very nice job done by Matthew Somerville. I might be one of the few who’s actually as much intrigued by it as I am, but I am convinced a lot people are at least amused by it. Just check it out for a while, I am sure that waiting for a train to arrive isn’t that bad anymore!
Click on the image to see The Real Thing, all yellow pins are trains moving around London!
detail of his Mappa Mundi
