Mapping has come a long way since the days where the need was just simple directions to avoid obstacles or find the quickest route from A to B, and has become an artistic tool as well as a provider of information.
Maps are created using textiles, screen printing, typography, wood burning, stained glass, computer generated and more. There are realistic maps, abstract maps, wood burnt maps from fiction such as the 100 acre wood. And just now there has been an announcement that Prof Melissa Knothe Tate and her team at UNSW Biomedical Engineering have been working on what is called “Google maps for the body”
Jill K Berry and Linden McNeilly’s book “Map Art Lab” shows a multitude of ideas for creative mapping. Some do not provide direction to get from point A to point B though do provide information. The example “Pets in my Neighbourhood” is more likely to be a statistical analysis than what a map is generally considered to be.
When considering my own impression of map making I explored the abstract concept – what I call the anti-map. I find the layout of central Canberra interesting with its circular roadways and it immediately came to mind when looking through Art + Quilt by Lyric Kinard – page 10.
fourteenboxes - a voyage of discovery by vicki stevenson 