Mapping

cartography - mapmaking -combines science, aesthetic and technical ability to create a balanced and readable representation, capable of communicating information effectively.

I am very interested in maps. I love them.
I understand them and I make them.
I especially like how maps can be very organic, sometimes resembling root systems of plants or the veins of a human body.

Maps are also an expression of a particular point of view. In this case maps can be works of art as they are just another avenue of interpreting the world. In an episode called Mapping of This American Life, Ira Glass says, "Every map is the world seen through the filter of a different lense." Like a photograph the composition of a map may be documentary, scientific, aesthetic or poetic. They can also be altered to tell a story or express an opinion.

I have in the past year been working on a nine foot timeline/map of history of which I will divulge no more details at this time.

Until then, here are some artists I have found that are making maps:


Paula Scher

Manhattan


Manhattan (detail)


Tsunami

See more at Maya Stendhal Gallery


Nina Katchadourian

World Map, 1989


Coastal Merger, 1993

Look very closely.
Nina Kathchadouorian reassembles paper maps to create new and witty constructions.
Also see more here: Geographical Pathologies

View officialthisameric anlife's map

Taken in (See more photos here


Dennis Wood
is a cartographer that I heard on This American Life's recent show called Mapping(listen free).
He did a project where he extensively mapped his neighborhood of Boylan Heights in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Boylan Power is a map of the neighborhood’s phone, cable, and power lines.