RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Cartographic’

More Map Art: 27 Cool Cartographic Sculptures & Drawings

05 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

map art fairburn 2

Rivers become veins in detailed portraits, mirrored city blocks resemble modernized Persian rugs and urban topographies emerge from rolls of tape in these map-based works of art. Some create the images of cities, countries and continents from unexpected materials, like Manhattan rendered in a 2.5-ton block of marble, while others use complex aerial imagery and cartography as an unexpected medium for drawings and sculpture.

Google Maps as Persian Rugs by David Thomas Smith

map art persian rugs 1

map art persian rugs 2

map art persian rugs 3

Images composited from Google Maps screencaps are reconstructed piece-by-piece into mirrored images inspired by Persian rugs in ‘Anthropocene,’ a series by David Thomas Smith. The Dublin-based artist chooses locations that are centers of global capitalism, including Dubai, the Beijing International Airport, and industrial sites like the Delta Coal Port in Vancouver, British Columbia. “This collision between the old and the new, fact and fiction, surveillance and invisibility, is part of a strategy to reflect on the global order of things,” says the artist.

Manhattan in 2.5 Tons of Marble

map art marble manhattan 1

map art marble manhattan 2

Japanese sculptor Yutaka Sone did, in fact, use Google Maps and aerial photographs to render an accurate replication of Manhattan in this whopping 2.5-ton block of white marble. But most of his inspiration actually came from a series of helicopter rides in which he got a feel for the city, ultimately carving it as if it were an elevated plateau. The details of the sculpture are so accurate, residents of the city can locate their own buildings by counting the blocks.

Topographical Tape Maps by Takahiro Iwasaki

map art tape 1

map art tape 2

Best-known for his intricate thread sculptures, Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki has also created topographical maps carefully sliced into fat rolls of gray and blue electrical tape. The landscape replicated on the gray roll is Victoria Peak, a mountain located on the western half of Hong Kong Island.

Map Portraits by Ed Fairburn

map art fairburn 1

map art fairburn 3

Ed Fairburn uses paper maps as canvases for incredibly detailed portraits, rendering human features as topographical landscapes on top of street maps, star charts, railroad blueprints and other types of maps. The portraits seem to blend seamlessly with the landscape features, with rivers and roads running through them like veins.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
More Map Art

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Art Imitates Digital Life: Real-World Google Map Pins

Those red pins marking the city center on Google Maps become 20-foot-tall, real-life urban installations in the ‘Maps’ series by Aram Bartholl.
Click Here to Read More »»


Flexible Paper Sculptures Bend Reality + Warp Perceptions

Li Hongbo’s sculptures look like fine ceramic at first, but they are far more layered than they appear. This talented artist excels in the unexpected.
Click Here to Read More »»


Incredibly Intricate 2.5 Ton Carved Marble Manhattan

The island of Manhattan is a fascinating place on its own, but one artist has given it new life. This marble recreation of Manhattan is full of amazing details.
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on More Map Art: 27 Cool Cartographic Sculptures & Drawings

Posted in Creativity

 

Trap Streets & Rooms: Cartographic Errors Catch Copycats

19 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

trap street map fake

Phantom settlements and trap streets are faked or falsified, intentionally introduced (or materially altered) by map makers to catch those who would copy them. And the practice is not limited to towns or roads – there are trap ponds, trap parks, trap buildings and trap sidewalks, too.

trap street real example

Now imagine the same thing applied to indoor spaces being mapped by new mobile device apps: trap rooms, halls, closets and stairwells – entirely fake spaces that could at worst confuse, but at best might become targets of offbeat geo-locational games.

trap room interior navigation

BldgBlog (image above by Laura Pedrick for The New York Times) speculates about introducing false information to interior maps of places like shopping malls:

“Nothing sinister—you don’t want people fleeing toward an emergency stairway that doesn’t exist in the event of a real-life fire—but why not an innocent janitorial closet somewhere or a freight elevator that no one could ever access in the first place? Why not a mysterious door to nowhere, or a small room that somehow appears to be within the very room you’re standing in?”

trap paper street

Unlike some paper streets (example shown above), which are planned but never become a reality, trap streets and phantom settlements (like Argleton, a faux town depicted below) are fictitious creations from the start, designed to mislead copyists into revealing their own copyright infringement. Normally innocuous (like: renaming or bending a road), you think of them as equivalent to programmer’s Easter Egg or a hidden watermark  on a photograph – a buried surprise in everyday maps.

trap phantom settlement

But what are the implications of doing this on a smaller scale of pedestrian circulation, deceiving people not by square mile, but by cubic feet? Could you frustrate the janitorial staff at a school, scare someone into imagining a secret room in their apartment complex? Would it trick urban explorers into actually physically trapping themselves? We will set these open questions aside and leave you with a little fun fact: while designed to catch copiers, trap streets cannot themselves be copyright.

Share on Facebook

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Trap Streets & Rooms: Cartographic Errors Catch Copycats

Posted in Creativity

 

Trap Streets & Rooms: Cartographic Errors Catch Copycats

11 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

trap street map fake

Phantom settlements and trap streets are faked or falsified, intentionally introduced (or materially altered) by map makers to catch those who would copy them. And the practice is not limited to towns or roads – there are trap ponds, trap parks, trap buildings and trap sidewalks, too.

trap street real example

Now imagine the same thing applied to indoor spaces being mapped by new mobile device apps: trap rooms, halls, closets and stairwells – entirely fake spaces that could at worst confuse, but at best might become targets of offbeat geo-locational games.

trap room interior navigation

BldgBlog (image above by Laura Pedrick for The New York Times) speculates about introducing false information to interior maps of places like shopping malls:

“Nothing sinister—you don’t want people fleeing toward an emergency stairway that doesn’t exist in the event of a real-life fire—but why not an innocent janitorial closet somewhere or a freight elevator that no one could ever access in the first place? Why not a mysterious door to nowhere, or a small room that somehow appears to be within the very room you’re standing in?”

trap paper street

Unlike some paper streets (example shown above), which are planned but never become a reality, trap streets and phantom settlements (like Argleton, a faux town depicted below) are fictitious creations from the start, designed to mislead copyists into revealing their own copyright infringement. Normally innocuous (like: renaming or bending a road), you think of them as equivalent to programmer’s Easter Egg or a hidden watermark  on a photograph – a buried surprise in everyday maps.

trap phantom settlement

But what are the implications of doing this on a smaller scale of pedestrian circulation, deceiving people not by square mile, but by cubic feet? Could you frustrate the janitorial staff at a school, scare someone into imagining a secret room in their apartment complex? Would it trick urban explorers into actually physically trapping themselves? We will set these open questions aside and leave you with a little fun fact: while designed to catch copiers, trap streets cannot themselves be copyright.

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

7 of the Smallest Hotels and Hotel Rooms in the World: From Pipe Rooms to Capsule Hotels

You can judge for yourself which one is the actual winner of this dubious award after taking a look at this incredible collection of the tiniest hotels in the world!
Click Here to Read More »»


8 Highly Unconventional Modern Bedroom Furniture Sets: From Self-Defense Tables to Mouse-Trap Beds

A collection of some of the slickest as well as the silliest bedroom furnitures, furniture sets and furniture designs you can find – just don’t fall victim to the mouse-trap bed!
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Trap Streets & Rooms: Cartographic Errors Catch Copycats

Posted in Creativity