Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, blah blah, I've been busy, blah blah.

All I have is this neat link.

Be safe and happy!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Map Art

Sorry I've been gone for awhile. Although I've been trolling the internet relentlessly it's kind of been The Fall/Winter of My Discontent. Yes I shamelessly ripped that off from my fave author John Steinbeck but it's also an allusion to the past and future Best Summer Ever, which will be reappearing in style in 2009. Even though it seems like I spend ALL DAY online, there hasn't been a whole lot that has piqued my interest anywhere on the internets, interweb, intertron, or real life. Well, this video definitely brought a smile to my face.



Momentarily pulling me out of the doldrums, when I was dawdling on NotCot the other day I saw a really neat collection by the artist Shannon Rankin (aka selflesh on Flckr). Turns out she uses old maps to create some super sweet art. Like art I wish I could create if I could create art. She has all kinds of stuff from flat pieces with map cut-outs (as seen below) to textured images (see her Topography gallery).

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Community Mapping Sweeping the Nation

I was reading the Los Angeles version of Streetsblog on my igoogle and came across this neat blog post about community mapping. Seems like its all the rage these days for cool projects like mapping foot and bike paths or the locations of different species of trees.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart: past posts have maps of the 60 worst intersections in Los Angeles, the 25 most ticketed/towed roads in Los Angeles, Los Angeles area colleges and universities, the Tour de Ballona, and Red Line Barhop. I also have a couple of public google maps of my summer vacation to Italy, a proposed itinerary for a 2009 Rust Belt baseball trip, proposed sites for NFL stadiums in Los Angeles, and the Boston Marathon Course (don't worry - I have no plans on running. ever).

The ability to create spatial representations is extremely powerful and, for me, an awful lot of fun. I can't wait until I have time to work on some REAL projects.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Striking Road Segment Map/Picture


I was on NotCot today and found this great map of the United States. It doesn't have any geographical or political features because the map only consists of roads. The really neat thing is how various features come out because of road density (like various large metropolitan areas, Lake Michigan, or the Appalachian Mountains). Neat-o!