Sunday 25 July 2010

mapping and stuff



map-folded book made at the 'mapping country' workshop
 held in Toronto recently













i have a thing about maps and mapping. i teach a class called 'mapping country' and have a growing collection of books and images to do with maps. i use plant dyes and colours gathered from the land as a means of trying to make sense of where i am, together with a bit of writing and the occasional happysnap

[i wish i could recall where i found the image below]





















i'm not alone in this fascination. Indigenous Australians make paintings that are a kind of mapping. Dorothy Caldwell has made work about mapping. Hannah Lamb is making a project about mapping, spending time in a wood somewhere in the UK.

and two books below that contributed to the substantial lengthening of my arms as a result of bag-schlepping during the recent trans-Pacific odyssey  [thank you Shakerag for your kind faculty discount not to mention your beautifully stocked store!]
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10 comments:

  1. Perhaps of interest, maybe not, but...

    One of my children's favourite books is My Map Book by Sara Fanelli, including such things as 'map of my stomach.' Gorgeously illustrates a child's world and also challenged me on what I think of as a map. Anyways, we love it :)

    Hope you are having a lovely day!
    xo,
    Jeana

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  2. ooh!

    I have this book, it's nice and raw and real, isnt it?

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  3. I love maps and am in the process of making one oe these map doody books for a friends belated birthdays. Maps are both a snapshot of what we think is and fuel for our wanderlust.

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  4. mapping is vital, it sets our brains around a space, an idea even. i know these books, too, and recommend you to some good reading. i am done my travels, and though the map wasn't complex, i traveled space and time a little bit, the car vibration is finally leaving my bones.

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  5. The second book is calling my name. Aah well who will notice yet another book added to my wish list.

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  6. Those books look fascinating, you might like to listen to this podcast it is all about mapping
    http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/110/Mapping

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  7. Maps have long had a fascination for me too. I remember poring over them as a child, trying to find places I'd read about in books, magical names like 'Samarkand' or 'Damascus'. I like the idea of maps of different kinds, maps that take you to different 'whens' perhaps, maps that never take you to the same place twice...such magic in them! My mum wants a map to show her the way to Byzantium...she says Istanbul would be very interesting to visit, but it's Byzantium she really wants to see!

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  8. I see that I am several blog posts behind here but wanted to comment on maps and mapping-- I also have been including maps in some of my collages and collect old maps - the blotchier the better-- I don't know if it is the markings I like or the idea of the map depicting journeys and directions. Another book you might look into is THE MAP AS ART by Katharine Harmon.

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  9. I collect maps and have screen printed maps into fabric collages, love the whole idea of looking down from above and following rivers and roads. Just started a rust piece tonight with a 9' long river of tea down the center.

    I have You Are Here. Fantastic book. It seems maps are EVERYWHERE in artist work now. Not sure if it was always that way or if I am just tuned in more. Have you seen "Maps are Territories, Science is an Atlas" by David Turnbull?

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  10. Beautiful mapping books, I too have been using maps and aerial photgraphy in my work for the last couple of years. I guess it is our way of finding where we sit in the world. We would be lost without them....

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