When I was 10 years old, I asked Santa for the National Geographic Atlas of the World. Eighteen years later, maps still get me all excited. I bought these maps at an independent Seattle poster shop, and before hanging them up, I literally slept with them next to my bed for a few nights. Their existence is surprisingly comforting to me.
I haven't quite figured out The Psychology of Map Loving yet (warning, this is about to get super nerdy), but I think it has something to do with how they parcel and simplify something really complicated - space. They allow us to position ourselves within a geography that we can digest in one glance while simultaneously showing everywhere else we could be. Other hypotheses, please? I think that these maps are particularly wonderful because of their moderny graphics.
In the spirit of "positioning," in Manhattan, I lived in the neighborhoods of Inwood (on the tip top) and Hamilton Heights (West of Harlem). In Seattle, I live in Roosevelt, just North of the University District and East of Greenlake. (I think you can click on the maps to make them bigger.)
This printing company make maps of other interesting cities. But before you get trigger happy, be forewarned that if your city is represented, I might be sharing the joy and getting you one of these maps as a gift!
9 comments:
Oh Jen. The things we could discuss about maps. I find them to be lies and somewhat manipulative. You see, no map is honest. They all hold the ethnocentric values of the maker...what they deem important, or what they see as valuable. Its about power.
Mind you, aesthetically I LOVE them. And I love looking at maps and thinking about the person who designed them. But in reality, is it really reality? Oh yeah, I went there.
Boy, you set it up, but Cassie just blew my mind!
That Ork Posters really missed a chance by not doing a SLC map. It would be one big, beautiful square. Totally easy to fit words into squares and it requires almost zero creativity or aesthetics! Isn't art suppose to be easy?
I hear you with the maps sistah! i heart them so much. I just looked at the boston map. i live in that big void below brighton. it's a void because brookline refused to be annexed by boston, and consequently is in its own county. also the birthplace of jfk. yeah, if you want to have a nerd-off, let me know.
I am also a map lover. thus my deep fascination with remote sensing -- images of reflected or emitted light in wavelegths we can't see with our eyes, commonly used to map geo/bio characteristics... wonderfully, colorfully fascinating.
maps allow me to wonder and explore. in a studying glance my mind can walk, and when the map arouses curiosity instead of satisfying it, my legs can find the place and discover.
As I said already, Matt nearly wept when he opened your present... it was beautiful. Thank you SO much!!
once upon a time, i had the HUGEST CRUSH on a boy who lived in roosevelt, and i snuck to a party at his house one night--that neighborhood holds scandalous memories for me. miss you.
awesome. If maps are your thing, I suggest you take a look at http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ if you haven't already. :]
Oh.My.Goodness. I am a closet map nerd myself! haha, we rock, you must take me to that shop when I return to rainy Seattle, I want a Seattle one as well! Funny thing is I have a map kind of like that of Amsterdam hanging in my room here... check it out -http://www.markandrewwebber.com/index.php?/ongoing/amsterdam/
When I was a kid I used to sit and trace maps out of my dad's world atlas. Probably from age 5 on to maybe 15. After a while, I could just draw the the entire United States, really the whole world, without having to trace, all from memory. I was pretty good. I also used to draw future cityscapes and space battles, including many Death Stars and Cloud Cities. Whenever I played RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons or Rifts, the maps were the most compelling component for me. I loved games like SimCity and Civilization.
But, unfortunately, I think then I discovered boobies, and my journey in to art and cartography came to an abrupt end. If it wasn't for puberty, I might have had an excellent career.
Anyway, to this day, whenever I'm on road trips I sit and study the Rand McNally atlas instead of looking out the window (well, not the entire time, but you feel me). And I can get lost on Google Maps/Google Earth for hours on end.
I suppose my love affair with maps comes from being able to, at least in part, discover tropes of new places, and from generally being able to explore things I'll otherwise never get to actually see.
To that extent, women and maps are about the same for me.
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