MAP OF THE WEEK #4

This week's map of the week arrives courtesy of artist Emma McNally. Like the previous two featured artists (Emily Garfield and Derek Lerner) Emma McNally's work is inspired by a vast range of phenomena, from cities to organic structures, all of which seem to relate to one another in that curious, fractal manner underpinning the machinery of the universe. In her own words: 

"I mine all sorts of ways of thinking visually about space and time: the spiral paths of particles in bubble chambers, which are infinitely fast and small; images of cellular mitochondria; the Hubble Deep Field images that probe deep time, where all time is held in the surface of the image but can’t be reached. I like looking at images that show fleeting events and images of aerial views of cities at night—all the emergent formations at a macro scale that look like deep-sea organisms in the dark water. I also love aerial images of airports, both in use and obsolete, as well as the Nazca Lines."

-Emma McNally, interviewed by Art Forum

The map above gives the impression of being a nautical navigational chart, or maybe a weather map, but ultimately the viewer lacks the key or legend to unlock the meaning of its symbols and lines. Without this, the map becomes appreciable only in terms of its own aesthetic, granting it a tantalising mystique. We are invited to peek into another world, one which may or may not exist beyond the limits of our own realm, but we cannot visit. This might be true for most of the maps featured here, but Emma McNally's work has a strong orthographic quality that makes it more... authoritative.

Have a look at her Flickr account, it's stunning:

Emma McNally 

MAP OF THE WEEK #3

This week's map of the week is taken from the sketchbook of artist Emily Garfield.

Emily Garfield creates maps from her imagination, explorations of cartography and urbanism in pen and ink. Much of her work is for sale at her site https://www.emilygarfield.com/.

The particular image is taken from her sketchbook, produced as part of a process of self examination, more of which can be read about on her blog.

MAP OF THE WEEK #2

This week's map of the week is brought to you by New York based artist Derek Lerner, ASVIRUS 39.

Taken from a series of paintings (ASVirus##), the hand-drawn image very closely resembles a city plan, albeit one that is fragmenting or being reconfigured. Lerner states on his website that he has an interest in systems, urbanism, and disease, amongst many other things, and this is reflected in the cyborg aesthetic that he is somehow able to convey through these monochromatic plans.

In a statement for the Conveniant Gratification exhibition at which this work was exhibited, Lerner said that all these pictures are produced using a simple rollerball pen. No drafting or planning is carried out, with the drawings growing organically as ink is applied to paper.

To enjoy more of his work, please have a look at the thumbnails page of his website http://dereklerner.com/Art/Thumbnails.

MAP OF THE WEEK #1

This blog is named psychocartography. What the means is still very much up for grabs, and I suggest there are psychocartographies as much as there are psychogeographies, but within my own praxis I'm still nowhere near arriving at a satisfactory definition.

It should- I suggest- have something to do with maps. Seems appropriate that from time to time an especially interesting map should be shared. Welcome, then, to Psychocartography's inaugural map of the week, courtesy of Anthony Boguszewski.

The map above is taken from the following blog http://edouardcabayatelier.blogspot.fr/2012/09/anthony-boguszewski.html, and traces the movement of chairs in the Jardin de Luxembourg park in Paris. When this was first published, Anthony Boguszewski was a student of Edoard Cabay  at L'Ecole Speciale d'Architecture (ESA). Cabay's atelier, Re-, developed "a process-focused approach to design which is based on the creation of cartographical catalogues of the physical context revealing emergent patterns creating opportunities for design."

Of the interesting piece of cartography his study produced, Boguszewski remarked: "Chairs do not migrate anywhere but closer to the other chairs."

This may or may not continue into a series labelled map of the week.