If you happen to have 19 minutes and 20 seconds, watch my talk from the 2010 Gel Conference. And if you’re intrigued by the context, watch some other videos from the conference. I’m humbled by the company I kept.
On Saturday, Matt Knutzen, Geospatial Librarian for the The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division at the New York Public Library, will speak at the New York Map Society’s monthly meeting, held at the NYPL. Read details on the Map Society’s website. Open to the public. While you’re there, visit the beautiful map room (Room 117) and the current map exhibit, Mapping New York’s Shoreline–don’t procrastinate, because the exhibit ends on June 26.
Tamara Adlin of UX Pioneers calls Gel (Good Experience Live) “the coolest conference in the whole wide world,” and I’m with her. To quote Mark Hurst, the usability event’s founder and host, “Gel is a conference that teaches good experience by creating a series of good experiences throughout the conference.” And here’s the thing–I had a series of really good experiences at this event, for which Mark had drafted me as a speaker. Fortunately, speakers are also granted full attendee privileges: I went to the workshops and talks, mingled with creative and brilliant youth (that’s what it seemed like–the smartest and nicest 30 year-olds ever), ate organic food on bamboo plates, drank water and wine in real glasses, and went on a fabulous field trip to Dead Horse Bay-a great bus outing to a beautiful and haunting landfill of early 50′s refuse. Matt Haughey (Metafilter guy) does it more justice than I can–read his blog entry. The heart of the conference was The TimesCenter, an excellent venue. Most of the speakers described their unusual and creative careers–I was wondering ahead of time how I’d fit in, but that’s the tie that bound us all. How Mark kept us stimulated throughout: short talks (20 minutes), variety–including music (from The Gregory Brothers to the Ebony Hillbillies to Dr. Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey on the Rocks, who in her 20 minutes had all of us singing Zulu chants in rounds), restorative breaks. During my slot, I talked a little about my maps, but mostly about all the great stuff going on in the map world, whose cradle is now the internet.
Most of the attendees were veterans–they come to Gel year after year. I understand why: you come away celebrating creativity, communication, and possibility. Check it out.
In my line o’ work (forgive me, I’m getting all Scottish here) I’m challenged not only cartographically but also artistically: my clients ask me to illustrate all kinds of things. For Gary Clarke, zoologist and zoo director, I depicted the dung of various African animals, based upon black and white photocopies he sent me–I colorized them, Ted Turner-like. I’d like to point out that Google images, my source for oh so many illustrations, fell short on the subject of dung. For another recent client, I depicted the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park. Do you know that album cover? Not so easy. But, you see, my client is from New Jersey, not from London–or he’d have chosen, maybe, The White Album. For my current project, I depicted a gathered swath of McIntosh tartan. Google offers a flat square of McIntosh, but not a nicely draped sample. For that, I had to dash into a Scottish shop in Alexandria, VA to buy a McIntosh scarf. I’m absurdly proud of my McIntosh rendering: I challenge anyone to paint a better version. Now that’s just sad. But here’s the point: my clients ask me to illustrate these oddities in order to bring life to their maps. It’s an old approach, formerly called “chorography,” in which the mapmaker fleshes out geography with pictures that bring life to the place. I’m actually happy to continue the tradition, and I look forward to the next odd job.
I’m giving a talk at the New York Public Library (the main building at 42nd and 5th, in the lower auditorium) with Roger Panetta, with whom I share the same views of history and the value of original documents (well, maps, of course) in education. Please come–no registration necessary, and no entrance fee. The lecture is sponsored by the New York Map Society. Although we’re targeting educators, Roger and I think our observations will interest anyone intrigued by maps.
Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Breaking Borders: The New Map Scene
and what it means to Education
Connie Brown: “Mining Maps”
Mapmaker and owner of Redstone Studios, Ms. Brown will discuss the convergence of satellite mapping and the internet, and how the rise of cultural cartography creates a map explosion providing resources, creative inspiration, and tools for critical thinking. She will present new ways to read maps, explore the exuberant proliferation of serious and playful maps on the internet, the use of map imagery in fine arts, and the redemptive value of making maps by hand.
Roger Panetta: “Panoramic Maps and Reading the Landscape”
Fordham University Visiting Professor of History, Dr. Panetta will discuss the ways in which Wade & Croome’s 1846 Hudson River Panorama provided an engaging way to view the Hudson River landscape and became a rich tool for classroom instruction. For about one dollar—a bit more for a colored version—mid-nineteenth century Hudson River steamboat passengers could buy this small fold-out map to guide them along their river journey.
Some of my maps hit the road, see the country. For example, a print of The Hudson River and its Watershed, commissioned for the Beacon Institute in 2007, is part of the New York Public Library’s current map exhibit, “Mapping New York’s Shoreline, 1609-2009” curated by Alice Hudson, retired chief of the library’s impressive map collection. See a review in Talking Science. The exhibit, in the Gottesman Exhibit Hall of the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building (the main library at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue), will be up until June 26th. The 6 x 8’ original is on loan to the Albany Institute, a museum of history and culture, as part of its exhibit entitled “Hudson River Panorama: 400 Years of History, Art, and Culture.”
Check it out: Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Draw Me My Life. Shown here is one of the featured images, a map showing the French cycling routes of Charlie Owen, an intrepid athelete whose wife commissioned this work as a surprise birthday present. I’m happy to be associated with The National Geographic, granddaddy of American global curiosity. I’m equally happy to work again with Jenna Schnuer, a clever journalist and haiku diarist. Jenna first wrote about Redstone Studios for Lexus Magazine in Winter 2006.
On November 18th, I participated in “Educators’ Evening,” a function at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Surrounded by one of our globes, a print of our most illustrious map (The Hudson River and its Watershed), and some map-related educational material I’d developed, I talked to a slew of teachers about cultural cartography and about mapmaking as a student activity. I think I have some pretty good ideas, and I was heartened by conversations with creative and dedicated teachers. I dozed through history when I was a kid: dull textbooks, teachers blathering on. I think I’d have come to life in the right hands and with good materials.
If you’re an educator interested in maps, chime in. And stay tuned: under the auspices of The New York Map Society, I’m organizing a symposium on cartography in the classroom to be held (tentatively) at the New York Public Library on April 10th, 2010. What I have in mind is a forum for the free flow of ideas. I’ll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, know that the AMNH regularly holds these free events for teachers. This one involved a reception with really great food (in case you happen to be starving young educator), a free tour of their new Silk Road exhibit, live Silk Road music, talks, and an opportunity to talk to organizations providing educational resources, including Redstone Studios. For info, visit the museum’s website.
OK, so apparently the Yeah Yeah Yeahs weren’t actually talking about geography–MAPS is an acronym for Karen O’s former boyfriend. But the beauty of art is that I don’t have to observe biographical context: here in my mapmaking studio, I dedicate this fabulous song to maps themselves.
And while I’m at it, I dedicate this little blog to maps, too.
OFF THE MAP is a blog about maps by mapmaker Connie Brown. When she isn't painting commissioned maps, she entertains Deep Thoughts about the intersections of cartography with the absurdity of life, the Treaty of Tordasillas, the classroom, monsters & putti, Jasper Johns, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
OFF THE MAP is a blog about maps by mapmaker Connie Brown. When she isn't painting commissioned maps, she entertains Deep Thoughts about the intersections of cartography with the absurdity of life, the Treaty of Tordasillas, the classroom, monsters & putti, Jasper Johns, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.