At the end of last month, I teamed up with Wendy Brawer, founder and director of Green Map System, to give a map-making workshop at her studio in the East Village as part of the annual Gel (Good Experience Live) Conference. Gel is a great event; as a featured speaker in 2010, I attended the whole conference and came away inspired. Like last year, Gel 2011 inspired me–not just the speakers and activities, but the interactions and energy among attendees. The workshop Wendy and I gave this year was a city mouse/country mouse, tech mapping/manuscript mapping kind of thing: let’s just say I was the homemade map country mouse, as opposed to downtown Wendy, who infuses technological mapping with local and very human sustainability patterns. However different we are in approach, our aims–to deliver meaningful maps–are identical, and we loved the idea of giving a workshop together. Here was the challenge: we had 2 hours to provide a tasting menu of our respective map-making practices, and to demonstrate how we dovetail. Luckily, our attendees–young, creative, savvy, curious (typical Gel conference profile)–were quick studies, and moved back and forth between Wendy’s activities and mine. Despite the time constraints, many of our guests managed to create clever hand-drawn maps. For more details and photos, see Wendy’s blog entry on the workshop.
No, this is not a bad weather report. Cartographic historian John Cloud is traveling north from DC to give a free talk at the New York Public Library at 2:30 this Saturday (April 14th 2011) sponsored by the New York Map Society, on whose board I sit (have I said that I’m in charge of programming? Recommend a speaker if you know a good one; I aim to please). John’s one of the best map speakers I’ve ever heard; furthermore, HE’S A ROPER, a little something he learned growing up in West Texas, which makes him–aside from his great oratorical skills–the coolest cartographic historian ever. Below are particulars:
John Cloud holds a PhD. in geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he wrote a dissertation on the geographic applications of the declassified CORONA reconnaissance satellite system. He is now the NOAA historian of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, the oldest element of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) which makes NOAA the oldest scientific agency in the US government. The agency began in 1807 as the Survey of the Coast, under a plan devised by the Swiss emigrant Ferdinand Hassler and accepted by President Thomas Jefferson. From the beginning, Hassler’s Survey was centered in, on, and around “New York Bay and Harbor and the Environs.” as Hassler termed it. Therefore, it is appropriate for NOAA people to return now and again to the ancestral homeland of the agency, here in “the Environs” of New York Bay and Harbor.
In honor of St Paddy, I dined on corned beef, cabbage and potatoes–and, in a rare departure from wine–beer. But I’d like to honor a more contemporary Irish spirit, the on-line Irish culture magazine Vulgo, whose NY Diarist, Julia Judge, just happened to feature me at just about the same time a genealogical search revealed that I’m more Irish than I thought. Here’s the article. Read it first, of course, but check out the whole magazine–subscribe, even–it’s really good.
The map-making workshop I announced in my last post filled up immediately: that’s what happens when you combine “free” with wine and cheese. I’m planning to do another one on Sunday, May 22nd, from 2-5. Again, it’s free, and we’ll have a fortified social hour at the end. For the substance of the workshop, see my 2/27/11 post.
I’ve volunteered to be the program coordinator for the New York Map Society for the 2011-2012 season. The Map Society meets once a month for a lecture at the New York Public Library, or a field trip elsewhere in the metropolitan New York area. We’re interested in all aspects of mapping and cartography, not just antiquarian matters. If you’re aware of a speaker, map exhibit, map organization, or event you think we should feature, please let me know. Even if you can’t help me out here, check out our schedule and come to a meeting.
Come to the New York Public Library at 2:30 this coming Saturday (March 12) to hear John Woram–fellow New York Map Society board member, explorer, cartographic expert and author of many books–discuss “Putting Tierra del Fuego on the Map.” John always laces history and scholarship with humor, and is thus able to keep an audience awake and happy for an hour and a half. The lecture–free and open to the public– is sponsored by the New York Map Society; read details here.
Tuesday, March 22nd at 6:30–As part of Asia Week, The Korea Society is sponsoring a lecture entitled “Mapping Identity: Antiquarian Korean Maps of the MacLean Collection” by curator Richard Pegg. Here’s a description: “Richard Pegg, Asian art curator of Chicago’s MacLean Collection, examines Korean maps in a variety of formats, the challenges faced by cartographers, and the formation of multiple identities in Korea during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The MacLean Collection, housed in a private museum outside Chicago, focuses on the cultures of Korea, China, and Southeast Asia.” The lecture costs $20 if you make reservations ahead; add $5 if you buy a ticket at the door. For more info, see The Korea Society website–lots of other interesting events there.
Would you like to make a cool little round map ? I’d like to teach you how–free, in my Durham CT studio, from 2-5 pm on Sunday, March 27th, followed by wine and cheese (what fool gives a workshop with NO SNACKS?) With Matt Knutzen, the New York Public Library’s Geospatial Librarian (and cartographer/artist), I gave such an autumn workshop at the New York Public Library as part of their Crafternoon series. It was fun–50 attendees made all kinds of clever and meaningful maps–like the guy who mapped his kitchen from his cat’s perspective, or the young woman who mapped romantic locations in NYC as an anniversary present for her husband. I’d like to test-drive a more intimate studio workshop, limited to 10 attendees. Reserve a spot with me: connie@redstonestudios.com.
Here’s the first round map I ever made, Greg’s World of Burritos (2007), which some of you may be just plain old sick of, I parade it around so much. But it’s a good model for you nascent mapmakers: it’s simple, low-palette, and small.
Come to the New York Public Library at 2:30 on Saturday, January 8th, to hear Jesse Friedman discuss Google Maps. I met Jesse (whom I’d actually describe as bright-eyed rather than googley-eyed), a Product Marketing Manager for Google, when I was a speaker at the 2010 Gel Conference–I like his intelligence and enthusiasm, and am pleased that he accepted the New York Map Society’s invitation to speak. Visit the map society website for particulars.
I spend at least a month on each of my commissioned maps, but that’s because cartography is my business. Sometimes I make little maps as gifts for friends and family, and I finish those in a few hours. It seems to me that mapmaking at this level would be a great hobby for those of you who love craft projects–you need a good focus for your map, but you don’t have to be a trained cartographer or an artist (let me remind you that I have neither a cartography nor an art degree). And you don’t need expensive materials–a pencil, a ruler, paper and source maps will do, though there are lots of clever and off-beat options. Interested? Kick off your new hobby with a free mapmaking workshop at the New York Public Library this Saturday, October 23 from 2-4 pm. Led by the library’s Geospatial Librarian Matt Knutzen and me, the event is part of an ongoing “Crafternoon” series hosted by rare book librarian Jessica Pigza (aka The Homemade Librarian) and Crafternoonauthor Maura Madden.
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.
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.