Mapping
In preparation for an upcoming trip, I downloaded (before realising they are for the iPod photo) some iPod subway maps for London and Berlin. (Matt - there’s one for Lyon too in case you want to get out and about instead of blogging.)
And speaking of London, OpenStreetMap has made a very nice poster and some desktop backgrounds from all the GPS data they have of the city. I also hope to participate in Urban Tapestries’ Sensing Pollution in London Fields community mapping workshop while I’m in town, although it’s much more important that locals do so before the likes of me! And if you’re interested in joining me on a Memoryscape audio walking tour of riverside London, just give me a shout. (For those who can’t make it, Russell Davies has some nice pics.)
I’ve also got plans to visit the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, where we’ll be checking out the kind of cultural mapping done by early archaeologists and anthropologists. As they explain:
“Most of the objects in the Museum are displayed ‘typologically’, that is grouped by form or purpose rather than by geographical or cultural origin. This unusual layout developed from the General’s theories concerning the evolution of ideas. Today it makes it easy for us to appreciate the wide variety of practical solutions to the problems of life. You can find not only what may be regarded as beautiful or valuable but also many examples of simple, everyday objects which reveal how people have lived and thought. This gives the collection a unique quality since it contains material not usually treasured or preserved. The Pitt Rivers still retains its Victorian atmosphere. The cluttered cases, the original small handwritten labels and the absence of intrusive text-panels all contribute to the special experience it offers.”
I have to credit the always-excellent Things Magazine for many of the above links, and as a final thought, their recent post on the internet as reliquary reminds me of a paper Matt Ward and I recently wrote, where we begin to question the everyday politics of sorting and mapping in current locative media and historical cabinets of curiosities, amongst other things.
(Updated 27 Oct 05)
October 27th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
When you are in London give me a call