After an even longer silence....Mapping Beyond

Mapping Beyond: A series of creative mapping projects at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)

What has this blogger been up to with mapping? After a long silence I have decided to return to adding weekly creative mapping, creative cartography....anything art and maps related I come across. Our project Creative Mapping has just finished its second year in the making. We ended it with a series of exhibitions displaying the work of 5 projects in various educational settings working with artists in East London as part of Mapping Beyond. The following posts will be dedicated to the projects.

After a Long Silence-There is Much More to Share

Finland's Unnamed Islands Paper map fragments between microscope slides on aluminum shelves, 1 foot x 8 feet, 2000

Finland's Longest RoadPaper map fragment in glass petri dish, 3/4 x 6 x 6 inches, 2000

Coastal Merger, Reconstructed paper map, 15 x 30 inches, 1993

Dissection, manipulation, pathologies, and coastal mergers are but some of what Nina Katchadourian investigates in her maps. You can visit her at http://www.ninakatchadourian.com .
The delicate cut outs, the merging of spaces and creating new identities give her work an ethereal inquisitive appeal.

Josh Dorman

"I tilt these flattened lands into the frontal plane and then I seek routes and valleys back into space. I'm hoping for vertigo," Josh Dorman. To view more of his work please visit his site at: http://www.joshdorman.net/

Layla Curtis: Exploring Mapping Concepts

Student from Tower Hamlets College, 2007


Student from Tower Hamlets College, 2007

In Spring 2007 artist Layla Curtis worked with students at Tower Hamlets College to explore the concept of mapping by looking at themes such as: Memory – how our memory/ knowledge of the places important to us varies from person to person and the effect this has on how we then map a place. How mapping can be subjective and the appearance of maps/ information included in a map can depend on who is doing the mapping. Differing world views - how each of our experiences of the world and how we see it visually is slightly different. And the types of boundaries are present in traditional cartography their own personal cartographic boundaries.

Francesca Berrini

Good vs Evil..............Romantic Vacation

Francesca Berrini transforms vintage maps of places she has longed to visit into fine art maps of entirely new and imagined worlds. She obsessively tears up original vintage maps into tiny pieces, and then reconstitutes them, using a painterly process, into new maps and directional devices that reflect a longing for places unseen.

http://www.viveza.com/artist_portfolio.asp?artistid=10

Jessica Rankin, Threads & Mental Maps

Coda, 2004................Nocturne, 2004

Memory mapping is something we may have done at some point in our lives, but Jessica Rankin takes the process one step further and uses the delicate art of embroidery to put on paper and other materials her mental maps using codes and signs. To find out more visit: http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/jr/

Peter Fend, Ocen Earth Construction Development Co.

Ocean Earth: Europa, 1991 Parallelprojekte. Vorschlage fur Condeleeza Rice, 2005

Seeking a synthesis of art and science he founded the Ocean Earth Construction and Development Corporation in 1980, where he assembled artists, architects, as well as scientists. The group‘s aim is research on alternative energy sources. They use satellite imaging to monitor and analyze global ecological and geopolitical hot-spots, largely for media clients. Considering the world a living earthwork, ecological aspects are linked to and interconnected with artistic aspects.(MediaArtNet)

Personal Geographies: Shared Journies

As part of the Creative Mapping London Project mapping artist Monica de Miranda worked with students aged 13-15 at the City Learning Centre in Newham, London. She collaborated with geographer Paul Goodwin and teacher Julia Millette. Below are examples student map art theyalso created video collages related to their culture, identity and personal geographies

Nazuma Begum, 2007 Kenny Lee, 2007 Charlotte Lee, 2007

Sensorial Map, Newham College & Christian Nold

The Newham Sensory Deprivation Map is the result of an intensive workshop with 36 art students from Newham Sixth Form College. The students were put into pairs, one of whom was blindfolded and given ear defenders so that they could not see or hear. The other student was given a Global Positioning System as well as pen and paper. To read more: http://www.softhook.com/sensory.htm . The artist and student collaboration is one of the many projects in East London created wihtin iniva's Creative Mapping Project. http://www.iniva.org/.

Taking Soundings, Yolande

Taking soundings of ones position relative to satellites orbiting the earth rather than relative to ones immediate environment, strikes me as a kind of blind guidance, which encourages feelings of security or insecurity (Yolande Harris) . Read more http://yolande.janvaneyck.nl/takingsoundings.htm