mapping brooklyn…

The map that was the most interesting to me was the 71 Square Miles. That was the map of Brooklyn covered in paper litter found on the individual streets. When I first looked at it, I didn’t think much of it. “Big deal, she stuck garbage on a map the shape of the borough.” However I read the description and then carefully examined it. I still cant believe the artist walked on every block of the borough and then placed the litter in the appropriate location on the map. Not only is that hard work, but a lot of patience is needed. Furthermore, I tried to make sense of the litter and it made perfect sense! Near Brighton, there was paper with Russian writing. Near Coney Island, there was a paper that said something about Hurricane Sandy.

I will admit, I thought I would be bored at this BRIC House. However, it turned out I enjoyed myself. These maps were definitely not what I thought it would be. In fact, they were much more descriptive, colorful and educational compared to the paper maps we see today, Does the Subway MTA map still exist? Of course it does, but everyone just uses their smartphones to make their way around. If I can choose something in my daily life that I could plot of a map, it would be a map of locations that I have communicated with, whether it’d be through text, email, facebook, instagram, etc.  My first choice would’ve been pictures, but I believe the newer iphones do have that capability!

1 thought on “mapping brooklyn…

  1. Steeve

    http://71squaremiles.com/
    If you are interested you can go to that link and they have some cool pictures on how the map was constructed, also the creator took pictures of some of the places that she visited to collect this ‘garbage’. I am still laughing at the use of the word ‘garbage’ to describe this amazing work of art and cartography. There is a part of me that thinks garbage is used almost sarcastically by the creator of the piece Jennifer Maravillas, because this so called thrash was used to map all of Brooklyn and each piece has a meaning to its location. This just supports that old saying ‘One man’s thrash is another man’s treasure’.

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