Mapping....

I'm interested in mapping nomadic intensities... I'm hoping to more fully understand the areas that are more highly populated than others. Not just noting the areas of high circulation density but understanding why. Are there good or bad vibes on certain parts of the campus? Do people feel more comfortable in some areas than others? If so, where and why? Do places have there own presence by the way people fill them? I believe they do and I'm going to explore these "high intensity" spaces on campus.

The idea of places having a significance reminds me of a Japanese Professor Masura Emoto. He has studied and photographed all different types of water, all the samples come from different places and he freezes them and studies the characteristics under a microscope... some he even takes regualar tap water and studies the changes after being blessed by monks. In some cases he even just puts words on the containers that hold the water.


from Lourdes, France


labeled "You will make me sick, I will kill you"



from oldest river in japan

This is also pretty interesting, Christian Nold maps cities on the emotional geography.
http://emotionmap.net/

Maps

In studio we are beginning to examine maps and the ideal of "lying with maps." Hows does one make a map only be legible in a specific way? At the most basic level there are topographic maps, subway maps, road maps that show certain things. But how do you make a map illustrate views and peak interest in parts of a place. I want a map to show me more than want a plan view usually is able to portray.

When I was around 5 or 6 my aunt took me to New York City of a long weekend and she brought with her the most interesting map I had ever seen at that time. My idea of maps until that point have been awkwardly folded pieces of paper that caused my parents to fight on road trips. This is very similar to the type of folded map she had...

This I know is a wall map but her map was done in this similar style... with all of Manhattan in parallel axon view with a water-color hand drawn quality to it.


Here are a few interesting ones I found while running around on the internet.

Exploring the Possibilities of the Interior

I imagine that the interior of the library would be filled with masses that will dance around the space like words on a page. The organization would make the voids much more important than the than the solids. The mosaics on the exterior and the attention to detail demand an interior that responds with just as much thought and interest.


I developed my concept from this initial model... of spaces that open a reveal as a book does




These are some images of the model presented in the review, but I don't think that they were very successful.... I over crowded the space and the idea lost its simplicity

Book of Utopias

"This book is of ideal societies. With the front cover bound in gold leather and the back bound in black slate, it has five hundred pages, six hundred and sixty-six indexed entries and a preface by Sir Thomas More. The first entry is a consensus description of Heaven and the last is of Hell. There will always be someone on earth whose Utopian ideal will be Hell. In the remaining pages of the book, every known and every imagined political and social community is described and evaluated, and twenty-five pages are devoted to tables where the characteristics of all societies can be isolated, permitting a reader to sort and match his own Utopian ideal."
-This a quote from Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books

Using this quote as a guide I invented my own version of The Book of Utopias. I was originally attracted to the ideal that any person's idea of utopia is separate from another's... but the ideals are all unified by the concept. I wanted to design a book that had many parts that all were very different but fit together cohesively.

I solved this by designing the book around the Golden Rectangle. The book theoretically will never end it will continue and for every book there will be another that it fits into. Infinity, is the only way you could ever really understands each and every person idea of utopia.


My book begins with a book of heaven which has the Greek alphabet printed in it:
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the beginning and the end." - Revelations.
This heavenly place would not necessarily be one of God or Allah but a place where everyone and everything fits and prospers together, not reality but a fundamental ideal. To the next person however this place could be Hell, Hell could be the next persons Heaven.

The next books in my journey include books about science, warriors, oasis and hell. This book is only a microcosm of Utopian societies.

I have decided to build in book around the golden rectangle and its dimensions... it reinforces the idea that there are an infinite number of Utopian societies.
The model will be composed of several books all in the same unit. Each book will be a square of a different size. The inner most section will be heaven and the utopias will move out from there.
The is an early model of the unit of books idea:

The green piece represents on of the "books" in this unit.

Utopia

I choose Peter Greenaway's "The Book of Utopias."

"This is a book of ideal societies. With the front cover bound in gold leather and back bound in black slate, it has five hundred pages, six hundred and sixty-six indexed entries and a preface by Sir Thomas More. The first entry is a consensus description of Heaven and the last is one of Hell. There will always be someone on earth whose Utopian idea will be Hell. In the remaining pages of the book, ever known and every imagined political and social community is described and evaluated and twenty-five pages are devoted to tables where the characteristics of all societies can be isolated, permitting a reader to sort and match his own Utopian ideal."