Friday, March 4, 2011

mapping language.

as i was working on this map assignment, i happened to stumble upon this wonderful blog filled with an extensive collection of creative maps: http://creativemapping.blogspot.com/



London Map Project - "The Knowledge - Land of Achievement & Land of Wisdom"

as i looked through all the different maps, what really struck me was the various forms of maps created. some were paintings, others were embroidery. my favorite creative cartographer though has to be any work done by Agnes Poitevin-Navarre. her pieces, as seen in the picture posted above, deals largely with coupling language alongside maps, which is an interesting concept to explore. maps ultimately help us all to discover and understand the space surrounding us; however, i think sometimes we don’t always consider the role the language plays in our movement within the city.

mapping of dreams.

as i looked through all of her pieces, i couldn't help but wonder about what it means to actually map language. it had seemed so conceptually foreign me that i was quite amazed at how she managed to take words and associate them to movement. i know that language travels with a person, but it was interesting for me to see this on a more concrete/tangible manner.
if you ever get a chance to, check out her website for more of her work at her website:

http://www.agnespnavarre.com/

2 comments:

  1. dying to know what you mean by "the role language plays in how we move through the city" (i think i butchered that, a little): it's a fascinating idea! say more?

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  2. you know, it's kind of interesting comparing language to maps. When you really think about it, language is just a type of map in itself, on it's own (without knowing the language) it has little meaning, like a map of an unknown place. However, if you learn to understand the language, the words direct you to meaning. We can follow the referential pull of the words and end up at the meaning behind them, like finding a specific place on a map after learning to read it.
    Now, the concept gets a little crazy when u start talking about mapping language. All of a sudden we have language pointing not only to it's inherent reference, but also to a place on a map. This seems to connect language, meaning, and place in a way that creates a meaning beyond what either medium can do on it's own.

    very interesting.

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