This book explores ways of mapping that move beyond traditional cartography and instead use more imaginative concepts such as exploring locations from a different perspective such as a dog's, a more metaphorical map such as "the journey to success" and imaginary worlds. Interesting starting points from just the introduction itself is maps of mythological places, maps of moods and maps of popular culture.
Katharine Harman suggests that the need to map is a human instinct as a method in understanding our environment and especially that they provide an insight into someone else's experience as we inhibit "the mind of its maker" as even though traditional maps are to be objective and understood by masses, it cannot escape being partially subjective - we get taught how to understand maps based on someone else's interpretation of what a map should look like. Creating maps is a personal dialect.
The illustrations on the right were created by her three year old daughter and they are important in conveying map making processes before we as adults are taught what is the correct way to map. Harman states that we have now associated maps with function whereas young children understand maps as verbal narratives of their surroundings which is how I need to approach making my map for this brief.
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The Collected Works of John Held, Jr.' Book mentioned that explores creative cartography.
Topography of a face - mapping the human body.
"Body Map of My Life" by Bridget Booher uses a list as a mapping process to note down the location, cause, diagnosis, treatment, and follow up of many injuries she faced growing up from physical to mental in a humorous but still informative way.
Creating a dream map by having people map out their dreams using a system then layering.
Artistic interpretations that are still scientific based on NASA drawings but has no key - this is to allow the viewer to use the map to explore the moon/space in their own way and make their own meaning.
Shredded up bits of map - the roads - shaped as heart to reflect Austria's name as "heart of Europe". Roads/highways act as vessels of the heart. How to shape maps to mean other things?
Richard Long - during a long walk he registers descriptive text, images and maps to directly represent his own personal experience of the walk. Some images such as a picture of a bird dropping is to allow us to experience exactly what he saw even to the minute details.
Made up islands based on animals native to the area as a way of rejecting what a map actually stands for - factual/informative.
Representing a map from a dog's perspective.
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