What is a map?

Why do we need maps?

The idea of “plan”

view.

The idea of “scale”

• http://www.crimemapping.com

40.521827,-75.77333

Names, terms, labels…

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/landforms/glossary.shtml

Contours…

• www.etsy.com

• http://bigthink.com/ideas/21293

• http://www.newmuseum.org/assets/general/getlost/index.html

Searching for inspiration…

A Selection of Artists’ Maps…

CHRISTOPHER KNOWLES, LOWER MANHATTAN (2007) Christopher Knowles was diagnosed as autistic when he was a child. He went on to achieve artistic recognition in New York since the 1970s. His compulsive attention to detail is visible in this map of downtown in which every pier is numbered and every street painstakingly marked

JULIE MEHRETU, DRIFT (BELOW 14TH STREET) (2007) Julie Mehretu's abstract drawing depicts Manhattan with the trembling traces of an emotional seismograph, seen from the removed distance of Berlin, where the artist recently moved

MARCEL DZAMA, DOWNTOWN NEW YORK (2007)A fictional history of downtown New York that mixes folklore and urban legends is the theme of artist Marcel Dzama's map of downtown. Would-be tourists are guided from the hanging tree of Washington Square Park to the Florence Nightingale School where the wounded soldiers were treated during the Crimean War

LORDY RODRIGUEZ, DOWNTOWN (2007)Lordy Rodriguez's map envisions Manhattan in the tradition of cult films such as Blade Runner or Escape from New York. Bridging the history of Manhattan with his vision of its future, Rodriguez creates an island cut off by a canal and a financial center protected by fortified walls and soldiers.

JENNIFER BORNSTEIN, FROM HOW TO RIDE THE BUS, FOUR CORNERS BOOKS, LONDON (2007)Jennifer Bornstein explores downtown New York via the public bus system. Following her map, one travels from Marcel Duchamp's old studio on the Lower East Side, past Unganos (where Iggy Pop famously bared all during a performance), and ending up at the NYC dorm that housed the television character Felicity

DAVE MULLER, NY SONIC STRATA (2007) Artist, DJ and music freak Dave Muller depicts downtown New York through the album covers and book spines that have contributed to the mythology of the city

TERENCE KOH, AFTER DARK (2007)After Dark maps obscure public spaces downtown that are known to be havens for sexual and promiscuous gestures. The artist Terence Koh claims to have personally tested each of these sites in researching this map

ALEKSANDRA MIR, MANHATTAN (2006) The artist Aleksandra Mir has experimented with maps throughout her career, and in the past five years she has produced several representations of Manhattan and the United States. Here she depicts an exaggerated Statue of Liberty casting a long shadow over the city

16 BEAVER GROUP, UNTITLED (2007)16 Beaver Group is an artistic and political collective based in downtown New York. Their map theorizes an instant connectivity between New York and London, Tokyo, Baghdad, Singapore, and Thailand, among others, marking Manhattan at the crossroads of international trafficking and global politics. The final product resembles the scrapbooks of revolutionaries

BETH CAMPBELL, TRACKING A FEW COMMON PERSONAL MYTHS AND SOME NOTABLE PUBLIC RESTROOMS (MY EARLY ENCOUNTERS WITH LOWER MANHATTAN) (2007)Beth Campbell draws an evanescent watercolor map of the city in which she overlaps the geography of lower Manhattan with her own personal love stories and romantic histories

FRANCIS ALŸS, PACING (2001)Francis Alÿs chose to present the sketches for two walks he took in downtown Manhattan following the attacks of September 11, 2001. According to the artist, these walks were taken "with no expectation or destination," relaying an experience of being urban driftwood

RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA, UNTITLED (EATING MAP) (2007)Artist Rirkrit Tiravanija's map details an Epicurean walk from his apartment in Alphabet City through the Lower East Side and Chinatown to the New Museum's new site on the Bowery using both words and pictures. Along the way he experiences dim sum, kosher pickles and a Chinese haircut.

INABA & ASSOCIATES, NOISE SANCTUARIES (2007)Inaba & Associates is a young architectural firm based in New York and LA. Their map depicts Manhattan according to spaces of both noise and silence, revealing the "noise sanctuaries" of the city where one can escape to enjoy some quiet time

Cory Arcangel instructs viewers on the easiest way to leave Manhattan behind and spend a weekend in Las Vegas. Using Google maps, he describes the fastest route from the Bowery to the nearest Vegas casino

ISA GENZKEN, I LOVE NEW YORK, CRAZY CITY (1995-1996)A frequent traveler to New York, Isa Genzken has produced collages and scrapbooks on each of her visits to the city over the last ten years. For Get Lost, Genzken selected one of these collages that she used to assemble gathering found magazines, flyers and pictures

WILLIAM POPE.L, OLD NEW JERSEY (2007) In his colorfully drawn map, William Pope.L - who has literally crawled the streets of Manhattan - identifies the location of safe houses in downtown Manhattan, identifying the transitory spaces in the city used by people with an estranged relationship with legality

LAWRENCE WEINER, UNTITLED (2007) Lawrence Weiner offers an alternative orientation system for downtown New York by using manhole covers to help us "understand the relationship of human beings to objects in relation to human beings

Exercise…

Using drawing media on” paper, sketch one of the following ideas using an expanded, creative, fine-art notion of the idea of “map” as discussed

Twenty minutes of drawing time, plus discussion of each • Make a map of your commute to Hunter campus, include significant sights along the way.

• Make a map of your personality

• Make a map of your feelings about the recent earthquake in Japan.