Handwritten map from strangers

An Artist is Making a Map of Manhattan Using Only Handwritten Directions From StrangersAugust 9, 2013

Think about it, when was the last time you asked for directions? Or even used a paper map? Armed with smart phones and fancy GPS apps that map the route to your destination in milliseconds, asking a random person for directions is an increasingly rare occurrence. New York conceptual artist Nobutaka Aozaki is exploring the act of asking for directions in his ongoing art piece, Here to There, by gathering a collection of impromptu hand-drawn maps he obtains from complete strangers. Dressed as a tourist in a souvenir baseball cap and carrying a Century 21 shopping bag, the artist hits the streets around Manhattan and approaches random pedestrians to inquire about directions through the current part of the map he’s working on.

One of the most common scenarios when asking strangers for directions is their habit of pulling out a smart phone to start typing in an address, after which he insists on leaving with a drawn map on whatever written surface is available: torn sheets of notebook paper, napkins, or even paper plates. Aozaki tells Spoon & Tamagothat his goal is not to make a complete map, but to instead document his daily routine and his myriad interactions with people, sort of like a mapped diary. (via Spoon & Tamago)

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Time-lapse Protraits

Time-lapse Portraits Layered and Cut to Reveal the Passage of TimeMarch 26, 2012

For over a year I’ve been stalking the website of book and paper artist Ryuta Iida hoping to share new work with you and today I finally have something to show for it. As part of an ongoing collaboration with artist Yoshihisa Tanaka called Nerhol the duo are showing 27 new works at limArt this month including these astounding new portraits that are part of a series called Misunderstanding Focus. At first glance it looks as though a photograph has been printed numerous times, layered and cut into a sort of sculptural topography, which would indeed be amazing enough, but Nerhol took things a bit further. The numerous portraits are actually different, photographed over a period of three minutes as the subject tried to sit motionless, the idea being that it’s impossible to ever truly be still as our center of gravity shifts and our muscles are tense. The portraits are actually a layered lime-lapse representing several minutes in the subjects life and then cut like an onion to show slices of time, similar to the trunk of a tree. What a brilliant idea. If you’ve never seen Iida’s cut paper books, definitely head over to Nerhol to see them up close. A huge thanks to my friend Johnny at Spoon & Tamago for helping me translate some of this! (via upon a fold)

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Paper lakes

Paper LakesJanuary 28, 2011

These topographical paper cards of the Great Lakes and San Francisco Bay by Crafterall are real purty. Each map is cut from five layers of high quality, acid-free cardstock and you can request special orders in 20 additional colors. Seriously, only $30?

Neighborhood Collage

An Abstract Collage of Beijing Neighborhoods Creates a Colorful Stencil on a Dilapidated Courtyard WallJuly 20, 2012

BlinkingCity is a unique collaboration between Marcella Campa and Stefano Avesani. The duo created this colorful abstract collage using several maps from the rapidly transforming Hutong neighborhoods in Beijing. Here’s how they describe it:

Blinking City is a project investigating the inadequacy of traditional maps for city environments characterized by fast pace transformation and urban growth. As soon as the map is done, the city it describes has already gone. We transferred one of the Blinking City pattern, based on a collage of several Hutong neighbourhoods of Beijing, onto a wall of a dilapidated courtyard house in Xianyukou district, located in the core of the city.

See much more of the project over on Behance.

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  BLINKING CITY 

  stencil variable dimension, stencil on wall, 2011 
  
  
  BlinkingCity is a project investigating the inadequacy of traditional maps for cityenvironments characterized by fast pace transformation and urban growth. Assoon as the map is done, the city it describes has already gone. We transferredone of the Blinking City pattern, based on a collage of several Hutongneighbourhoods of Beijing, onto a wall of a dilapidated courtyard house inXianyukou district, located in the core of the city
  
  Thanks to game designer Eric Zimmerman and architect Nathalie Pozzi, who wrote the text for the legenda giving a meaning to each colour:
  
  Generals hide under the kitchen table. Newspaper crossword puzzles clean the windowpan. A ball
  lands on the neighbor’s roof. In the memory of a broken television, pixels flicker. The lottery disappointsanother player. A coin flips. Bottles from sports fans crowd the bar. Ready? Go.

  
  www.instanthutong.com
  www.ericzimmerman.com
  www.nakworks.com
   
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Artistic Arrangements of Microscopic Algae Viewed Through a MicroscopeJanuary 29

Photograph of diatoms collected in Russia and arranged on a microscope slide in 1952 by A.L. Brigger.

Photograph of fossil diatoms collected in Pt. Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, California, and arranged on a microscope slide in 1968 by A.L. Brigger.

Black and white photograph of fossil radiolaria arranged on a slide by R.F. Behan. The slide label reads “Prize Medal Paris 1867 Polycystina; Springfield, Barbados.” The arrangement is approximately 3 millimeters in diameter.

Photograph of diatoms arranged on a microscope slide by W.M. Grant.

Photograph of diatoms arranged on a microscope slide by W.M. Grant.

Photograph of diatoms arranged in October 1974 on a microscope slide by R.I. Firth. The slide label reads “Selected species from Californian fossil marine localities. To Mrs. G Dallas Hanna with compliments.”

Photograph of Arachnoidiscus diatoms collected in the Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County, California and arranged on a microscope slide by R.F. Behan.

In a fascinating blend of art and science the California Academy of Sciences possesses a rare collection of microscopic diatom arrangements. Diatoms are a major group of algae that are among the smallest organisms on Earth, of which nearly 100,000 different species are estimated to exist. While there are numerous examples of diatoms that have been photographed for scientific study, these particular scientists hobbyists seem to have gone a different direction, instead turning these tiny unicellular lifeforms into mandala-like artworks. The tiny designs are all the more amazing when you consider most of them would fit on the head of a nail. You can see more examples right here. Photos by Sara Mansfield. (via Synaptic Stimuli)

UPDATE: The California Academy of Sciences clarifies that these arrangements, despite being produced with scientific tools, are purely aesthetic, and were produced by hobbyists, not scientists.