SWINGERS PARTY

In this intriguing art installation entitled 'Suspended', created by Mona Hatoum; each swing-seat has been incised with a city map. As passing visitors wander through the installation and create air-currents; the chains sway gently and the effect is both visually elegant yet slightly eerie. More conceptually speaking; the map-seats represent floating archipelagos of urban islands and imply geographical-movement and dislocation. If you're willing to look a bit deeper and possibly swing a bit harder - the seats clash violently and ideas such as migrational and cultural discord erupt. Good eh?! Click here to see more.

TOOTHPICK MAP

I'd be the first to admit that a toothpick hanging smoothly from your lip can sometimes make you feel cooler than James Dean. But lets be honest, is it really enough of a rush to keep you toying with over 100,000 of them for 35 years?!  Possibly the only person in the world who can truthfully answer that (highly random) question is Scott Weaver, who has painstakingly created a map of San Francisco made entirely out of toothpicks!!!  Whilst it definitely seems crazy to me, its actually also pretty cool (and I haven't even got to the really awesome bit yet where it also functions as a marble run!) Well... it also functions as a marble run!!! Click here to watch the video.

COME ON IN, THE MAPPING'S WARM

Looks trippy doesn't it - that man splashing around above an underwater city?  I'll let you in on a secret though; he's not actually swimming above an underwater city - he's swimming around in a regular swimming pool! Yep, its a regular pool but it's had an aerial photo printed onto its sides as part of a publicity stunt for global climate change.  By literally challenging our perceptions regarding the water-level of the pool we are also prompted to consider our perceptions regarding the water-level of the planet.  I've seen a few maps on the subject and I'd have to say; this portentous peek into an apocalyptic future, does make me think!  (Though some of that thought is directed at the alterior motives for the installation) Click here first though to dive on in!

SHIP-SHAPE VIEW

When I first saw this happy yellow structure in my shipping container atlas I didn't know what it was, but I was greatly satisfied. Then, when I read on to find out that it was a viewing platform from which to view real-life topographic contour lines, I was greatly stoked (sad as it may be)! This is a German installation so if you don't sprechen sie deutsch (or if you're so lazy you cant copy & paste the text into google translator) allow me to summarise: Hannover University has implemented a clever idea to make the inhabitants and every-day passers-by of the Architecture and Landscape Faculties' value their landscape that they may otherwise take for granted. By physically painting contours onto the terrain of their campus, the viewers eyes are drawn away from the grandiose buildings and pleasant gardens, toward the space as a whole. In addition to this optical diversion, the fact that topo lines are usually only seen on paper maps also stimulates a conceptual diversion; an analogous blur between the way things appear in the paper world of Landscape Planning and Architectural design and the way the designs actually turn out and affect the 'real' world.