UNIFIED MAP OF EVERYTHING

There is a lot of stuff in the universe yet most maps seem only to deal with things at the scale of streets, cities or countries. Rarely do we consider how, for example, mountains actually have an atomic structure or indeed a spatial position relative to our galaxy. Like a game of 3D chess, the tricky bit in considering ones relative place in the universe is  actually visualising all the scales of the universe?!

STICK FIGURES

Are you one of those people who when you get asked to draw a person; you inevitably draw a stick-figure?  The experience can be rather humiliating. The maps of Greg Coulson approach a similar level of simplicity, yet somehow evoke a more skilled construction. Perhaps the use of draftsman's rulers instead of 'sticks' or the lofty pursuit of the map, elevates that ostensibly 'novice' attempt. Whatever the reason; I like these stick maps - they are good. 

BEFORE AND AFTER

So, you wake up late one night and you can't get back to sleep. You turn on your TV in the hope that it will anaesthetise you. Cruelly, the only thing on at that hour is infomercials. At first, the ab-flex pro seems like a ridiculous idea, but after 5 minutes of zombie-like consideration of the before-and-after photos, you're like 'well, maybe I could do with some rock hard abs!'. Brain washing works, so why not utilise this idea to wake people up to land management issues? Check out these interactive before and after land use map images.

POPULATION INKLING

The spread of humanity has sometimes been referred to as an ugly blot upon the planet, but after you look at this interactive global population distribution map; you really see what they were getting at.
click here to view

MAP-O-PHILE

Despite this particular work being entitled Flat File Globes and looking pretty much identical to an old-school map filing cabinet, it is according to the artist; actually, a metaphor for the human body and consecutive time-streams! No, I have no idea what that means either, but Noriko Ambe's topographic forms carved out of paper are quite intriguing and do somehow evoke a perception of glacial time unfurling