Map & Rotterdam

Atlas is a collection of drawings, photos etc. of existing earths and water present on our planet and eventually other planet/ satellites in our solar system. It can be limited to a country, a city with its roads a landscape, seas and oceans.

Mapping is a sketch or drawings of ideas connected to a main idea. It is a way to put in relation two different structure or thoughts into one design and/or interest. It is often used to make the thoughts clearer (readable and structure).

Exhibition at Maritiem Museum

Artist, cartograph and former professor of Design at North Carolina State University. His four decades of works aas a geographer and independent scholar has influenced the creative and activist spirit of a new generation of critical cartographers, landscape architects and designer. His most well-known book is The Power of Maps. Wood had since written numerous books that critique and investigate the political and social implications of mapmaking.

Sculptor, she does wonderful things with maps and money, among other items. In fact, she uses the materials used everyday, domestic and industrial disposable products that pervade our lives. Her work focuses on ecology issues, geo-politics, mapping, trade and global commerce. Pattern of the World (2000) presents a map of the world in shape of a dress which is part of a collection of dresses. Her selection of formally styled, unwearable paper dresses give new meaning to the idea of an empire waist.

Artist Rankin, create installations; collages and sculpture that use the language of maps to explore the connections among geological processes, paterns in nature, geometry and anatomy. Theses new geographies explore notions of place, perception and experience, suggesting the potential for a broader landscape and inviting viewers to examine their relationships with each other and the world we share.

Try creating a good representation of a spherical shape like the Earth on a flat world map. The solution found by the 16th century cartographer Mercator who became world-famous. In fact, the sailors were able to plot their courses on nautical charts using a straight line for the first time.

Stamen has been exploring cartography with our clients and in research. These maps are presented here for your enjoyment and use wherever you display OpenStreetMap data.

More and more artists are revisiting the potential of maps. Most of them focuse on the geo-politics and affairs between countries in which the frontiers are a way to demonstrate the power from a country to another.
Some others, decide to change the format of the map and retransform, reshape into a new object. Not limited to the shape, artist works also on the representation of maps but also on the information that appear on it.
However, this new way of using maps do not please everybody because it loses its original pupose and degrade its image.
The following artists are an example of this new way to interprate maps.

Christoph Fink calls his journeys by various means, by bicycle, train, aeroplane or by foot, 'movements'. The in-between, the experiences between the point of departure and the destination of these journeys are of more interest than their objective. Experiences in the countryside, in the city, in nature are witnessed by installations composed of photographs, drawings, diagrams and sculptures. As results of these 'movements', they form an inventory based on measurements and figures and they simultaneously formulate questions concerning the dimensions of time, space and the relationship of humans to their environment.

Fink gathers and transforms precise data through a unique notation system, and his clay and ceramic discs spring from this process. This study is sustained by research into the different periods of earth’s evolution, its ecosystem and geography as shaped by the political. It leads to a representation of the globe, or, more precisely, a representation of the globe’s space-time (the central void embodies space-time to come). The clay ball is fashioned according to detailed calculations, and engraved with ‘moments of knowledge’.

Interview of Christoph Fink:

Jan Rothuizen is mapping reality in a way that is difficult to define. He draws and describes his surroundings: always personal but never fictional. Sometimes descriptive but more often documentary. His drawings are both an image and a story; the viewer is free to interpret them in their own way. Rothuizen also combines old and new media in the production of his work. He investigates by going out, walking around – visiting places physically. He also visits Google Earth and online forums to study all information layers of those places.

How do you find your way on the open sea? You can forget about it if you do not have a proper map of the world. However, making such a map is a quite complex process. Try creating a good representation of a spherical shape like the Earth on a flat world map. The solution found by the 16th century cartographer Mercator became world-famous because sailors were able to plot their courses on nautical charts using a straight line for the first time. Discover everything about navigation at sea – both with and without Mercator’s map - at the family exhibition ‘Steady as she goes!’ Historical maps, distorting mirrors and film clips will help you, but you will also be working with globes, binoculars, compasses, the stars and modern navigation equipment such as satellites and GPS. The only remaining copy of Mercator’s world map in atlas format and his recently restored globe can also be admired at the exhibition.