For our first project this semester we have been considering the idea of maps, and alternative, artistic approaches to the creation of them. In our most recent reading "You Are Here, Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination" by Katharine Harmon, I found a map done by Susan Hiller concerned with (and titled as) "Individual Dreamers' Maps and Composite Map".
I also found myself very drawn to the work of Denis Wood:
The reason I am so drawn to the work of both Killer and Wood, is that both the subject matter and the map that came as a result, do not appear as a "normal" map. Hiller adopts the topic of dreams, which is in itself an abstract idea, then depicts the mapped out dream in a deconstructed, almost basic manor. Wood adopts mapping topics that are not necessarily abstract in concept, but displays his findings in a simplistic and abstracted manner, which is something that I respond to on a visual level.
Ultimately as an artist I am constantly more concerned with vissual aesthetic over factual information, which is undoubtedly why I took to Susan Hiller and Denis Wood's immediately upon seeing their work. Seeing these examples has definitely made me a lot more excited about the mapping project, initially I was unable to grasp the connection between mapping and art, but I am swiftly learning that the two fit together superbly well, like peanut butter and jelly.
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