Map Your Life - Karina Cutler-Lake / Resources for Design Students

M
rland
AIL
CL
E TR
OAT
LINE
nal)
Autorepair
Custard
Winnebagowheat
Love
Festival
u1
IC
Admin
T.B.A.
Omelet
Fleet Farm
u2
G
N
10:41 a.m. Behold, the
Wisconsin Pavilion from
the 1964 World’s Fair.
Gold pylons jut out at an
angle, and support six
star-shaped canopies. It’s
topped by a 50-foot pole
that reads “WISCONSIN.”
Seriously, you couldn’t
miss it if you tried.
M
MILES WERE DRIVEN, SEARCHING, ON 1/19/12
TO FIND THE SITE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH.
F O U N TA I N C I T Y, W I I S A C T UA L LY A L M A , W I .
T H E G A S S TAT I O N I S N O W A B A I T S H O P.
A F T E R M U C H T H O U G H T, I C O N C L U D E D T H AT
T H E S E D E TA I L S A R E R E A L LY N OT I M P O RTA N T.
INFORMATION CAN BE A SLIPPERY THING.
PLACE AND EXPERIENCE MATTER MOST TO ME.
J C
The arrangement
of train tracks in
Junction City just
might blow your
mind. If you’re
that kind of
person.
9:38 a.m.
-6°
164,631 mi.
S P
I am not able
to drive by
Shippy Shoes
without
exclaiming
“Shippy
Shoes!”
Probably a
good thing I
don’t drive
this way
often.
Here I cross the tiny
Tomorrow River four
times. I proceed with a
certain amount of
disorientation.
after soth
A
S
Alma, Wisconsin
W
4
Billboard of a woman in a
bikini strikes me as
especially ludicrous at -4˚
W
ST
OP
5
F
7
Fountain City
ve
ST
OP
r
FF
G
M
C
Slight navigational
confusion at a
four-way-stop.
Maybe it’s
interference from
the curling club.
: CO
EE
I’m hungry, but
there aren’t a lot of
vegetarian options.
I stop at a Panera Bread for a late
lunch. There are seven Latin
American nuns wearing beautiful
blue habits at a table near me.
One is texting.
O
ST
OP
BA
TH
RO
W
T
H
+
S
R
B
: FO
+
Mental exhaustion. I am
tired of thinking about this.
C
Experience taught me
that stopping to use the
bathroom at the Whitetail
Crossing Gas Station &
Casino will ensure that
you smell like an ashtray
for the remainder of your
drive. I pledge to hold it
until Necedah.
OM
N
4:00 p.m.
2°
164,892 mi.
Obviously post-tornado.
A
4:42 p.m.
1°
164,918 mi.
W
8
C
Low helicopter.
I eject a CD
from my car
stereo and
hold it to my
face because it
is warm and
comforting.
Every time I drive through
Redgranite, I want to
photograph the beautiful
sign on the surplus store
that reads: “W ’
  
... ’
dazzle  
.”
R
5:13 p.m.
2°
164,944 mi.
L
GA
+
GR
AN
r
I stop at a cemetery in Fountain City, as if I’m checking
off an item on a highly conceptual to-do list.
+
8:49 a.m.
-3°
164,581 mi.
e
iv
R
1:19 p.m.
1°
164,788 mi.
If the weather was nice, I would explore
these cities on foot. Not so today.
in
C
s
pi
EE
S
B C
ip
n
ss
o
si
c
is
is
M
: CO
FF
6
OL
A
BA
R
2
W
L ake Poygan
Bu
A
1
9
tt
NPR’s Marketplace
Morning Report
discusses the leap
second, and its
possible elimination.
Showdown at the
International
Telecommunication
Union's
Radiocommunication
Assembly predicted.
e de
sM
or
ts
r
ve
Ri
7:54 A.M. / 5:27 P.M.
 , - 
164,549 / 164, 955
    
:
-6˚/ : 3˚
O
O
x
Fo
:
8:21 a.m.
-3°
164,566 mi.
DR
OP
10
OF
F
CH
IL
LD ATa k e W i n n e b a g o
PR
ES
CH
OO
1
  ’ .
L  
M   
 .
 .
 (. ).
L
     .
 ().
    .
C
Here, I hop on to the interstate,
anxious to get home; anxious
not to have to drive in the dark
Observations.
Stats
BA if I can help it.
TH
RO
OM
STOPS
©  -
(Seaso
Highly Useful Transit Hub
A bald eagle is
spotted over
the Silver
Dome
Ballroom.
Approaching Marshfield, I am
struck by how clearly I
remember the radio show I was
listening to two years ago, when
I drove around looking for UW
Marshfiled. It was an interview
with Patti Smith, who had just
written Just Kids. Perhaps I got
lost on purpose so I could listen
to it. Anyway, I finally read the
book last summer.
Recommended.
3
OD
BICY
ERB
OM
L C
NE
EY RIV
RO
2:20 p.m.
3°
164,827 mi.
-LA
-TIM
F
P
A lonely stretch. Wonder
just what the hell I am
doing, and if it matters if
Soth’s gas station isn’t in
Fountain City after all.
O
: CO
FF
EE
+
BA
TH
B P
FO
UR
OLD
ST
OP
Tired of talk
radio.
Switch to
random CD
mix.
10:41 a.m.
-5°
164,691 mi.
T
I was born in Minnesota and lived
there until I was 22. I grew up near
W
the St. Croix River, and while I often
looked at Wisconsin, I didn’t visit it
very often. Here, for the very first
time in my life, I look at Minnesota
knowing that I will not be visiting. It
feels like an snub not to cross at
Winona. It feels strange.
Won
de
u3
Gigantic
E cardinal
ST
OP
mascot.
:M
AI
S
L
BI
RT
HD
AY
CA
RD
Icy, narrow canyon driving as
I descend towards the river.
12:23 p.m.
0°
164,772 mi.
Ri
kcl oshkosh personal transit
iver
lo R
B u ff a
Switch to an AM WPR Ideas
Network station, because
Kathleen Dunn’s guest is
especially interesting. The
sound of AM takes me years
back to my Grandmother’s
kitchen in Minneapolis, where
WCCO 830 was always on.
A
Switch to
Wait Wait
Don’t Tell Me
podcast.
W
Map Your Life
22:438: Design III
Cutler-Lake
11:55 a.m.
-4°
164,746 mi.
11:21 a.m.
-6°
164,724 mi.
406
11:43 a.m. Mail birthday card
to sister-in-law @ Post Office.
Fleetvehicles
T
Nothingplaying
Office
Fireplace
w
Longing
Launder
Emmet
ATM
Gallery
u1
Playground
Hauptbahnhof IC
Say It With Me
Bunker
WAUSHARA COMMUTER RAIL LINE see inset below
(with connections to Superior & Minneapolis via Stevens Point)
Tatertots
u2
T-Shirts
w
Belltower
Cartman
Elliptical
Empty Retail
u2
IL
ER
LK
UL
SF
ES
CC
SU
T WA
u3
Post
on)
dis
Ma
Südbahnhof
Airplanes
T
Complicated Stations
SUBWAY
IC
kee)
FERRY
ERRANDS
Seasonal service (late July)
WONDERLAND
Seasonal service (milkshakes, airplanes)
T
n
Wouldn’t it be nice?
Limited service (auto repair, breakfast)
u3
Simple Stations
INTERCITY RAIL
QUOTIDIAN LINE
LINE
R RAIL
o via Milwau
PASSENGE Bay and Chicag
Green
LAMBEAU
between
(Service
key
u1
u2
IC
Ardyandeds
Sad But Sometimes Useful
OT
SC
E (To
LIN
FOUR-LANE BICYCLE TRAIL
LY
HIGH
R RA
GE
EN
SS
PA
w
On old-timey riverboats
Service to Neenah, Fond du Lac, Omro, Winneconne, Eureka, Berlin (especially seasonal)
BICYCLE ROUTE
Formerly 41
TRAM
Chain Stores
hß
Hoffmannstraße
“No distance too great to be with you.”
waushara commuter rail line
Cheese
X
Gathering
Oddtower
Lucyboo
O M R O
Pigglywiggly
Sitstay
Megannathan Station
Highly Useful Transit Hub
u1
Elliptical
Some of my maps.
For this assignment, you are asked to
make a map representing some aspect
of your unique, personal experience. This
map could represent time spent in the
city or town you live in (or have lived
in) or it could be a map describing the
unique natural characteristics of a place
where you have lived, annotated with
instances of your own experiences.
Each of the maps that result from this
assignment should concern the nature
of what it means to be somewhere (or
to experience something) and how one
may move around it. Almost all of these
maps seek to simplify what, to me, is a
very complex subject: personal location
and time spent on this immense earth.
There is no need to resort to decoration or unnecessary editing to make the
map “prettier.” Information is beautiful,
and it’s your job to take a substantial
amount of raw data and present it in a
clear, useful manner without cosmetic
distractions.
Why maps?
This assignment is designed to make
you aware of the way information can be
expressed spatially. Maps foster better
understanding of the situation at hand.
They mitigate the feeling of being lost.
They lend a sense of order to the world.
This assignment considers the way
designers can express ideas of place,
time and experience through the use of
map (or map-like) imagery in their work.
It hopes to spark conversation, exploration, and thought about the potential of
the map. A variety of cartographic approaches have been used by artists and
designers throughout time to explore
and understand human experience.
Some questions for discussion: What
roles do scale, spatial organization, symbols, distance, and direction play when
we attempt to “map out” a place or an
idea? Can it tell a story? How does a map
define location? What has been included? What has been excluded? Is a map
an exact record or a personal opinion?
Final presentation format will be unique
to each map: the way your map is
presented should address specifics of
your unique project. If one-sided, flushmounting on presentation board should
suffice. If two-sided, you might want to
look into the specifics of folding. Don’t
forget process materials.
Mapping fulfills one
of our deepest desires:
understanding the
world around us and
our place in it.
Katharine Harmon
To create a map is to
abstract from the world
those factors deemed
important, and display
them in a form that
allows them to be useful.
Ward Kaiser and
Denis Wood
You are a part of a part
and the whole is made
of parts, each of which is
whole. You start with the
part you are whole in.
Gary Snyder