Platial News and Neogeography

Maps in Art

I got all of this from a post this evening on Metafilter.

Matthew Cusick

Layla Curtis

Susan Stockwell

Yuval Shaul

Ellsworth Kelly from the Terra Incognita show in 2005.

London Arms

Yesterday I noticed an intriguing new map called, London Arms Trade, by Boringlovechild. It shows the locations of the offices of weapons manufacturers and distributors in London. I wrote a note to the map's author to find out more.

The map is part of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, which is a grassroots organization which has been active since 1974. Robin Yu sent me back this quote to explain the project:

"Recently a local London group was set up, determined to highlight the immorality of the 'defence' industry. I undertook to create this map using CAAT resources and the British Defence Industry Directory (Online), to begin to pinpoint those involved in making London the capital of the world arms-broking trade.

"Certain things are immediately obvious. The first is the concentration of the big arms companies in the centre of the city. Companies like BAE, Raytheon and Rolls Royce are as much a part of the establishment as they can physically be: not surprising when the Defence Export Services Organisation, based on New Oxford Street, is a government agency that identifies potential opportunities for arms sales, then works with the companies and other elements of government to push for deals. In other words, civil servants are paid with our taxes to encourage the export of death.

"Until now, many of these death merchants have basked in anonymity. LRLIH, which owns the company responsible for agreeing to supply military trucks to Sudan despite the ongoing crisis in Darfur, has an office on Haymarket, a couple of minutes from the tourists of Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. The fact is that we walk by these companies on our way to theatres, pubs and shops without even knowing they are there. This map is the beginning of an attempt to redress that."

The organization is planning to hold demonstrations outside the offices of three London dealers on March 19th.

The Geography Game

Jason started this up last night. The Geography Game map.

Add a new Place that STARTS with the LAST LETTER in the previously added Place. The Place at the top of the list is the newest.

Kircher Society

I recently rediscovered The Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society.

The Athanasius Kircher Society was chartered to perpetuate the spirit and sensibilities of the late Athanasius Kircher, SJ. Our interests extend to the wondrous, the curious, the singular, the esoteric, and the sometimes hazy frontier between the plausible and the implausible — anything that Father Kircher might find inspiring if he were alive today. Records of our proceedings are maintained for the public’s edification.

Here are a few gems to check out:

Jim Bumgardner's Time Graphs
The Automatic Mapper
Gallery of Scale Model cities
A Guide to Hyperbolic Space
The World's Largest Model of the Solar System
A Short History of Celestial Cartography
Autopia Ampere
The Mapparium
The Gottorp Globe

Metaphilm Mapper

Movie maps are always fun and we've had a couple nice ones on Platial. I recently saw a mapping site solely dedicated to film in New York, called Metaphilm Mapper.

Here are my results from a search for Woody Allen. The actual mapping side of the operation is still a bit rusty, but they're in beta phase and working out the kinks. It's a really fun toy and an awesome resource. I could use this to make a great Woody Allen map!

Some Movie maps on Platial:
Famous Film Locations

Movies About Real Places

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Machinima

Parisian Cinemas

More New Maps from Londonist

Londonist has an excellent series of articles about back passages. Their latest article is about St. Christopher's Place. Recently they've gone and mapped all their archives for your convenience.

The newest open Londonist map is for sightings of the Graffiti installations of Space Invader in London. The guy who does these is based in Paris, and my old neighborhood there is full of them. I've seen them in Brooklyn, too.

Londonist on Platial

Shout out to the UK

We're really grateful for last week's UK press. Right now 5% of Platial users are in the UK and we're excited to get lots of recommendations for our London trip this Spring!

  BBC's In Business

 

Platial had a chance to contribute to a great program by Peter Day along with Paul Sterne, chief financial officer of Open-Xchange and general manager Americas. Peter Yared, chief executive, ActiveGrid John Newton, chairman, Alfresco John Powell, chief executive, Alfresco Scott Dietzen, chief executive, Zimbra Paul Radamacher, Google Paul Saffo, writer and technology forecaster Paul Saffo's web site

WebUser Magazine gives Platial top billing for 25 must-visit sites for 2007. Wow, Thanks.

And on a completely unrelated note: Is anyone here from Surrey? I'm looking for lost luggage circa 1994 and an old friend.

Get Massively Creative

Mike at Google Maps Mania brings this to our attention:

You can get yourself into a Google Maps aerial photo on January 26th, 2007 (Australia Day). If you are in Sydney, Australia, and if you can make yourself really really massive, or organize some kind of huge stunt, with boats, or traffic, or blimps, or water cannons, or rooftops. This should be fun!

If you need a Place to make a map of where you stood, trying to be seen, (think how cool it'll be to plot yourself skydiving or jumping a motorcycle through a ring of fire right at the moment of the photos!) we have one all set up for ya!
The Aussie Day Fly Over Map.

here is the detailed info

selflesh transplant

More fantastic artwork from Shannon Rankin, who is working to "find connections between the seemingly disparate subjects of topography, weather patterns and cellular and body structures"

I just have to say that I can't get enough of this stuff.

Creative Writing about Place

Last week I noticed a map called Blogging NW Indiana. It's a group map where writing students are submitting their pieces on Places and the instructor is giving critiques in the comments.

We've had people use Platial for storytelling and we've had people use Platial for teaching, but this is a really exciting combination of the two.

I wrote to Allison Schuette-Hoffman, who is teaching the class at Valparaiso University. She responded, "The class I'm teaching is Writing about Place. I've focused most of our readings on New Orleans so the students can see how various writers approach the same place, but their writing assignments will have them reflecting on their own experience of home, culture, geography, tradition, weather, etc. The map is an informal weekly writing assignment, and I'm hoping students will not only keep their writing muscles nimble but will gain a sense of this place that we live in."

The stories are wondefully varied. There's a little piece about running the shore of Lake Michigan. Another one talks about being the last person every night on the dune of Mount Baldy. One of my favorites is about a slow walk through a parking lot with a four-year-old. I also liked the one about sleep deprivation and missed car accidents.