CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH

ELEMENTS OF A MAP

Water Towers (1972–2009) - Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher

The designers layout the photographs that they took in a grid to show the changes of buildings and architectures changes within 30 year's time. This way of communicating the idea of time is really interesting as the photographs are directly presented in a clean and organised way. The way of align them in a 6x6 grid has made differences of the buildings look even more significant. This method of present not only could directly communicate the idea of time, but also magnify the difference of the contents optically.

This image used the method of overlaying to show the 'typologies' of buildings overtime. The buildings taken over the years were being overprinted into one image and it could be seen that there are tonnes of line tracings on the picture. By looking closer to the image, you could indistinctly see that the image is actually built up by overlaying many different photographs of different buildings. This method is another way to express time apart from directly showing the difference of changes. The overlaying method is a more subtle way to portray the changes in time. In the darker areas of the image, it shows that buildings were usually built in a narrower cylinder in the past, while the areas with less tracings reflected that buildings were not usually built in a cylinder shape with a relatively wider diameter. This method of overlaying can actually give a more accurate idea of the changes in buildings over the years and at the same time creating a really interesting visual outcome. 

COLOURFUL GRAPHICS 

Using colourful elements would be an interesting way to attract audiences' attention. Also, as my map is related to listening to music, which is an activity for leisure purposes to make people feel relaxed and delighted, using bright colours for my map would be a good way to express the feeling of relaxation and happiness. When people looked at the colourful map, they are expected to have a sense of joy. 

Emotional zone - Mouvement vers l’inconnu

The idea was to study how relationship could influence our way of life and how it can generate poetical forms. By creating a visual link between memories and geography, the installation and posters are exploring how our contemporary life is creating a constant emotional and geographical landscape. The map is created with only lines and dots. This creates a really simple and good looking map, as the same time could deliver the message behind in a reply interesting way. As the map is only made of lines and dots, the key is really important to guide audiences in to really the map. This could be a doable way for working on my design as it is useful to break down loads of information into simple elements in an abstract way. Also, the map visualises smells and emotions which is something that I could try experimenting on. Working on smells, emotions, something that is non-touchable could be really fun throughout the process of visualising them in my own way. 

Diller Scofidio. AA Files 28 Autumn 1994, 90

This is an interesting way to gather loads of information into one single map. The way of branching out lines to provide and present more information is definitely a good way when it comes to a map that is highly informative. The way of making the map looking like leonardo da vinci’s sketches makes the map look aesthetically pleasing. Images were positioned in a random way, yet under an alignment system, making it looks rather neat, with a little trace of randomness. The map looks as if it contains a lot of elements, however, if you look closer, it is only made of simple lines, images and texts. This way of presenting is definitely considerable for laying out my map as it has quite a lot of information to be communicated. 

- The other way would be cutting down the information of the map. Categorising them maybe? 

Stephanie Back

Before starting the project, Stephanie had done 2 projects on the structure on the city. By the knowledge gained from those two previous projects, the third project was created. It contains cut paper maps that explore the visual and conceptual connections between circuit boards and cities. The pieces are imagined places inspired by the layout of specific cities. The idea of linking circuit boards and the structure of a city is creative. It seemed as if she got the word ‘circuit board’ from the random word generator and tired to link it with a city. It is a really smart idea as a circuit board actually looks like the complex structure of a city. This makes me think of relating my chosen theme to things that I would never thought of relating it with. Although this way of generating new ideas might not be applicable to this brief, or that I might not master this way of thinking yet, it could still be used in future projects to help me  come up with more creative ideas.