“Finding entails the act and process of searching as well as the outcome, the thing discovered. It is both activity and insight.”Rail Networks by James Corner
- Christophe Girot
Mapping your site is an excellent tool for Finding as it provides a vehicle for you to visualize information and represent abstract concepts graphically. During your mapping exercise you will need to consider the following:
Environmental Conditions:
+ Compass Rose
+ Site Coordinates
+ Topographic Elevations
+ Sun Patterns
+ Wind Patterns
+ Vegetation
+ Tidal Fluctuations
Constructed Environment:
+ Natural Lanscape vs. Landfill
+ Existing Structure (buildings)
+ Historical Trends
Phenomenal Landscape:
+ Sounds
+ Views
+ Smells
+ Politics
+ Economics
+ Social Influences
James Corner explains mapping in his essay, The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention as "a creative practice, mapping precipitates its most productive effects through a finding that is also a founding; its agency lies in neither reproduction nor imposition but rather in uncovering realities previously unseen or unimagined." Mapping does not represent the obvious but rather uncovers a hidden truth that exists between the layering of information. With your physical mapping exercises you should be prepared to explain how the mapping revealed unique characteristics about your site. What does the map reveal to you?
Below are some examples of maps that effectively begin to describe an "other" quality that exists when you begin to layer visual information. Look for the connections that may exist, seek more truth in the maps that you create.
Maps of the Seven Deadly Sins Across America
How does your geographic region begin to suggest you belong to a particular demographic? This mapping can begin to suggest that climatic and cultural influences affect our behavior.
The Nuclear Fallout Map of the United States plotted out significant threat areas and nuclear powerplants, then overlaid prevailing wind patterns to approximate what populations would be worst hit by a nuclear attack, ah the good ol' days of the cold war. While the threat of thermonuclear war is not perceived as being as much a danger as it was several decades ago, the map offers an eerily elegant exercise in visual representation.
Mousepath: Download Here
An application that creates a visible path of your mouse movements. Lines indicate travel, dots indicate stationary points and grow with time.
The work of Perry Culper:
