The map is not the territory

Nationality: Italian/English

City of birth: Rome

University / Institution: ESAD Matosinhos

Tools Used: Illustrator, Photography

Contacts: chiara@chiaraleto.co.uk, chiaraleto.co.uk

 

There is a class of maps that plot the things that are not there, that cannot be touched or won’t be captured in a single instance. These are maps of information, ideas or organisations; of logical systems of thought, science, business or design; and of change- the mapping of events or actions unfolding over time.

This project asks you to consider and explore your role as a visual communicator in collecting, documenting and communicating information. An important function of this project is to focus on developing visual methods that are effective in gathering information and then communicating understanding.

 

It took me some time to understand how and what I wanted to map, what has been very useful was Andrew’s advice, which simply told me during one revision; “you have to thing about making a mapping and not a map, maybe thinking it this was will help”…and I guess it did. Initially my ideas were various and quite confused, I was considering to map different “things”

• Angus’ movement and effort on his bike rides
• Bird migration
• Whale migration
• Other animal migration e.g. Monarch butterflies
• Fridge contents, origin of different goods, International/Unethical fridge or pantry
• Fisheries
• Fish counter, proportion of locally sourced fish, exotic fish, endangered fish…
• Fruit or Veg counter as above
• Port wine and barrel trade
• Supermarket areas
• Bathrooms and hygiene habits in ESAD
• Mapping Bairro (rubbish and ethnicity/diversity, university groups or trends)

The time for this project wasn’t much so I didn’t have time for second thoughts, and I also believe that the most important point of this project is for us to learn a technique, once we have learned a way of thinking, a method, we will be able to apply it to different subjects. I thought that collecting information from the people who lived with me in “Bairro Ignez” would have been a wise choice (also for saving time). I started with the idea of taking single pictures of each one in front of the door of they’re house, but I had to abandon that idea.

I then decided to collect personal information, such as birth, nationality, religion and sexual orientation.

Once I had all the information I decided how I could graphically express it…I traced the plans of the Bairro and sorted them by numerical order.

The apartments are all of slightly different measurements and the dotted lines separate the space according to the people/animals living in the place, while the different colors differentiate the type of information.

 

And the Final work…

 

And the minimalistic version…

Too much information? The result is misapprehension.

 

Author: Chiara Leto