Interactive Maps

The image above displays an interactive map which displays data in relation to life expectancy in each country whilst also providing information on population growth rate. The graph can also change in terms of which information is displayed and the user is able to navigate the different countries in order of life expectancy. This is an interesting way of presenting data both visually and digitally. To find out more visit the website.

A few supplementary points added to survey of tick sheets

Physical, practical and psychological aspects must be thoroughly treated and then enhanced with valuable layers through work on city qualities (both visual and pragmatic), which can root people in the space-----means city space perform well.

Physical:
(1)Safe
Street light;
CCTV;
Separated road of different functions or shared road;
Pedestrian’s priority (continuity of the pavement);
Consideration for bicyclist;
Warning boards and signs;
Window light at night;
Gate and fence;
Transition from public to private (semiprivate space for interaction);Car-free areas (St linked to the main road of Victoria Rd);

(2)Green
Gasoline used (number of cars);
Climate: humidity/wind chill (low buildings and trees alongside can reduce the strength
of wind)/solar heat/average temperature;
Lighting;
Litter bins distribution;
Bus station (How large is area that a bus station need cover?);
Plantations;

Practical:
(3)Healthy
Sedentary and moving activities;
Exercise space;
Noise;
Sunlight;
Proportion of walking/bicycling/public transportation/private car;
Pollution;
Proportion of the road-----traffic lane, bicyclist, pedestrianism (room for walking);

(4)Wealthy
Infrastructure, for examples: bench, plants, bollard;
Varied materials for city’s visualization;
Proportion of necessary activities and optional (recreational) activities;

Psychological:
(5)Sense of Communities
Average size of household, number of residents per hectare;
Community bulletins and boards and signs;
Advertisements for the public community area or infrastructures;
Communication among people on the public space;
The frequency of varied facades in the length of the road;
Human scale or traffic scale;
Street furniture that provides ”talkscapes”;
Unhindered sightlines;

(6)Learning
Artistic display (installations and temporary works for children learning);
Schools;
Educational institutions, for examples: exhibition, art gallery, theatre;

Monday Walking in Fenton

On Monday, I went to Fenton for a pilot study and kept some records by camera. Maybe it’s just a glimpse at Fenton, but I hope this can help build up our desktop stuff and survey tick sheet. Perhaps we can find more about Fenton and things related to the 'tick sheet' methodology.

The following picture showed my route yesterday. Following the methodology from previous posts, I began at the Stoke-On-Trent Railway Station and walked through the south part of Leek Road and City Road, and reached the node which is one of the two ends of Victoria Road. Then walked along the whole Victoria Road and turned to the north part of Leek Road, back to where I started.

Route taken on initial visit to Fenton.

The two ends of Victoria Road are two big nodes with the roundabout connected a series of main roads leading to other parts of Stoke-On-Trent.

Victoria Road can be divided into different parts, because each has their own features, which was reflect in my change of emotion walking down the road. (From south to north)

1. Continuity of the residential area
On the southeast side of Victoria Road is a big area of residential area with some learning schools, so the south corner of Victoria Road is an area when there is transition from a residential area to a main commercial road. Features: residential houses alongside (type); front courtyards between the sidewalk and house (transition); monitor or CCTV in case of theft (safe issue); “Fenton Park” bulletins among residential area (community sense); no trees at all.



2. Combination of Houses/Church/Commercial
Features: boring and unified façade; shuttered doors; narrow road with two traffic lanes; narrow pavement; rarely people stay; no trees at all.

3. Commercial area with a variety of shops
This area basically consists of plenty of shops (clothing, mechanism, food, and supermarket). The width of the road does not stay the same, some of the area needs a little bit for a bigger public space for people to stay (however, with worse infrastructure). Features: colourful advertising bulletin; varied façade; more open and transparent on the ground floor; some awnings outside for people stay; more people walking through the toad; varied width of the road; narrow pavement.

4. Residential houses again with Fenton Park
Some residential houses again appeared along the road, but without front gardens, because the width of the road is too narrow. However, there is Fenton Park alongside, which is big green space, not only connected to Victoria Road, but also connected to different residential communities in the east area of Victoria Rd, which consists of lots of residential houses. The park must be the center of Victoria Rd, however, the space in front of the gate of the park is limited, with only a bust station near the gate. Features: Fenton Park, the mark of “Fenton” (community sense); green and environmental; people stay in the space for a long time (optional activities and recreational activities).

5. Fewer buildings with more grassland and trees
It is an area which transitions from the intensive buildings to less density, which give it a bit more space for grass and planting trees, which definitely contrasts to previous parts of Victoria Road, with little plants. But alongside are fences and brick walls, which get in the way of the view or interaction between people as well as people and buildings. Fewer residents showed up or walked by. Features: more plants; less density; clear boundaries defined by brick walls and fence; fewer people.




6. Fenton Industrial Estate
This space consists of an industrial estate with broader roads and a bigger scale of building and road, which give spaces for the “outside activity space”, which, however, just turn out to be the parking space or the ground with no people at all. A lot of one-storey or two-storey big supermarket and factories alongside and so the view along the road is open, because there are fewer buildings. However the shuttered door and the big scale make people feel less warm, which makes residents just pass by quickly instead of staying. And also, few people walk on this part of Victoria Road. Features: big scale; broader road; big media advertisement bulletin and bigger slogans; few people walking; big burden of traffic; more private cars; strong wind.

7. Small scale of shops and residential houses back again
When getting closer to the node of Leek Road and Victoria Road in the north, the corner space is filled with small scale buildings along the road.



Other observations of Victoria Road:
Bus stops are limited with a long walk between each bus station; more private cars than public transportation (not green and not sustainable as there is less walking); no lanes for bicyclists (bicycle and car even share a road which is dangerous and there are fewer bicycles); little infrastructure (benches, bollards, monuments, plinths of flower bed) for people stay in a space except for the fenton park

Other parts of Fenton (Leek Road, City Road, King Street):
At the intersection of City Road and Leek Road, I found this bulletin which shows "Welcome to Fenton”.



It is interesting that the bicycle lanes sometimes share the road with car, and sometimes share the road with pedestrian, which is really dangerous.

There is more traffic than people walking and bicycling (not healthy), and there seems to be fewer optional or recreational activities outside (not lively).

Mapping Colour

I'm not entirely sure where this idea came from, where it's going or, more importantly, how successful it will be but the intention is to map colour using images taken on site. Each image will be analysed and assigned one of three colours - Red, Green or Blue, thus reducing the information contained within to a basic form. The colour will be decided based on average RGB values within the image. The possible outcome is that Red will highlight built up/ residential areas, Green will highlight 'green' space and Blue will highlight empty or grey spaces when the final map is published. There is then the potential to integrate the results with the mindstorm in some way, as this recognises RGB colour.

How to calculate RGB Values...

I initially thought that a program within the adobe suite would allow us to do this but couldn't find anything suitable. In my search I came across 'ImageJ', a java based programme developed by the National Institutes of Health in the US. A free download of this software provides the 'basic' package which is capable of analysing and processing images. Reading through the user guide reveals a whole host of things to experiment with but the main purpose of the program is to install/write java plugins, one of which gives average RGB values.

Never Get Lost in a City Again

The Situationist may not agree with this (with their love of the Derive and the subsequent new ways to experience a city it can bring about) but the BBC have produced a guide of six different methods to navigate cities without using maps, GPS, iPhones or anything similar. You can read the full article here.

The Map Room

Lots of information here about lots of different mapping artists, expand the articles and have a quick peek. The main blog is a good one too, however there is too much information for one person to take in in one night. Also, here's a list of mapping books on an amazon wishlist.

Contemporary Art vs. Ancient Practice

The Map as Art (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009)

The above book may be worth a look: "The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography" by Katharine Harmon and Gayle Clemans. Sadly it is only on order at the library so who knows when it will arrive.

When is a map a map?

It seems that there's an undefined balance between what we call a 'map' and preconceptions of what that should then show us. When is something a map, and when isn't it? It's the following blog that provoked that question ... see "The Coolist" here.

Pilot Studies

Before heading to Stoke-on-Trent (and more specifically Fenton) the group has carried out a number of pilot studies in areas of Manchester, testing out various different methods of data collection and mapping techniques. The purpose of these pilot studies is to test the various methodologies and review the outcomes of initial forays into the city, including: route and starting point selections; mapping and recording techniques; short tests and reviews of the proposed methodologies; and assembling hardware (maps, cameras, measuring equipment, etc).

Two locations were chosen, Clayton and Trafford. These locations were selected because they have some resemblance to the built environment or urban landscape of the Fenton area of Stoke-on-Trent and therefore any pilot studies carried out there should be reliable. Visits were made across three days, with Clayton being visited on Tuesday 5th October 2011 and Thursday 7th October 2011, and Trafford on Wednesday 6th October 2011 and Thursday 8th October 2011. Prior to visiting each location an initial survey of online maps was carried out to determine which particular area to visit and also determine a starting point. Both areas were accessed via public transport so it was decided that the disembarkation points would be the start of each mapping exercise.

No route was planned before visiting, with the decision taken to follow major routes and then make decisions at junctions with other roads/circulation networks as to whether or not a change of direction was needed. The original intention in Clayton (visited first) was to walk a linear route however during the visit it was decided to change this course of action and carry out a circuit/loop, with investigations or forays into the edges of these routes. The data being collected was also revised along the route to reflect what was being seen/found in that area, these lessons were then applied to Trafford (and then further revised).

Clayton

The Clayton Route was approximately 2.3 miles in length, starting at Sport City before moving into the residential areas bounded by Ashton New Road and Phillips Park/The Vale.

The route taken around Clayton on both visits.

Trafford

The Trafford Route was approximately 1.9 miles in length, starting close to Lancashire County Cricket Club before moving into the residential and commercial areas bounded by Warwick Road and Great Stone Road.

The route taken around Trafford on both visits.

Further documentation and results from these initial pilot studies will be uploaded to this blog, accessible via this tag.

IBM THINK Exhibit

The IBM Think Exhibit is currently taking place at the Lincon Center in New York (September 23rd 2011 to October 23rd 2011) and combines "three unique experiences to engage visitors in a conversation about how we can improve the way we live and work."

A 123-foot digital wall is being used to visualize, in real time, live data being streamed from systems surrounding the exhibit. The data ranges from traffic on Broadway to solar energy to air quality. Inside the exhibit visitors are immersed in a digital environment, with 40 7-foot tall data screens that show them a 12-minute film: "A kaleidoscope of images and sound ... They are enveloped in a rich narrative about the pattern of progress, told through awe-inspiring stories of the past and present." Finally, at the conclusion of the film the 40 screens (or 'media panels') become interactive touchscreens.

IBM Think Exhibit Data Wall (Image: IBM Think Exhibit)

On the various mapping techniques being used the organisers have this to say:

"All the information we’re collecting becomes much more effective when it’s organized. We’ve used maps to organize data for millennia. Throughout history, maps have revealed patterns in what appeared to be chaos, inspired explorers, and guided development and innovation. Now, our maps are more powerful and insightful than ever. They’re dynamic, multi-dimensional, and collaborative. Today’s mapping platforms give us the ability to organize and express information about any facet from every perspective—in real time."

All of the information (the data) being collected is being used to inform models to predict future behaviour, from physical prototypes to mathematical calculations. New tools are reducing the risk associated with these predictions: "Supercomputers, analytics software, and networking technologies allow us to simulate the behaviour and interactions of vast systems."

The FIGUREGROUND Project

PRAUD (Progressive Research on Architecture, Urbanism and Design) is a Boston based firm which was founded in 2010 by Rafael Luna and Dongwoo Yim. The research and design firm "focuses on a contemporary approach to understanding the effects of urbanity and developing architectural process ... [taking] into account various scales in architecture and urbanism with key topics such as hybridity, urbanity, density and transformation." One of their current research projects is called FIGUREGROUND.

Mapping World Cities
(Image Copyright: FiguregroundBos)

FIGUREGROUND is an interactive research project that was started "in order to better understand built environments through analytical comparison of the world's most influential cities." They are currently mapping world capitals using figure grounds (the most famous of which has to be the Nolli Map of Rome) as a comparative drawing technique. The research is being conducted across multiple media platforms, including social networks such as Facebook, FlickR, Twitter and Youtube. It also includes online surveys and analysis of existing databases that rank cities globally.

Amsterdam and Los Angeles
(Image Copyright: FiguregroundBos)

One such product is a range of T-Shirts that depict a number of world cities (London, Paris, Amsterdam, LA, Berlin, Chicago) through figure grounds. The T-shirt Blog 'Cottonable' has described the T-shirts as something which can "inspire interaction between cities" and that they give people a chance to "learn about the anatomy of a few [of the] most influential cities in the world while looking good" (see here).

Chicago, Boston and World Map
(Image Copyright: FiguregroundBos)

These products present an interesting junction between both analogue and digital data collection and visualisation, through the production of various products. Whenever a product is purchased PRAUD three pieces of data are collected: the place it was purchased; the city design that was purchased; and the place it was shipped. The intention is to compare "the marketability of a city to the world rankings of world's most influential cities." Other products currently available include a series of frames/prints of various cities.

Berlin
(Image Copyright: FiguregroundBos)

As part of a project they are also working on a book about the World's Most Influenctial Cities (the progress of which can be checked on for free here). Their mission is to "create a publication that provokes a dialogue between cities, and analyse what makes some cities great in order to transport these strategies to developing cities."

You can find out more about FIGUREGROUND from the project blog here.

Invisible Cities - Revealing Social Networks

Invisible Cities from Christian Marc Schmidt on Vimeo.

Above is a project by Christian Marc Schmidt & Liangjie Xia. Here is what they have to say about it:

"By revealing the social networks present within the urban environment, Invisible Cities describes a new kind of city—a city of the mind. It displays geocoded activity from online services such as Twitter and Flickr, both in real-time and in aggregate. Real-time activity is represented as individual nodes that appear whenever a message or image is posted. Aggregate activity is reflected in the underlying terrain: over time, the landscape warps as data is accrued, creating hills and valleys representing areas with high and low densities of data.

Invisible Cities maps information from one realm—online social networks—to another: an immersive, three-dimensional space. In doing so, the piece creates a parallel experience to the physical urban environment. The interplay between the aggregate and the real-time recreates the kind of dynamics present within the physical world, where the city is both a vessel for and a product of human activity. It is ultimately a parallel city of intersections, discovery, and memory, and a medium for re-experiencing the physical environment."

There is a potentially useful list of software on Wikipedia (here) that could be applied to different social networks/situations.

The Future of Digital Cartography?

Here is an interesting article from Cloud Sourced about the future of cartography.

Digital Cartography of course. While paper maps aren’t going to die, its a limited medium and all the fun stuff is going on in the digital sphere. Remember this – all paper maps are produced from huge amounts of data, 1s and 0s describing our planet down to centimetre accuracy. The AtoZ in the bottom of your bag, the grimy tube map stuck to the station wall and the dog-eared road atlas in the glove box are all renderings of digital data. Lets make it really simple: A Map = Data x Visualisation

Emotional City Mapping - Artist Christian Nold

Below is an excerpt of an article by Lisa Leff of Fosters Online (Accessed via Softhook here).

"SAN FRANCISCO — As cartography projects go, Christian Nold's approach to charting the peaks and valleys of urban landscapes is decidedly unconventional.

First, he outfits volunteers with global positioning system devices and the sensors used in lie detector tests. Then, he sends his subjects out to wander their neighbourhoods. When they  return, Nold asks them to recount what they saw and felt when the polygraph recorded a quickened heartbeat or an elevated blood pressure."

 You can check out the project here.

And the final maps here.

Food for thought: The first 10 maps that come to mind

Aside from artistic translations of what a new map should be, I thought I’d go back to basics this morning and decided to write, very briefly, about the first ten maps that came to mind. This turned into twelve, but I think that thinking inside the box for a minute and really pointing out the basics can help in creating our own mapping techniques. As I mentioned, these are the first that came to mind, there may be others and these may not be everyone’s ten (or more if you’re on a roll). This is the order I wrote them down in but reading through them there would be a definite order in terms of scale and clusters of types.

ONE: The world map

So this is probably the most obvious start but it got me thinking about the techniques employed in actually creating it, before we knew it was round and way before we could see it from space. Maybe that’s another line of enquiry in itself outside of the remit of this research. There’s also the dymaxion version, as pictured above.

TWO: Friendship connections

Not too long ago, a Facebook whiz kid developed this map depicting connections. He used data from 10,000,000 profiles of Facebook users from around the world to create it and I feel it is a very telling representation in a number of ways. You can read more about it here.

“Visualizing data is like photography. Instead of starting with a blank canvas, you manipulate the lens used to present the data from a certain angle.”

THREE: The marauders map

Possibly the real reason I started this post is that this randomly popped into my head. I’m sure everyone is familiar with it as a fictional piece but I was wondering if there was an element of our investigations into programming Mr. Mindstorm, or the grown up version, that could take the basic ideas from here.

FOUR: The map from the Adjustment Bureau

Following on the film theme, the map used in the Adjustment Bureau is also pretty interesting. More analysis on this will follow in a later post.


FIVE: The London underground map

If lots of things go on under the ground then this is potentially the most well recognised. It’s one of the things perceived as being useful, despite all the other non mapped elements that are crucial in serving the city. It’s also interesting in the way it connects points and nodes. Variations and interpretations of this map have been done to death but it still goes on the list.

SIX: Situationists

Fresh in the mind from Friday’s presentations, the situationists map is somewhat of an icon for those looking at mapping from an A&U perspective. Out of interest, take a look at this .

SEVEN: Manhattan / City map

Possibly one of the most iconic city maps has to be New York, especially in the context of my own research last year. The city map in general offers us a top down view detached from experience and to some extents could be regarded as somewhat fictional, despite being the most useful of tools . Take a peek at this. The interactive map is interesting.

EIGHT: Road map / OS map

With the advent of GPS these are typically nowhere near as widely used as they once were. The first result of a search for “road map” brings google maps, aa route planners and other digital solutions. It’s the colour coding and layering techniques that are important here. The standard has been set.

NINE: Constellation map

The ability to make recognisable connections between otherwise random events? Mapping out cities based on this goes way back.

TEN: Radar

I’m not entirely sure why this was on my radar but its an interesting concept nonetheless. It was the technology that guides aeroplanes and submarines that first came to mind.

ELEVEN: Treasure Map

It’s the journey and the reading of objects and landmarks that’s particularly important in this case. I suppose I could have used orienteering as the example but where’s the fun in that. Also, it demonstrates how even with a limited amount of information you can still make sense of the physical reference.

TWELVE: Relief map

Ending on a slightly more serious note, this is another type that came to mind. This includes two and three dimensional types, and essential part of mapping physical geography. This is an interesting tool if you’re interested. Also see this for representational techniques.