Mapping

In a course which explores the ways we represent the "places" we inhabit and the implications of those representations it makes sense to begin with mapping--to start by exploring the way we visually depict geographical spaces. What is gained by mapping a place? What is represented? What is lost? What does the map portray about the mapmaker?

Check out How Stuff Works: Maps:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/map.htm

This American Life: Episode 110: Mapping

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=110

"Maps have meaning because they filter out all the chaos in the world...and this is the age of maps...something like 99.9 percent of all maps have been made in this century. Every map is the world seen through a different lens."-Ira Glass

What lens do you see the world through? What places are you able to map through memory?

In class: Sketch a map of a place you've lived or traveled to. It can be your dorm room, your hometown, your childhood neighborhood, your family's vacation route, or any place that your remember well. Add as many details and memories into your depiction as possible.

Homework:

-100 word "photo" of one of the images in American Earth
-Create your blog and link it to the class page
-Readings: "Everything is a Human Being" by Alice Walker, 659, "This Compost" by Walt Whitman, 62-63, journal.

To Create your blog:
http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g

Connect your blog to the class page by clicking "Follow."