Hi Everybody,
I figured I’d start the project discussion going with a little project I’d like to happen out there. Here goes.
I propose that we map the 3200 acre Jeffers Tree Farm. The dense forest that covers most of the property is riddled with paths for which no map exists. I think that this would be a really great, casual collaborative project that people could participate in as an excuse to go hiking and exploring. I would like for us to use an alternative mapping technique, but thus far have only decided that i think it shoud be be collaborative and memory based. Basically, I’m thinking we will send people into the woods with walkie talkies and have them collect different sorts of data as best they can without bringing numbers into the process. At project’s “end” we would create an artifact that would serve future cohorts of Harolders in their adventures through the woods. Certain traditions and movements within art have addressed mapping. We might begin by talking about situationist mapping methods and what we (don’t) like about them. Please feel free to crit or add to this idea with your comments.
Thanks!
Nick Wylie
Well, there is a part of the book I am working on where one character prepares a trail for a commercial enterprise by hanging red cloths in the trees. Not a perfectly original conceit, but it could be interesting to simply go trekking randomly throughout the woods and leave some non-damaging markers that, simply by being there, affect the way in which we order our various expeditions. In other words, if the first person leaves a trail marking the west it might become more likely that the next person will choose to go east. It might also mean that everybody tends to head west, since the trail has been started that way arbitrarily. The interesting thing would be to create those arbitrary markers and see how the space and the experience of it adapts in response.
Love the idea. A loose of definition of mapping can lead to pretty excellent things. A smell map, audio map, story map, etc. What about an actual trail of breadcrumbs, hansel & gretel style?
Hi Nick,
How accurate do you want the map to be? Would it be more interpretive and not having real proportions? Or could there be arbitrary units of measurement (ie. not ft. or km. but toilet paper squares)? We could also add our own landmarks that mark the locations where certain art projects were made.
Just some thoughts….
I look forward to meeting you soon.
Best,
Mary
I would like to get as accurate/thorough with the map/atlas. I’d like to include tons of information, but this does not mean that measuring methods should be at all conventional/accurate. I think the vision is to be as descriptive as possible in the end result while allowing for very loose surveying tactics. Being out here in the woods makes it all make much more sense. One part of the project that we’re enacting already is taking still/video shots from the tops of tall trees, so that we can get broad perspectives on the layout of the land. I also don’t think that it’s against the rules to use what fuzzy geographical data Google earth provides as a broad guide. More later, but I think this is going to be a great project. It may need an “edge” or conceptual justification, but these things tend to come naturally sometimes… If anyone can find a good model to follow for a segement of it, such as the situationist psychogeography, we’d be much obliged.
Let’s treat this as a very broadly inclusive project. I’m happy to take the lead, but would like to cultivate a large participation rate. We all want to hike in the woods and tell others what we saw and how to get there, right?
Nick
I was planning a sort of similar idea that I have spoken to Nick about merging with his. I am going to start a recycling project with the paper products that the residency uses. I am going to use the recycling to hand-make paper. The smaller pieces of paper will then be bound together in a grid pattern. The grid will be used as the base of the map of Harold. I am planning on starting with a sort of aerial map that we could put together as Nick said from hiking, video and from google earth. I want the project to not only function as a map but also to tell the story of the farm, and maybe the story of the two weeks we will be there this summer. I am not quite positive how to accomplish that yet. I hope others will be interested in working on this.