:: CARTOGRAPHY & CULTURAL ICONOGRAPHY ::

{July 2006}

Maps have been an interest of mine since I was a kid. I'd create maps of fictitious places, develop stories and histories around them. As I looked at maps of our world, I'd wonder what it actually looked like on the ground. The map spoke to me of the physical space, but didn't tell me about the stories there, the people and place. These are the issues that I explore in my own maps.

Cultural Iconography is related to this in that iconography speaks about the culture, its people, and their values. Currently I am exploring the relationship between German culture and how beer is portrayed in that and other cultures. I also like the beer.

Currently reading: Catch-22, Joseph Heller. Else/Where: Mapping, Janet Abrans and Peter Hall (Editors). Beautiful Evidence, Edward Tufte.

Just finished reading: The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, J.B. Harley. The New Media Reader, Edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort.

Links of significance: http://del.icio.us/dabruman