Embodied Viewing Platforms

Here and There a cartographic experiment by Shulze and Webb.

I think I figured out why I enjoy this map by Jack Schulze and Matt Webb — it can possibly induce vertigo, which means it’s human, real and embodied. The rolling coasting perspective that deliberately distorts the island of Manhattan shows the city from a fixed point of view, but still showing no horizon. The map is not these flat views that we’ve become so accustomed to, floating above the ground but yet firm, and sure and secure. A little more awkwardness in points-of-view is called for, I think.

2 thoughts on “Embodied Viewing Platforms”

  1. You might want to check out this work on using similar distortions as a heads up display while driving:

    Kim, S. and Dey, A. K. 2009. Simulated augmented reality windshield display as a cognitive mapping aid for elder driver navigation. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 – 09, 2009). CHI ’09. ACM, New York, NY, 133-142. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1518701.1518724

Comments are closed.