Mapping in a Creative Way

---This American Life: Mapping


For me, it is new that one of the class assignments is listening to an article from radio program. The article, This American Life: Mapping, introduced a new definition of the word map to us. I am interested in this article in that I am always curious about new concepts and new applications of traditional concepts. As a matter of fact, when I read the title at first I thought mapping was nothing new but a common thing in our lives. However, my attention was attracted when I saw Mapmaking means ignoring everything in the world but the one thing being mapped. I realized that I have never noticed the nature of a map. Then I clicked to listen and finished the listening.

This essay conveys an optimistic attitude towards creation by telling stories about people who make the maps by using five senses. Although we are very familiar with the maps and the way that people produce regular maps by drawing things we can see. We may not ever think about there are maps of sounds, smells, tastes and interesting sights in this world. Denis Wood made a series maps of his own neighborhood using different sights. One of his maps is an image of the stars and the sky, which if you were lie down in a summer’s night, you would see. I like this map because it makes me feel very warm and remind me of Andersen’s fairy tales. Another group of people map the world with smell. Their electronic nose can analyze the ingredients of the gas which is similar with what our noses do when we smell something. It is apparently that the electronic noses are much less sensitive because human noses have far more sensors. It may take at least ten years to become available for consumers because of the complicated techniques and high cost. But mapping with smell is a brand new way of knowing about our world. They are creative artists by doing so.

Since I don’t have too much experience in artistic creation, I think the information and ideas from this article is valuable for me. The imagination and creation in mapping the world in five senses encourage me to open my mind in exploration the relationship between us and our surroundings. In most situations, the artistic creation is emerged from an artist’s thinking about the traditional subjects in a new way. Therefore, I think the first step of creation is to attempt new ways when achieve a conventional task.