DIGITAL MAPPING MASTER THESIS
PART 1
Kerstin Michaelis Produkt-Design Kunsthochschule Berlin WeiĂ&#x;ensee 2014
Overview
1 ANALYSIS
_5 A Short Mapping History _ 17 A Perspective on Mapping INDEX
_ 51 Status Quo _ 57 Orienting _ 65 Experiencing the City
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3
EXPERIMENT
RESULT
_5 Discourse & Experiment
_5 Outcome & Conclusion
_ 37 Visualization
_ 15 Overview
_ 65 Colours & Distortion
_ 27 Shop Display
_ 79 Maps in Games
_ 33 Row of Houses
_ 91 The Concept
_ 41 Street View
INDEX
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_ 47 Neighbourhoods _ 51 Personal Map
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INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
A Short Mapping History
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Brief
INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
developing a digital tool for locating, orientating, way-finding and re-finding
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Hypothesis
INTRODUCTION
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The way we use maps in the digital world still originates from the analogue model of maps and orientation we have in our minds. In my master thesis I want to analyse, research, experiment and examine, if digital maps as we use them commonly are opting for the right tools and visualization to support their common aim of locating, orientating, way-finding and re-finding.
INTRODUCTION
Therefore I want to go back in time, analyse the development of maps from the first vague drawings when people understood that the world is a sphere until nowadays, where we are able to gather unbelievable 3d geo-location data, which will soon even be mapped to the real world. I want to look into the mental mapping model people have in mind and try to understand what could help most digitally to let our orientation sense successfully operate again. Moreover, I want to find new ways to display information on geographical maps and let them grow together.
www.flickr.com
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Analog Map
The analogue geographic tools on side are all made for different purposes:
Globe: A globe is a three dimensional scaled model of the earth The globe is the only representation of the earth that does not distort the shape or the size of the earth. All kind of flat maps are created using a map projection no matter which map projection is used it will always give a distorted view on the globe.
INTRODUCTION
Fold-able Map: Fold-able maps are mainly made for walking by foot, either in the city or in the woods, often they use special folding techniques to be easily handled so that small extracts of the map can be viewed easily. Fold-able maps are often really detailed and try to cover the whole city on a single sheet of paper.
Atlas: An atlas is a whole collection of maps of the earth. The planet is displayed on different zoom levels but also under certain other aspects besides the geographical aspect: e.g. political boundaries, social, religious and economic statistics represented on maps. Also a lot of information about places is featured additionally.
Road Atlas: A Road Atlas is a spiral binded book primarily displaying streets. Its main purpose is for orientation and navigation, made for easy use while traveling. The maps are displayed at a large zoom, so that they can be reviewed easily.
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Digital Map
For every of those use-cases, there can also be a digital equivalent found in a maps app:
Globe view In most mapping applications, the most far zoomed out level will show the user a globe which he can spin around and play with to get a visual picture of the whole earth sphere.
INTRODUCTION
The Map, pan-able and zoom-able: Then every mapping application consists of the map itself, with different zoom-levels for different information density. The major difference to analogue tools is that the user can choose a point on the map and have a look at it on different information- and zoom-levels.
The Atlas has no real digital equivalent yet.: Since the main purpose of an atlas is to not only show geographically different maps but also political-, social and cultural relevant maps, i could not find a digital equivalent for an Atlas so far.
Navigation: Navigation is always included in mapping apps, to bring you from point a to b.
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Analog Map vs Digital Map Conclusion
The biggest difference between analogue and digital maps is their dimension and usability. Paper maps used to be really big and there where different special folding techniques to still be able to handle those huge maps on a trip. Nowadays, we use mostly digital maps, which have the big advantage of being zoom-able, so there can be different zoom-levels displayed and the information density can be suited to each individual situation. To see different areas on a digital map they are also pan-able so that different clippings of the map can be viewed. On a paper map, to see a different area, which would not fit on to the current extract, one had to follow up an analogue link to another page. INTRODUCTION
www.thethinkingtank.wordpress.com
In digital maps the interactions of panning and zooming in and out are very fluent and feel very natural after a short while. Nevertheless digital maps definitely have a “keyhole problem�. It is hard to compare two places, which have a certain distance between, because the user can always just see one of them on the screen. This is much easier on a big fold-able paper map.
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13 HORIZONT
A Short Subjective History of Cartography
I N THROORDI Z UO CN TT ION
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A short and very subjective view on cartographic evolution, which emerged while writing my thesis: At the beginning we drew the world as we imagined.
INTRODUCTION
Gradually we have created a more clear picture of what is really there.
We start to travel and explore the earth and got a clear picture of what is really there, the age of geodesy starts.
Today we have an exact three dimensional model of the world and know precisely where the user is at the moment.
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F I E L D A N A LY S I S
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FIELD ANALYSIS
A Perspective on Mapping one world seen from different angles
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Important Terms
Coordinate
F I EHL O D RAI Z NO AN LYTS I S
Address
Landmark
Location
Place
Experience
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geography:
a science that deals with the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse physical, biological and cultural features of the earth’s surface
cartography:
the science or art of making maps Merriam Wesbster, an encyclopaedia britannica company www.merriam-webster.com
Coordinate:
Address:
Address, a code and abstract concept expressing a location on the earth’s surface (include also postal address)
Landmark:
A landmark is a recognizable natural or man-made feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or features, that have become local or national symbols.
Location:
The term location in geography is used to identify a point or an area on the earth’s surface or elsewhere. The term location generally implies a higher degree of certainty than place.
Place:
Often indicates an entity with an ambiguous boundary, relying more on human/social attributes of place identity and sense of place than on geometry.
Experience:
Experience is an event or occurrence which, leaves an impression on someone. www.wikipedia.org www.merriam-webster.com
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F I E L D A N A LY S I S
In geometry, a coordinate system, is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point.
Old Fashioned Navigation Tools
In the past, figuring out one’s place in the world was very individual-centric. Ancient mapping technologies focused on producing three-dimensional, tactile maps showing only the information most important for the task at hand. They were well-designed works of art that made the most of all five of the user’s senses.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S www.metmuseum.org
“Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, Polynesia, and Micronesia used open-woven coconut fronds and strings to create a mapping of island chains and the major ocean swells in relation to tides. Those stick maps were so personalized that it was up to the individual who created it to use it 100% accurately.” Sarah Brumble, Atlas Obscura www.nationalgeographic.com
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“Already three hundred years ago humans carved three-dimensional maps – made to be felt rather than seen on dark nights in the kayak. Made out of wood they were both weather proof and would float if accidentally dropped overboard. The actual landmass was often abstracted – it is the edges that contain important information about the shoreline.”
socks-studio.com
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
www.atlasobscura.com
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Map Projections
Mercator
Robinson
Winkel-Tripel
Van der Grinten
Gall-Peters
Dymaxion
Goode Homolosine
Waterman butterfly
Hobo-Dye
Plate CarĂŠe
Peirce Quincuncial
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
A Globe
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There are many different perspectives, to look at the world as we know it nowadays. But every 2 dimensional map is in the end just a projection of the world, all distort distances and directions, and each projection distributes those distortions differently, trying to present a globe on the plane.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Dymaxio map by Buckminster Fuller www.socks-studio.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cahill_Butterfly_Map.jpg
Cahill Butterfly Map www.wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cahill_Butter-
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Modern Analog Orienatation Tools
map2 “map2 is a pocket-size map which allows you to quickly find what you need without wrestling against a king-size map. map2 removes the need to unfold unnecessary parts or the entire map. map2 lets you zoom into greater detail. In a single folding action chosen parts of a smaller scale map can be unfolded to give an enlarged and more detailed view of that same area underneath.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
When the map is folded to its minimum size either of the sections facing outwards can still be quickly unfolded and refolded, allowing immediate magnification or miniaturisation. Since the map can be folded to keep any two of the sections on the outside, you can decide which section is visible for quick consultation.� www.thezoomablemap.com
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Crumpled City Map “The Crumpled City Map reinterprets an object which, historically, has been synonymous with exacting precision and manual skills. Actually, maps must be opened, folded to find what we are interested in and then folded away, preferably along the original folds of the paper.
But, how often are such operations difficult and frustrating? Especially when we are lost and have to pull out of our pockets or our bag a map that often, through use and the difficulty of folding it, has turned into a mass of wet, swollen paper, which forces us to engage in impossible exercises in the art of “origami” to consult it and finally get our bearings!”
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
www.dezeen.com
www.pizzolorusso.com
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ORIENTATION & MAPPING
ACCESS Richard Saul Wurman Wurman created in 1962 the ACCESS city guides, using graphics and logical editorial organization to make places such as New York, Tokyo, Rome, Paris and London understandable to visitors.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
They incorporated idiosyncratic efforts to dissect mapping content and present it in fragmentary form, arranged by neighbourhood (along with other, more arbitrary, “systemic� criteria). The Access series was especially distinguished by its use of coloured text and other intrusive graphic devices to reflect editorial judgments regarding restaurants, museums, parks, and other categorical destinations, and generally to interpret the urban fabric for visitors presumably unable to do so for themselves. www.wurman.com www.wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Richard_Saul_Wurman http://www.wurman.com/rsw/
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F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Colour-coding is a very important principle in the Access city guide collection. By “scrolling� through the books one can easily realize what kind of city district one is reading about at the moment due to a simple colour code.
Shopping streets are simplified mapped along a straight street (try out with shop signs)
red - food blue - hotels black - sights green - shops Wurman especially highlights shop signs, and iconic building in minimalistic black and white drawings, which are easily recognizeable in the real world. (example ACCESS SF, p. 174 27
Mental Maps
The Idea is to create a digital map, which works the opposite way, maps work at the moment. At the moment information and data visualizations are rendered on top of geographical content, as it was already possible on good old paper maps. But the actual potential of digital maps is not fully tapped here. Nowadays we have the possibility to create dynamic maps, which interact with the data the user and the user’s smart-phone constantly produce and record.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Why should one see the same map twice? Maps can change dependent on our speed, location, and surrounding, the context we are in and the city we visit. The idea is to look into how cities are diverse, how one can easily recognize certain characteristics of a city and how this can be made visible and visually played back to a dynamic map. The map should focus on the current moment.
The concept of your napkin drawing implemented into a geographical map.
Another idea is to find out, what is the mental picture, the user has of the surrounding in their mind, and to draw near this picture. At the moment everybody has a picture individually in their mind. My hypothesis here is, that by filtering and recording the interaction of a person with the environment, one can speculate by what the user is influenced and how the single user perceives the world. This of course is a very vague claim and has to be proven. from Here to There Kris Harzinski
http://360.here. com/2014/05/28/architect-prejudice-interview-yanko-tsvetkov/ http://atlasofprejudice.tumblr. com/post/85538501004/theworld-according-to-a-facebookuser-from-atlas
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User Focused Maps
“Social networks automatically put us at the centre of the world, almost like medieval maps. The importance of events starts to become gauged by whether it appears in your news feed. This is very different to when we were younger and watched TV. Then, we were observers on a reality that was edited by news producers. Now, we’re in this alternative reality, where we’re always the focus of attention. It almost doesn’t matter what the earth ‘really’ looks like from this skewed perspective.” Atlas of Prejudice 2 by Yanko Tsvetkov www.360.here.com
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
The World According to a Facebook User Atlas of Prejudice 2 by Yanko Tsvetkov www.360.here.com
http://360.here.com/2014/05/28/architect-prejudice-interview-yanko-tsvetkov/ http://atlasofprejudice.tumblr.com/post/85538501004/the-world-according-to-a-facebook-user-fromatlas
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PICTURING THE REAL WORLD
HORIZONT
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The Distorted World
Distorted view of the world
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Dependent on our origination, we all have a distorted view on the world, influenced by: - our culture, - education and - origin.
on the left page: “View of the world from 9th avenue� cover of the New Yorker by Saul Steinberg from 1976. Saul Steinberg www.pinterest.com http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237001999110070446/
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PICTURING THE REAL WORLD
PLATZHALTER
HORIZONT
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Navigation through Socializing
From Here to There A map of Manhattan composed of hand-drawn maps by various New York pedestrians whom the artist asked for directions. Pretending to be a tourist by wearing a souvenir cap and carrying a shopping bag of Century 21, a major tourist shopping place, I ask various New York pedestrians to draw a map to direct me to another location. I connect and place these small maps based on actual geography in order to make them function as parts of a larger map.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
nobutakaaozaki.com
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Psychogeography
“The study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.” (Guy Debord , Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, 1955) The idea of urban wandering relates to the older concept of the flâneur, theorized by Charles Baudelaire. F I E L D A N A LY S I S
“a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities... just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.” (Hart, Joseph (July/August 2004). “A New Way of Walking”) 34
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
The map of Paris has been cut up in different areas that are experienced by some people as distinct unties (neighbourhoods). The mentally felt distance between these areas are visualized by spreading out the pieces of the cut up map.
The distance could also symbolize the disorientation when coming from the tube, or getting of transportation.
www.imaginarymuseum.org
http://imaginarymuseum.org/ LPG/Mapsitu1.htm
The red arrows indicate the most frequent used crossings between the islands of the urban archipel (separated by flows of motorized traffic).
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Mental Maps
A mental map reflects the environment as a subjective individual perceives it in one moment.
on the right page: map project www.kh-berlin.de
Mental maps are often not equivalent to the real world as it is seen objectively: The subjective perspective of the observer distorts the map and makes a mental map out of it.
A cognitive map is a subjective impression of a spatial situation (city, country, positioning, distance). F I E L D A N A LY S I S
cognitive map wikipedia.org
Often mental maps simplify geographic maps to the most significant features.
If people are asked to draw their surroundings are: - straightening out lines - right angles humans tend to think in right angles and seem to imagine intersection in right angles - people map clearly to a north-south, east-west bias - cognitive maps are often distorted well known areas take up more space with more love to detail as unknown areas 36
37 F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Personal Maps
“Armed with hundreds of blank maps Becky Cooper had painstakingly printed by hand, she walked Manhattan from end to end. Along her journey she met police officers, homeless people, fashion models, and senior citizens who had lived in Manhattan all their lives. She asked the strangers to “map their Manhattan”. Soon, her P.O. box was filled with a cartography of intimate narratives: past loves, lost homes, childhood memories, comical moments, and surprising confessions.” F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Map who you are. Map where you are. Map the invisible. Map the obvious. Map your memories.
Maps are more about their makers than the places they describe. “Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers” by Betty Cooper, abramsbook
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39 F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Using Technology to Visualize the Natural World
Landscape “Landscape is the context and the source of inspiration for Ms. Lin’s art. She peers curiously at the landscape through a twenty-first century lens, merging rational and technological order with notions of beauty and the transcendental. Utilizing technological methods to study and visualize the natural world, Ms. Lin takes micro and macro views of the earth, sonar resonance scans, aerial and satellite mapping devices and translates that information into sculptures, drawings and environmental installations. Her works address how we relate and respond to the environment, and presents new ways of looking at the world around us.” www.mayalin.com
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
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41 F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Three Dimensional Maps
blueline no 4 / andrea pramuk http://shopmazama.tumblr.com/ post/77736607921/room135-bluelineno-4-print-by-andrea-pramuk
Relief Source unknown
F I E L D A N A LY S I S San Francisco Bay https://www.etsy.com/de/listing/65806067/san-francisco-bayoriginal-8-x-10?ref=shop_home_ feat_4
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both maps unknown source line-n http://gregklassen.bigcartel.com/ o-4print-by-andrea-pramuk
line-n http://gregklassen.bigcartel.com/ o-4print-by-andrea-pramuk
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F I E L D A N A LY S I S
River Console table by Greg Klassen
Maps Beyond the Surface
From traditional cartography we already know different methods to illustrate the 3rd dimension on a flat surface.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Tactile Mapping by Park Hye-Joung www.parkhyejoung.com http://www.parkhyejoung.com/ index.php?/works/three-minute-presence/
The 3rd dimension can be illustrated by working with: structure relief light & shade to evoke a fake plasticity.
Hawai www.etsy.com
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https://www.etsy.com/de/listing/97418861/hawaii-schwamm-8x-10-ebenen-papercut
Italian Hill town of Assisi
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Elevation Model of Antarctica www.bkg.bund.de http://www.bkg.bund. de/nn_171660/DE/Bundesamt/Downloads/ Kostenlose-Karten/Antarktis-Karten/Hoehenmodelle/Daten/Borg-Thumb3,property=poster.jpg
Structure www. pepe-meme.tumblr.com http://pepe-meme.tumblr.com/luminaires
Hรถhenmodell der Antarktis www.bkg.bund.de http://www.bkg.bund.de/nn_171660/DE/ Bundesamt/Downloads/Kostenlose-Karten/ Antarktis-Karten/Hoehenmodelle/Daten/ Borg-Thumb3,property=poster.jpg
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Mapping Information to Geo-Data
A Subjective Map of New York City A personal map of New York City showing all movements during one year. Tracked with OpenPaths which is represented in blue and red yellow dots are locations where photos were taken. All 10,760 data points were collected between March 2012 – January 2013. Vincent Meertens www.vincentmeertens.com
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
http://www.vincentmeertens. com/a-subjective-map-of-newyork-city/
Mapnificent Berlin http://www.mapnificent.net/berlin/#/?lat=52.5431632588353&lng=13.424150060204965&zoom=11&lat0=52.54211926442734&lng0=13.391362737207032&t0=15&lat1=52.54211926442734&lng1=13.391362737207032&t1=15&lat2=52.54211926442734&lng2=13.391362737207032&t2=15
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Views from street level http://fluxicon.com/blog/2013/01/maps-to-tell-a-story/
“Denis Wood has created an atlas unlike any other. He surveys his small, century-old neighbourhood Boylan Heights in Raleigh, North Carolina by first paring away the inessential (scale, orientation, street grids), then by locating the revelatory in the unmapped and unmappable: radio waves permeating the air, the paperboy’s route in space and time, the light cast by street lamps, Halloween pumpkins on porches. [...] These maps have a traditional rigour, but they also have “fingerprints”—a gamut of subjective arguments about the relationships between social class and cultural rituals, about the neighbourhood as “transformer,” about maps’ impermanence and fragility—rejecting the idea that they convey a single, static, objective truth. Together, they accumulate into a multi-layered story about one neighbourhood that tells the larger, universal story of how we understand and define the places we call home.” www.sigliopress.com http://sigliopress.com/book/everythingsings/
The Light at Night on Cutler Street. both Denis Wood Songlines, www.deniswood.net http://places.designobserver.com/slideshow/everything-sings-maps-for-a-narrative-atlas/30358/2098/7
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F I E L D A N A LY S I S
Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas
Distorted Maps
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
TimeMaps by Vincent Meertens www.vincentmeertens.com http://www.vincentmeertens. com/timemaps/
When mapping data to a geographic map, there are mainly two options one can opt for: Mapping the Data to the geographical correct map. Mapping the geography to the data, which leads to geographical distortion. For which of the options one decides is mainly dependent on the purpose of the information designer. Often the geographically correct map is easier to read, one can clearly decode the data and the geography stays objective.
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Distorted maps, however, are better to give the user a feeling of what the visualized data means. In the shown examples it is very obvious that places, which are further away have a longer travel distance, even though they might be geographically seen closer to the starting point.
F I E L D A N A LY S I S Time Axis Map of Japan - Starting points in Tokio (above) and Osaka (below). 1968-73.-Kohei Sugiura http://chaudron.blogspot.de/2009/04/kohei-sugiura-snakagaki-stakada-time. html
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Abstracted Metro Maps
Metro maps try to touch the essence of cartography by showing spatial phenomena in the most informative way. F I E L D A N A LY S I S
“They are not so much about reference systems and projections, but rather mental associations around relations in space. Every city has some kind of distinctive topographic element which dominates the geographic urban space. Typically it’s a spatial relation to a main river (or other water bodies), but it could also be something else e.g. a park (take a look at Valencia in Spain). This dominant element creates a relative reference system of the city.
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F I E L D A N A LY S I S
all maps are from a public transportation competition by the massachussets bay transportation authority www.mbta.com
In Warsaw, Poland many street signs have a little icon which indicates if the street is parallel or perpendicular to the Vistula river. Also building numbers grow in the opposite direction from the river. This shows that such an informal reference exists even in the formal world, but what’s more important mental reference systems allow for topographic distortions, where the most important thing is to keep the correct relation to the river. Creating the best topographic model of the reality, typical for most of the maps we know is not that important.� Aleks Buczkowski www.geoawesomeness.com 51
S TAT E O F T E C H N O L O G Y
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STATE OF TECHNOLOGY
Status Quo at what state are we at the moment
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Pictures Of The Real World
“We need to go beyond just the digital version of the paper map. We need to use the power of digital computing - make the map the actual application and interaction canvas. A neighbourhood is not a static thing, people are tweeting, the band is playing around the corner, a subway is leaving, traffic is building up, so the maps need to become real time dashboards.� S TAT E O F T E C H N O L O G Y
Michael Halbherr
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55 HORIZONT
Third Dimension
S TAT E O F T E C H N O L O G Y
Today we have an exact 3 dimensional model of our surroundings. Every single stone is scanned by high resolution 3d scanners, which drive on top of cars through the city. In this way companies are collecting a lot of information, but until now there is no real use of this data. Some of this information will be indirectly used e.g. for autonomous driving. But at the moment there is no real concept of use for this information besides spying, U Umberto Eco described the same problem in his essay “the world in the scale 1:1”. Joan Robinson emphasized the dis utility of a 1:1 maps and other overly detailed models:
“A model which took account of all the variation of reality would be of no more use than a map at the scale of one to one.” Joan Robinson www.wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation
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S TAT E O F T E C H N O L O G Y
The map shows the area around the city of Krems close to the Wachau, UNESCO world heritage and famous for its wine terraces. – The laser scan map (upper image) also visualises land boundaries in an own layer. It greatly reveals a landscape of wine terraces, a small river, but also artificial objects as roads and dams. The bottom image shows an aerial image of the same area. www.geoawesomeness.com
http://geoawesomeness.com/lidar-use-public-austria/
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departing
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
getting lost
orienting
finding the way
arriving
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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Orienting wher am I? what is next? where is my way?
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HORIZONT
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[trace]: follow or mark the course or position of (something) with one’s eye, mind, or finger. a mark, object, or other indication of the existence or passing of something.
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
verb: noun:
Will Burgard www.wcburgard.com
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Traces in the Real World
on the left: oxidized mirrors David Derksen Design
thebeatthatmyheartskipped.co.uk
michael chase areaofinterest.com
oil spil catastrophy
www.wdcs-de.org
concrete floor stencilling naturalarearugs.com
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
earth quake new zealand welt.de
Kintsugi: As a philosophy it speaks to breakage and repair becoming part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
Kintsugi [Japanese: golden joinery] is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer resin dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum a method similar to the maki-e technique. 62
63 T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
Human Sensing
“The majority of the natural world gets by with just one or two senses — typically light and touch. A plant that grows to follow the apparent motion of the sun or the Venus fly- trap closing over an insect is merely reacting mechanically to a stimulus.
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
We, on the other hand, see light and shade but perceive objects, spaces and people, and their positions. We hear sounds, but we perceive voices or music or approaching traffic. We taste and smell a complex mixture of chemical signals, but we perceive the mix as ice cream or an orange or a steak. Perception is the "added value" that the organised brain gives to raw sensory data. Perception goes way beyond the palette of sensations and involves memory, early experiences and higher-level processing. What you hear, for example, is not just a simple sum of the sounds collected by each ear, but a bigger picture. Various processes come into play, some of which allow the brain to tell the direction of the noise.” Quick Guides for Early Years: Physical Development, Linda Pound
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Perception is the "added value" that the organised brain gives to raw sensory data.
Spatial Recognition
Map Types Donald Appleyard divides maps into two categories:
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
Spatial Maps including landmarks, districts, edges
Sequential Maps consisting of paths and nodes
“When people are asked to draw a cognitive map of their area, those maps usually can be categorized as sequential maps. Spatial elements are more likely to be added in the local area of the city than in other parts. Also the travel mode plays a big role here. People who travel mainly by car tend to draw more sequential maps, and pedestrians are more likely to draw more spatial elements but are less sensitive to distances. “ Environment and Behavior, Donald Appleyard, 1970
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Perception of Cities
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
perception of a city every individual perceives a city differently
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KEVIN LYNCH
Every individual perceives a city differently. This perception of a city depends a lot on the familiarity with a location, and the motivation of moving or beeing in a certain location. Perceptible physical objects of the environment (Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, 1960, the MIT Press)
T H E OR ET IC A L BAC KG ROU N D
Paths - channels people use when moving (streets, canals, railroads)
Edges - bounderies between two phases (shores, railroad cuts, walls)
Nodes - strategic spots in which users can enter and choose the direction (junctions, places of break in transportation)
Districts - sections of the city that are perceived to be one unit
Landmarks - physical, visually identifiable objects (buildings, signs, mountains)
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FIELD ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
Experiencing the City important apects of a city
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WHAT MAKES A CITY GREAT?
“A new study released by planning and design firm Sasaki Associates found that food is a major driver of the American urban experience: Eighty-two percent of urbanites appreciate their city’s culinary offerings, and a new restaurant is the top reason nearly half of those surveyed would venture out to explore different parts of their city. The majority of city residents also consider food and restaurants to be the most outstanding aspect of cities they love to visit.” F I E L D A N A LY S I S
www.citylab.com
“What are the other essential ingredients of urban love? Study respondents seem to favor traditional architecture, with more than half saying they would like to see their city renovate historical buildings, compared with 22 percent who would like more unusual architecture. Nearly half ranked their city’s waterfronts as their favorite open space. They want less traffic congestion, better management of parking spaces, and better public transportation.” 70
Have you been to ___________? It’s central to the urban conversation.
“Restaurants are the leading force behind reclaimed waterfronts and regenerating neighborhoods, and are a key component of mixed-use development and urban retail. When a part of the city puts itself on the map, it’s often because of a wave of trendy eateries have opened there.“
F I E L D A N A LY S I S
“As planners and designers, our job is to understand what people want and balance these desires with the big picture— economic realities, cultural needs, environmental concerns, and design opportunities—ultimately helping to shape a more satisfying and sustainable urban experience.” Sasaki principal Victor Vizgaitis www.sasaki.com The State of the City Experience
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Understanding cities through social media
Livehoods Livehoods is trying to categorize areas not only by the types of places found in that area, but also by the people who make the area part of their daily life. They analysed 18 million foursquare check-ins to group nearby venues into areas based on patterns in the set of people who check-in to them. This data makes it possible to study the dynamics, structure and character of cities in large scale.
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If you prefer beautiful routes over short ones, GPS mapping algorithms are of little use.
“The way we navigate in cities has been revolutionized in the last few years by the advent of GPS mapping programs. Enter your start and end location and these will give you the shortest route from A to B. That’s usually the best bet when driving, but walking is a different matter. Often, pedestrians want the quietest route or the most beautiful but if they turn to a mapping application, they’ll get little help.” www.technologyreview.com Daniele Quercia, Rossano Schifanella, Luca Maria Aiello
shortest
beauty
quiet
happy
Daniele Quercia crowdsourced how beautiful, people think an area is by showing Google street view imagery to people and letting them rank the beauty. Each participant sees two photographs and chooses the one which shows the more beautiful location. Those photos are then plotted on a geographic map. Factors that turn out to be a good indicator of beauty are things like the number of pictures taken of a particular scene and comments associated with positive emotions. So looking for locations on Flickr that fulfil this requirement ought to produce a list of beautiful places in any city.
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Finding the Most Beautiful Route