Ben’s post last week, book as terrain, about converting any image to an interactive map with hotspots contained a link to a blog which collects info about all sorts of google map mashups. Ben’s post was about using book pages as geographic jumping-off points. However, as i read the endlessly fascinating list of other sorts of mashups it occurred to me that in addition to “book as terrain” we could also look at the idea of “Google map mashups” as a genuinely new form of expression. As I read through the wonderfully annotated list I realized that they cover the full gamut of subjects you would find in a bookstore . . . . Fiction, Non-Fiction, Travel, History, Sports, Games, Religion, Personal Growth, and Crime.
It’s interesting to realize that as our experience moves relentlessly into the virtual domain, that geography, which in the past was firmly rooted in the “real,” increasingly becomes the mechanism for organizing our activiites in virtual space.
if:book
A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book
I agree! I think the book as terrain has enormous potential and I think you and/or Ben should consider participating in this event: http://www.aag.org/humanities/ (Geography and the Humanities Symposium hosted by the Association of American Geographers). This type of thinking will cross pollinate both disciplines and help stimulate some really creative thinking. If you decide to do so I’d love to hear more about your participation so keep us posted?! Personally I love the idea of taking maps of fantastical and imaginary places and have them cross referenced between texts and authors (i.e., if one author should mention the geography of another author’s imagination). Can’t think of any authors that do that off hand, but potentially it could wind through multiple works. I’ve seen many simple annotations like those used by the Korean BBQ image but that is not necessarily book as terrain is it? It is more like footnoting? Anyway more discussions may take the idea further but regardless this conversation starts a very interesting thread about “book mapping.” Keep it going!