[Tropical Cyclones, 1945–2006. Data from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Citynoise (Bill Rankin), March 2008.]This month's artist is making the recent rounds on blogs, including The Lulu Bird and the email subscription for Apartment Therapy. Rankin is a graduate student in the departments of history of science and architecture at Harvard, with side projects including his site, radicalcartography, and work featured in exhibitions and publications. Aside from the site, his maps can be seen in a traveling exhibition, Experimental Geography. The show is currently stationed at Rochester Art Center, in Rochester, Minnesota, February 7 - April 18, 2009. Other destinations planned over the next two years include Albuquerque, Maine, and Ontario.
Is cartography art? Absolutely. It takes a conceptual mind to wed science to aesthetics, building visual models of reality. Rankin distills data from urban development, sociological and personal data, astrology, agriculture, and area codes (to name a few!) into visualizations in both design and animation. I was immediately taken with the first map that I saw (photo at right), as it simultaneously speaks to the analytical and aesthetic pleasure points of my brain.
Links to further exploration of Rankin's work:
Official web site of radicalcartography
Experimental Geography
Bill Rankin student web site
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