Beginner's Cartography

I've always been a fan of maps, especially maps as art (If you're a fan, be sure to check out this 1944 survey of the Mississippi river delta, one of my favorites). During class, inspiration struck and I came up with this graphic summarizing my summer climbing. It's almost too abstract to be practical, but too structured to stand purely as imagery. I'll push it in one direction or other keeping it updated as the summer progresses.

July 1

'auto levels' filter in photoshop only.

June 24

After this night's initial ascent, I noticed a powerful and artificial glow up in the hills. As much as I would have loved to enjoy the night from my spot, this kind of light doesn't occur often and it's really not one of those things you can enjoy while it remains a mystery. I made the trek up the hill to find my elementary school overtaken by technology. I was shooed away by a security guard who frowned upon photography, but was kind enough to tell me that it was filming for a movie set in the 1950s. The eerily bright lights set a strange mood for the neighborhood. Upon some further research, it appears that the movie is 'The Master'. I thought that was you, Laura Dern.

June 14

June 6

Another night of climbing, again in downtown Berkeley, gave me one of the more surreal evenings I've had in quite some time (not quite as abstract as the night I found a small curved room on the outer shell of a movie theater, and listened to the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 through the wall as I lit the room with two tiny candles). This was also one of my more challenging climbs as the fire escape began partway up the second floor. At the top, I caught the moon setting, red (above) and made it through most of Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. Coltrane is basically incandescent on this recording.

May 02

I set out around midnight and got up to the top of Kresge Chapel again. Each time I make the climb I get this glorious subdued sense of panic about halfway up the ladder. Since the whole thing is probably 60 ft tall, it takes a good 2 or 3 minutes to make the climb; just enough time for your mind to get into a beautiful incessant rhythm of danger. The roof is somewhat recessed, so without standing on the paneling that surrounds the building, you're completely enclosed by the sky and the roof. Prop 215 further encloses me in the sky and it seems that summer is more here than I would have guessed.