*** VOTING January/Feb 2012 Lite Challenge - Compass Rose ***

[atpollard]

(my English got a little rusty in the last couple of months. I hope my English was able to transport the message)

Easy part first, you communicated well.

Of course we should appreciate out-of-the-box-thinking and creative ideas about how to reinvent certain things. But on the other hand we already have a wide variety of styles that have worked in the past so why "change a running compass rose" and people want to see how old concepts can be filled with new life by using modern techniques (vector-graphics) to realize them ...

When I was in Architecture School, I worked on an Urban Infill project in a ‘historic neighborhood’ (putting a new building on a vacant lot between two old buildings). I faithfully reproduced the segmented arch windows that dominated the neighborhood to help my design blend with the character of the area. It was heavily criticized by my peers and the guest reviewer (and rightly so) for intellectual dishonesty.

I had forgotten that this is not 1890. Even if every window as far as the eye could see was an 1890 window or modern reproduction of an 1890 window, I was a Twentieth Century (then) ‘Architect’ and this was a building that needed to reflect the current ‘volksgeist’ [I can use the term since outside of urban planners, you will understand its meaning – ‘Spirit of the People’ for everyone else] not the spirit of another age.

This is not the Sixteenth Century. So we can learn from the Renaissance masters, admire their work, incorporate their techniques (and reinterpret them with modern equipment), but we have an obligation to ourselves to also reflect our age (or the age that we are trying to capture for some fantasy work). We work so hard at the Cartographers Guild to ‘age’ the paper and capture the spirit of another era, that it sometimes feels like THIS age, our own era is being short changed.

That is why I am attracted to innovation. I search for inspiration for the next millennium.


I am glad to see from your post that I did not offend you. That was not my intent. Your compass rose was a beautiful composition, rich in detail, subtle in color. A peak of modern technical excellence and fully deserving to win the silver compass.

I’d love to see a version of it that you feel would work on a plan of a floating airport or a map of the first lunar outpost or a flying city served by airships (the 1930s Future) – something to reflect ANYTHING but the Renaissance. [This is strictly 100% my personal opinion and taste.]

[wally-d-feed]

Easy part first, you communicated well.


When I was in Architecture School, I worked on an Urban Infill project in a ‘historic neighborhood’ (putting a new building on a vacant lot between two old buildings). I faithfully reproduced the segmented arch windows that dominated the neighborhood to help my design blend with the character of the area. It was heavily criticized by my piers and the guest reviewer (and rightly so) for intellectual dishonesty.

I had forgotten that this is not 1890. Even if every window as far as the eye could see was an 1890 window or modern reproduction of an 1890 window, I was a Twentieth Century (then) ‘Architect’ and this was a building that needed to reflect the current ‘volksgeist’ [I can use the term since outside of urban planners, you will understand its meaning – ‘Spirit of the People’ for everyone else] not the spirit of another age.

This is not the Sixteenth Century. So we can learn from the Renaissance masters, admire their work, incorporate their techniques (and reinterpret them with modern equipment), but we have an obligation to ourselves to also reflect our age (or the age that we are trying to capture for some fantasy work). We work so hard at the Cartographers Guild to ‘age’ the paper and capture the spirit of another era, that it sometimes feels like THIS age, our own era is being short changed.

That is why I am attracted to innovation. I search for inspiration for the next millennium.

I see your point. Though I have to admit, that when it comes to architecture, I really love those projects, that try to integrate old into new (like for example we have an old castle in germany where they rebuilt the major tower out of glas ...http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Be...8Westerwald%29).

You are talking about us at the cartographer's guild being so focused on the past and on replicating it and furthermore about yourself missing innovation and mapmaking visions for the 20(21)th century. But I think the question is in how far mapmaking as we do it is applicable for future scenarios or even for the future. If you'd want me to draw a map as I think it would be used now or in future ... a map that goes hand in hand with the volksgeist, I would just say: "I can't ... the maps you are talking about aren't created by drawing them ... the maps of the present aren't lines on paper they are maybe vectors on displays that are automatically generated by machines that use data transferred to them by GPS-sattelites or in the future they migth be 3D-Holograms which depict whole starsystems or galaxies ... I can't do that" ... Of course I've already seen maps beautifully drawn maps of galaxies or starships ... and they could definitely be the star of every SF-RPG-Book but I don't believe that those maps of galaxies or starships would really be used inside the world they depict.

Or in other words ... I think most people here don't see themselves as architects but as restorers.

I am glad to see from your post that I did not offend you. That was not my intent. Your compass rose was a beautiful composition, rich in detail, subtle in color. A peak of modern technical excellence and fully deserving to win the silver compass.

Thank you very much ... I deeply appreciate that.

I’d love to see a version of it that you feel would work on a plan of a floating airport or a map of the first lunar outpost or a flying city served by airships (the 1930s Future) – something to reflect ANYTHING but the Renaissance. [This is strictly 100% my personal opinion and taste.]

It will definitely take a while for I am in the midst of my final exams at university and also I want to point out that I don't really think that such a compass rose would really be used but ...