This was a mapping project to show which organizations and parsons MFADT students were affiliated with and  their track of interests or primary domain. Each student was sent a survey asking to identify which track within the MFADT they were on, and then to list their interests and any organizations they belong to.

Here’s a glimpse of one prototype of the survey…

When I first read the answers to our survey question “What larger social concerns are you interested in?”
Some of the answers amazed me.

women rights in developing countries
prison industrial complex
gay rights
cultural reverence
sustainability
education
supporting independent booksellers
The Robot Revolution

These are my peers and mentors.  My colleagues and associates. Awesome!
And a Q&D prototype map on photoshop …

So I have a few iterations of the mapping assignment for Interface.

I’m still not happy with the colors. I’d like to see it in more neutral organic tones with a darker background, reflecting more the personal nature of the questions and fitting for the fall semester, also to soften to the geometry of the map and the technical aspects of the questions.  Just a thought.

I also didn’t account for layout time.  Tried a few grids before coming up with one that might accommodate the variety of answers we received.  Some answers allowed me to rethink how to approach the geography of the layout.  Like Colleen’s answer “none” to the track she was on.

So here’s a couple of  jpgs of the map so far … (the psd is now close to 100 separate layer so it’s getting kind of boggy … I need more ram)

And starting to see some real overlap …

By the looks of it, we need a seminar or workshop on networking.

My personal map has been effected tremendously by the results so far.   From my final personal map I’ll make a list available of the organization, conferences, websites, social networks, institutes and societies that I collect for myself.

The glow layer is also turned off on this one.  I made a layer to give it the old DOS green computer glow.  It’s on in the image below but there is not enough mapping going on in that one yet to really get the effect.  OH! And in the animation I was thinking of a “ping” (but a hollow low ping like sonar) for every time a dot appeared.  Also the sound could be layered as well so that when a dot appears beneath or on top of an existing dot it was somehow signified differently in the sound as well as the size.

Wonder how it’s going to look animated?  hmmm …

So I’m running out of room – I now there has to be a better way to do this, lol.  I have seven people left to add to the map and with each new addition several other targets have to be changed graphically.  This sometimes involves locating who is attached to that target and adjusting their map.  I like the way it’s looking except the blue is too difficult to read.  I think I can apply a filter that will take care of that.

So far …

This is the final map …

This is in need of further refinement as far as the color and readability, but I am out of time for this one.

I’m working on my personal map now.  It is completely different visually. Here’s a sneak peek: