Food defines a culture -sweet,spicy, rich, tart-
yet what does it say about Auckland's culture?
From the vast amount of ethnic food available, it is quite evident that there is a diverse mix of culture in Auckland. Mapping each restaurant that appears in the yellow pages, by ethnic category, this project aims for two things.
One, to show the giant variety of restaurants available to Aucklanders, not all are listed.
Two, to see how one ethnic category overlaps in geographic location with another.
What has resulted is a multi-layered map that can only be viewed by a few layers at a time. The multitude of cultures represented by the restaurants outnumber the capacity to comprehend the vast diversity at one glance.
Pick and choose various ethnic categories as you like.
Perhaps the combinations you pick defines who
you are.
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1 comment:
hi lyannie,
Your mapping comes across as very contemporary, referencing web2.0 tag clouds and showing the influence of mvrdv. I was initially confused about the presentation of your data; the images dont immediately give a sense of scale or materiality, so I am trying to combine the images of the work being installed with some of the close-up details. Please forgive me if I've got the wrong idea.
From what I understand, the viewer can layer several maps in order to compare different sets of data. The data being ethnicity of restaurant vs geographic area, bigger blobs equals more of that type of restuarant, and the largest blobs include all types of restaurant in each area. Please let me know if I've got this wrong.
So, a couple questions. Could you have used another layer of information (like colour) to help differentiate the different data sets? This might have made the images a bit more meaningful and easier to read/compare. And what do these comparisons tell us about Auckland? There is something curious happening where one blob seems to swallow or join with a nearby blob. How does this change an understanding of the categories you are working with? There is a question of scale here too, as smaller text would mean that the blobs wouldn't necessarily intersect, so perhaps its a curiousity of the mapping itself rather than the city.
It seems the insights from your mapping haven't realised their full potential in re-mapping our understanding of the city. Another axis or layer of information might help. What happened to your proposal to compare auckland's restaurant diversity with cultural diversity? I think this would be really interesting to see, and would add depth to your mapping.
Posting images of other people's work in the exhibition is a really good move. It gives a sense of context to your project, and lets the blog function as a standalone reference point for this exhibition, focussing on your work. Maybe include some text about the exhibition as a whole to make this clearer, but generally a smart move and the only blog I've seen so far to do it.
chris
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