Turkish researcher Kerim Bayer has created a Map Section book for the Istanbul Design Biennial 2018. The book encompasses 5180 thumbnail images sourced from 1366 maps showcasing different techniques and graphical details. The “Atlas of Atlases”, as Bayer calls it, was made to particularly fit in the School of Unmaking—the Biennial’s venue which has the project on display.
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However, he stressed that while he had reduced the maps to their artistic and graphical aspects, the other parts of the map are equally important.
Photography: Kayhan Kaygusuz
This deconstruction brings out the graphics and design elements of the map. It introduces a new perspective to view a map, which is generally perceived as a source of information.
Bayer had started selecting the different thumbnails to go into the Map Section book, but he found that he was highlighting certain maps and eliminating others. He started, unconsciously, pushing certain graphical elements and ignoring others because they wouldn’t look as good in print. That’s why he chose to randomize the selection: to remove the possibility of bias on his part.
Photography: Kayhan Kaygusuz
“Randomization felt more honest, and it frequently delighted me with selections that I wouldn’t have made myself or ideas that would never have occurred to me on their own,” said Bayer in the interview. “For the purpose of highlighting the graphics of the maps and providing a resource, which is the mission of the project was anyway, randomization worked just as well, if not better.”
Photography: Kayhan Kaygusuz
A custom piece of software cropped the 1366 maps in Bayer’s archives to create thumbnails. The collection focuses primarily on transportation, scientific, and planning maps of the 19th and 20th Centuries.“I’ve been looking for a way to better relate to my own maps for a long time,” he said. “Maps always have been a learning tool, even if I don’t necessarily fully yet understand how. They’ve also been a resource and an aide for learning a great many other things.”
Photography: Kayhan Kaygusuz
In the book’s introduction, Bayer tries to ensure that no one misunderstands the book to be a regular atlas. “Although presented in a book the size of an atlas, it contains not maps of countries but maps of the graphics devices we use to translate and produce spatial information: lines, dots, colors, symbols, illustrations, shading, text, insets, hachures, legends, grids, and contours.”
By reducing the maps into its artistic elements, Bayer has tried to transform his collection of maps into a design resource.
“Our discussions with Jan Boelen, the curator, concentrated on how my collection was a strong resource but was underutilized,” Bayer continued.
Photography: Kayhan Kaygusuz
The project is designed to be a representation of Bayer’s massive collection of maps while being a strong and useful resource for designers and students of design, alike. The project, which is presented with the technology of printing—the common aspect of all maps in his collection, is presented as an atlas of atlases, a book of books.
The Istanbul Design Biennial “School of Schools” is scheduled between 22nd September 2018 and 04th November 2018.
