Connecting Places

Traces of New York: 4/1/06-3/31/07 By Neil FreemanI honestly put off posting about City of Glass because I could not think of how to write about the book in relationship to concepts of place. The plot, riveting in its own way, captivated me so much that it took me awhile to sort out my thoughts about space, place, and City of Glass. I was immediately attracted to the “pursuit” of Stillman, and the meticulous tracking of his path around the Upper West Side. I contemplated writing up a walking tour of that area for my post, following one of the letter shapes scrawled in the pages of the book. I also toyed with the idea of following Quinn’s route from the Upper West Side, all the way downtown, and up again before retreating to the alley by Peter Stillman’s residence on 69th Street. When I began thinking about the route, I found myself wondering if it in fact formed some sort of pattern of letters that would reveal some fundamental truth about the book’s relationship to the city.

It doesn’t.

All my ruminations on routes lead me to think about different visual interpretations of places, specifically in the field of mapping. The MTA has a particularly distorted view of New York City, as depicted in the skewed subway map. Obviously, maps are subject to some form of distortion, but I wonder: what information does one prioritize on a map and why? Clearly the MTA just wants to fit every station along every line on one page without regard to topographical accuracy. But what other ways can we envision New York as a navigable place?

Neil Freeman is an artist and urban planner whose website, Fake Is The New Real, offers alternative interpretations of cities, and even countries, as places. I was first introduced to the site through its page on Subways At Scale, a presentation of major subway lines in cities around the world on the same scale. The results make for some intriguing line drawings, but also offer some kind of navigable map. Those familiar with the cities whose subway lines are depicted on the site can discern in some way or another where different areas of the cities are. In the New York subway drawing, you can tell where Manhattan is, where Central Park is, and even where Staten Island is, without any designated markers. In another exhibit, Freeman depicts Skyscrapers In Order, for the cities of New York, Chicago, and Boston. Again, they are line drawings of skyscrapers taller than 100 meters, drawn in height order over the same plain. The visual effect is a bit frenetic, but it reminded me of Quinn’s realization that Stillman was spelling the TOWER OF BABEL on his walks. Questioning our own visual orientation in space definitely complicates our notion of “a sense of place.”
Skyscrapers In Order: New York: By Neil Freeman

In another clever exercise, Freeman depicts Connected Places, by connecting all the identically named places in the United States with a line. (Buy a print, for a mere $300!) The result could pass as a clear map of the Lower 48.
Connected Places: By Neil Freeman

If I was really on top of my game, I would draw out the route of Quinn’s ambling journey across Manhattan and post the image here. I will aim to accomplish that by the end of the semester.