This week I have been wrestling with my map. They are complicated things maps and I have never tried to produce one in such detail before. The basis for it is there now. I need to add my photographs. The couple I have tried out I have looked very blocky and undynamic like a photo stuck on a map (see below) so they need some further thought. For the paper version of the map I will produce a key, I would like to frame the photographs with different colours to represent the different uses of the buildings depicted. For example, red for entertainment likes pubs and restaurants and green for monuments and buildings of architectural interest. The online version should be much more interesting. Each picture will be a hot-spot that, when clicked, opens up a new page with information and pictures about the place selected as well as links. So for the Imperial War Museum, brief description and history like the one below, photographs (both mine and others) as well as a link to the museum’s website.
The main thrust of the map is to create awareness for the students of the space around them, in relation to the past, present and future. There will also be more practical elements such as where to go for food (something it took me many months to find out). I would also like to include links to travel websites and ‘whats-on’ type websites so hopefully students will consider this a worthwhile resource. Ideally I would like users to be able to add their own opinions and photgraphs but this will have to depend on how well I take to webdesign. There will certainly be no reason why I cannot create a link to a dedicated Flickr group. Unfortunately many very interesting placs fall out of the range of this this map, just to the North. I would love to include new development in Southwark between Blackfriars’ Rd and Southwark Bridge Rd,the many galleries and attractions on the South Bank, a major terminus like Waterloo and venues such as the Young Vic. However to extend into this area would both stretch my ability to cope with the workload and result in a map more about Waterloo and the South Bank and less about Elephant and Castle. So here is the ‘rough cut.’
‘I have been looking at different maps on the internet and with the exception the big map providers on the web (multimap and Google maps) I cannot find many that are both innovative and easy to use. Many website have maps of London but few are interactive, most are very basic.
I have been to the Imperial War Museum website researching the history of that place. It is the original Bedlam, a hospital for the insane that was open to the public. It was a popular source of amusement in the 1800s for Londoners to go and watch the mad men and women ranting, chained to the wall in their cells. After the hospital closed it was decided it should be a museum to commemorate the dead in World War 1. Its mandate was later widened to include WW2 and than the dead in all conflicts involving the Commonwealth, in recent times it has opened up new premises across the country including a state of the art building in Salford.
An image of the Bethlem Hospital for the insane (Bedlam) in 1843.I’m off to take take some pictures now…
