2007 // The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller // Page Number 2

The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

i'm currently on daily blogging sabbatical, but i'll be back very soon.

Submitted Today: Cathedral Quilt – Signed [Web Biennial 07]
|| 2/5/2007 || 2:49 pm || Comments Off || ||

Links to Interactive Geospatial Environment powered by Zoomify

cathedralquilt signed cut Submitted Today: Cathedral Quilt Signed [Web Biennial 07]

Detail of Cathedral Quilt – Signed

I found the call for entries today and submitted this interactive web environment.

Take 1/3 of a day off work for 1/3 Representation
|| 2/6/2007 || 6:34 pm || Comments Off || ||

Dear fellow citizens of the last continental colony,
Have you ever told your boss you were taking 1/3 of a day off?
Hereâ€™s your chance.

Next Thursday (2/15/07) if you have any extra love for DC left in you from Valentines Day, take one-third of a day off work to lobby for one-third representation in Congress with DC Vote’s “Congress Day”

Come and tell Congress what it’s like to live in America when you are forced to sit at the back of the bus of Democracy……….

Congress Day 2007

Join DC Vote, our coalition partners, Mayor Adrian Fenty,
Chairman Vincent Gray, elected officials and other citizen
advocates as we educate members of Congress to support
DC voting rights.

Where: Cannon Caucus Room, (Room 345)
Cannon House Office Building
Independence & New Jersey Ave., SE
(Closest Metro Stop: Capitol South)

When: Thursday, February 15, 2007
- 8:30 AM: Meet for continental breakfast
- 9:00 AM: Welcoming remarks from Mayor Fenty, Chairman
Gray and others
- 9:30 AMâ€“Noon: Congressional visits

Please RSVP by e-mail to congressday@dcvote.org with
your contact information including a telephone number.

If you have questions, please call Eugene D. Kinlow
at 202.462.6000 x13 or http://www.dcvote.org

In preparation for the impossible success of Congress Day, I have redesigned DC Vote’s logo accordingly:

now with dc vote Take 1/3 of a day off work for 1/3 Representation

Related to this graphic…

People who are interested in taking the other 2/3â€™s of the day off work should consider visiting some Senators. They might not have received many valentines from DC residents the day prior and could probably use the love too.

Here are some recent video clips to watch, if you are interested:
â€¢ FOX NEWS
â€¢ ABC NEWS
â€¢ TRAVEL CHANNEL

==
A version of this was sent out to quite a few neighborhood listserves and some of my friends….

my on-line store is now operational
|| 2/9/2007 || 1:09 am || Comments Off || ||

Click on the image above to be taken to my Geospatial Art On-Line Store.Â There are about 200 maps in the store right now!

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The New DC Flag…if HR 328 passes…
|| 2/11/2007 || 10:26 pm || Comments Off || ||

flagproposed text left The New DC Flag...if HR 328 passes...

To accentuate this stupidity of 1/3 representation, I also made an animated version.
(with the 110th Congress HR 5388 was reintroduced as HR 328– and it’s still unconstitutional)

One-Third Related:
• DC 1/3 Vote
• New DC License Plates

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A periodic shift in Polar Roses for Valentines Day
|| 2/14/2007 || 6:28 am || Comments Off || ||

Original Process:
grantpark rectangle6 A periodic shift in Polar Roses for Valentines Day

Shifted to the right (or left)
grantpark rectangle shift6 A periodic shift in Polar Roses for Valentines Day

Zoom of Grant Park Quilt

Last month I thoroughly explored the applications of geometric tessellations using the polar coordinate filter. After doing a bit more research I discovered how similar these “amazing circles” appear to be very similar to the sinusoidal curves of a Polar Rose. They use the equation:

cos A periodic shift in Polar Roses for Valentines Day

In the original process I used to construct last month’s Polar Roses each interation added one tile to the entire panorama. I believe this represents the a in the equation. And after each iteration, there would be a new pedal added.

Today’s discovery is the realization of how these panoramas are wrapped around a cylinder to produce the pedals when the polar coordinate system is used. I’ve been working in whole numbers only, yet if the tiles are wrapped in a cylindrically fashion using a half shift, there will be a change in the pedal’s layout.

So to create this shift, half of one tile is removed on each end (notice above), and when they connect after being wrapped around a cylinder they still form a perfect tessellation and thus new pedal configuration when the filter is applied.

The result of this polar shift is quite interesting- a 90 degree rotation for each iteration.

View the 90 degree difference:
Old:

grantpark polar6 A periodic shift in Polar Roses for Valentines Day

Shifted 90 degrees:

grantpark polar shift6 A periodic shift in Polar Roses for Valentines Day

I can now apply this periodic shift to each of the geometries to produce a completely new set of Polar Roses. This should be interesting.

Censored today in theMail…
|| 2/15/2007 || 6:05 am || Comments Off || ||

On Sunday I e-mailed Gary Imhoff who moderates the bi-weekly discussion list called theMail. This is the second time I have posted to the theMail, with the first being an e-flyer for “North South East Westminster,” and to be honest I am quite disappointed in the slight censorship Gary employed in my original entry. Specifically, he opted to not include what I feel to be the best piece of media: the Taxation Without Representation Google Map!

Here is what I sent to theMail:

The New DC Flag (if HR 328 passes) and other fractional media
Nikolas R. Schiller, DC [at] NikolasSchiller [dot] com
Co-Chair, DC Statehood Green Party

Fellow friends & enemies of fractional representation,

Last Thursday I received a phone call from the executive director of an organization that is promoting fractional democracy on behalf the disenfranchised residents of Washington, DC. I was kindly asked to refrain from using Photoshop to alter copyrighted images, even when done as a parody (see below). However, when an injustice is currently being promoted in the name of democracy, I cannot in good conscience be silent, or even 1/3 silent.

So to complete my fractional trilogy, I have redesigned the DC flag to represent the 1/3 representation DC residents will get with the passage of the unconstitutional DC Fair and Equal Voting Rights Act of 2007 (hr 328). I also created an animated version to accentuate the stupidity of claiming 1/3 representation as progress.

The flag is based on this proposed design:
http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/flagproposed.gif

The new DC Flag (if HR 328 passes):
http://www.nikolasschiller.com/images/flagproposed_text_left.gif
http://www.nikolasschiller.com/images/flagproposed_animated.gif

Fractionally Related (if HR 328 passes):
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/new_dc_plates.jpg
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/now_with_dc_vote.gif

Marginally 1/3 Related:
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/dc_is_the_capital_of.gif
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/utah_is_the_capital_of.gif
- Look at both and ask yourself, “Who is still getting screwed?”)

Interactive Google Map:
http://nikolasschiller.com/gis/taxationwithoutrepresentationmap.html
- This Google Map Mashup randomly plots 51 DC Flags around the U.S. Capitol and when clicked reveal 51 different messages about Washington, DC.

Don’t forget, if you have the time, take one-third of a day off work on Thursday and go to Capitol Hill and tell Congress what it’s like to be forced to take the backseat on the bus of democracy.

After the flap is what was actually distributed:

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Taking a break for bit…
|| 2/20/2007 || 4:10 pm || Comments Off || ||

I’ve been working on a story about my maps for the Washington Post as of late. I am quite excited about the story and I’m looking forward to it’s publication. However I’ve completely stopped making any new maps, instead I’ve been porting all of my existing maps to my on-line store.

The process to move my maps from storage to the the store is rather simple: open up my previously made maps, resize them (from 18,000×12,000 to 9,000×6,000 – 216 megapixels to 54 megapixels), and save them as a .jpg, then upload them to the store. While the process appeared quite easy at first, it’s taken f.o.r.e.v.e.r! What I’ve realized is that I need to get a new computer.

On my computer it takes roughly 30 minutes to open the original map, 15 minutes to resize it, and another 15 minutes to save it. Nearly an hour for each map. Thankfully my friend Alicia just received a new iMac G5 and has been gracious enough to let me bring my external hard drives over to her place and let me process the maps on her computer. It only takes 3 minutes to open, resize, and save each map! From one hour to 3 minutes flat. Ummm, yeah, I see a new computer on the horizon….

The upside of her computer’s processing speed is that I’ve been able to make a few new derivative maps in the process. Originally when I started making the Mandala Projections I would use a special round light to create the circle. This is why in some of my older mandalas the lighting appears to fade at the edges.

A few months ago I figured out a way to simply take an existing Quilt Projection map and cut out a perfect circle in Photoshop. This allows me to make a mandala out of any of my old maps quite easily. The next few postings are some of the maps I made while processing the maps for the on-line store.

Houston Mandala
|| 2/24/2007 || 4:18 pm || Comments Off || ||

: saved at 9,000 X 9,000 :
houstonmandala Houston Mandala

Derived from Houston Quilt

When processing Houston Quilt for my on-line store I made this derivative map in Photoshop.

View the Google Map of downtown Houston, Texas

View rendering details:

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Philly Mandala #2
|| 2/27/2007 || 4:46 pm || Comments Off || ||

: saved at 9,000 X 9,000 :
phillymandala2 Philly Mandala #2

When processing Philly Quilt #2 for my on-line store I made this derivative map. By taking the original map and keeping only the exact circular center of the map, I was able to easily construct this mandala.

View the Google Map of downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

: detail :
phillyquilt2 cut Philly Mandala #2

View the rest of the details:

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Denver Mandala
|| 2/28/2007 || 11:30 pm || Comments Off || ||

: rendered at 10,000 X 10,000 :
denvermandala Denver Mandala

Unlike my two most recent maps which were created in Photoshop from a previously made Quilt projection, this map was originally made on July 15, 2005. As I stated about a year ago, I didn’t put it on-line originally because I was unhappy with how it looked. Well times change and so does my taste in what I think looks pleasing….

View the Google Map of downtown Denver, Colorado

View Rendering Details:

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random banners now greet you
|| 3/3/2007 || 9:38 pm || Comments Off || ||

In an effort to make my website a bit more Internet Explorer friendly, I decided to remove the eponymous flash animation that used to sit on the left side of the screen (It never really showed up properly on IE anyways). The banner has now been replaced with a php script that randomly picks a file in a folder on my website. I made 15 banners that all feature my second generation digital signature in the southwest corner. Each time you visit a new page you will get a new banner displayed (some exceptions). View the entire lot after the fold…

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The Lost Series
|| 3/6/2007 || 2:02 am || Comments Off || ||

Using the same php code that rotates my banners, I have begun to make my next generation of maps. Since I am not actively making too many new maps at the moment, I’ve decided to start dabbling with methods of displaying my maps.

Five files were placed on-line for nearly each map I made in 2006: the full-size map (18,000×12,000 pixels reduced to 1,200×800), a zoom-to the center (reduced from 4200×4200 pixels to 800×800 pixels), a direct zoom-in to the center (at 800×800 pixels), and two details picked randomly from somewhere on the map (Harvard Quilt – NE linked for visual explanation).

By copying these various files to new folders on my website I’ve developed a means to randomly select any of the five different files. The result is a series of interactive web pages that are defined by geography and type of cartographic detail. The main drawback to the php script I am using is that you never see the name of the map you are looking at. Paradoxically, this also means you really are lost in the maps. A compass will not help you much :)

Lost in America’s Last Colony
|| 3/10/2007 || 9:05 am || Comments Off || ||

Click the image above to view my first map in the “Lost Series”

View the map’s Legend after the fold:

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Interactive Inequality
|| 3/11/2007 || 10:23 pm || Comments Off || ||

interactive inequality Interactive Inequality

This interactive map is pretty simple. On the left are places around America and on the right are places in Washington, DC. Above each image I have written “CITIZENS” and “COLONISTS” to denote the fact that DC residents are second-class citizens who currently suffer taxation without representation.Â Each time you click, you get two new locations in America, but because of geography, the people living in the respective locations are not equal.Â Interactive Inequality.

Here Be Dragons by David Montgomery
|| 3/14/2007 || 1:25 pm || Comments Off || ||

here be dragons wp Here Be Dragons by David Montgomery

Front page of today’s Washington Post Style Section:

Here Be Dragons
Through Nikolas Schiller’s Eye, Aerial Maps of Familiar Places Become Terra Incognita
By David Montgomery

He is sly, this rebel cartographer. He makes maps that look like quilts, masks, feathers, acid trips. You can find America in these maps — you can probably find your house in these maps — if you can find the maps at all, since their creator has posted them to an online underground.

Nikolas Schiller, 26, is the god of this alternative reality. Making maps at a frenzied pace of one every two days for the past 1,000 days, he has done everything he could to keep himself off the map of the World Wide Web.

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The Daily Render By

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future.