The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Swampoodle Quilt #3

Using this portion of Swampoodle Quilt #2, I constructed this derivative Diamond Quilt Projection map of the area around the 2008 Art-O-Matic venue in the Swampoodle neighborhood in Washington, DC.

After making this map I conceived an alternative procedural route to constructing future derivative maps. Those of you that have read this blog for awhile know that I do sequential maps, where you can literally see the visual process of what part of the previous map was used to construct the next map. However, this recursive process shows all the intermediate maps, when sometimes I just want to get to the final map. So the idea is to make smaller maps, like 12,000 x 12,000 (square not 3:2) and sample these maps first and not publish the intermediate maps. For example, I make a map of a new location and after processing that map, I sample it and render another map, sample that map, and render that map as the final map of the geography. The difference here is that I would not publish the intermediate maps as [City] Quilt #2, #3, etc. but just the final map. I’m going to try that next.

View the Google Map of the Swampoodle neighborhood in Ward 6 of Washington, DC.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Quadrant Map of DC - Translated into Latin - "Novus Columbus Quadrans"

5/13/2008 || 4:43 pm
Swampoodle Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Swampoodle Quilt #2

Using this portion of Swampoodle Quilt, I constructed this derivative Dodecagon Quilt Projection map of the area around the 2008 Art-O-Matic venue in the Swampoodle neighborhood in Washington, DC. Up next is second derivative map that samples a portion of this map.

View the Google Map of the Swampoodle neighborhood in Ward 6 of Washington, DC.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: enriching results

5/7/2008 || 6:42 am
Swampoodle Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Swampoodle Quilt

I chose this site because it’s where Artomatic is at!

Swampoodle is an old name used to describe a small section of the H Street neighborhood in Northeast Washington, DC. The area was first settled in the 1850s by immigrants fleeing the Irish potato famine. A geographic approximation of its borders would be K Street to the north, G Street to the south, 1st Street NW to the west, and 2nd Street NE to the east. Through the center of it, just east of North Capitol Street, ran the principal branch of Tiber Creek, creating the low swampy ground from which the area took its name.

A few years ago developers created the North of Massachusetts Avenue Business Improvement District, or NOMA and have tried to rebrand the neighborhood to something different.

When making the map I concluded that at the time of the aerial photography’s acquisition, it was still called Swampoodle and not NOMA. The same goes for Google Maps, which shows an even older glimpse (from spring 2002) of the changing neighborhood.

Personally, I think the name Swampoodle gives the area character in name. In contemporary identity, the area is mostly a bunch of warehouses and parking lots that are about to be developed, so I look forward to seeing a Swampoodle map in 10 years. It will look drastically different and I just hope its not called some focus group-approved abbreviation of a geographic region.

View the Google Map of the Swampoodle neighborhood in Ward 6 of Washington, DC.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Columbia Quilt #2

12/3/2007 || 7:42 am
2008 Washington, DC Area Calendar

Below are the months of the calendar featuring places around the Washington, DC metropolitan area and links to their respective entries so that you can see the map’s full size. Read more about the other calendars here.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Temporal Stereography of Schiller Park, Illinois

5/3/2007 || 4:10 pm
RFK Quilt #3

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

The RFK Stadium maps have been quite popular with sports fans. The original two feature the stadium set up for soccer, but since the original aerial photograph was taken in 2005 the stadium shows a baseball diamond where the Washington Nationals play. Like the previous two, I rotated the source imagery 45 degrees so that the tessellation had the East Capitol Street bridge creating an X in the center. However, unlike the previous two, this source aerial photograph was taken at .16 meters per pixel and did not allow the area around the stadium to fit into the standard size I use for all my tessellations without losing the source spatial quality. Regardless, I am very pleased with this map! Stadium clusters….

View the Google Map of RFK Stadium in Washington, DC.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Mount Pleasant Quilt #3

5/2/2007 || 12:30 pm
Eastern Market Quilt #3

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Earlier this week the historic Eastern Market building burned down. I decided to make another map in it’s memory. I made 4 different tessellations before settling on one that placed the building on a line of symmetry. I really like the way Pennsylvania Ave. creates the star design!

View the Google Map of Eastern Market in Washington, DC.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Columbia Heights Quilt #3

4/30/2007 || 9:16 am
Capitol Hill Mandala, draft #2

: rendered at 9,000 X 9,000 :

Read more about this commission & the first draft here. The client wanted more of their house and I hope this version will suffice!

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Columbia Heights Quilt

4/9/2007 || 3:27 pm
Capitol Hill Mandala, first draft

: rendered at 9,000 X 9,000 :

A couple weeks ago a visitor contacted me about places where she could see my maps printed out. After finding that she ived here in DC, I invited her & her husband over to look at some of the maps I have in my house. After viewing the lot, they really liked the one I made of Park City, Utah and asked if I would make one of their house that looked similar. This is the first draft. I will post the subsequent drafts as they are made….

The development of the tile I used to for this draft is actually something akin to an advancement in my own artistic endeavors. I originally made two tiles to be used- one that featured a diamond and the other featured a 16 sided polygon. I ended up using the 16-sided polygon to surround the house because it looked similar to the centers of the maps I’ve created using the Octagon Quilt Projection. The advancement I speak of is that by using an 16 sided polygon shape and having octagonal symmetry, I, for the first time, have created a unique geometric illusion.

In the Park City map I used a hexagon to outline the house and as one moves their eyes around the map they can see the hexagon rotates in conjunction with the symmetry used in the map. The illusion is that the houses rotate inside of the polygon but the polygon itself does not!

For example, along 45 degree line of symmetry, a hexagon or diamond would be rotated 45 degrees (while still being a hexagon or diamond in shape), however, in this map the polygon does not rotate because the polygon has exactly twice the number of lines of symmetry being employed in the map. Only upon closer inspection can one see that the contents of the polygon rotate along the lines of symmetry, while the polygon itself does not.

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