The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

911 Mandala
|| 6/14/2005 || 6:57 am || Comments Off on 911 Mandala || ||

Last week I made a rendering I unofficially called “the circle of life,” and this week I’ve made a “circle of death” (above). Last week’s “circle of life” was at the center of the rendering (the GWU Hospital), and this one has the circle of death around the edge of the mandala in the form of the smoke of the World Trade Towers burning. The exact site of the World Trade Center falls just outside of this rendering, in Post 911 Reflection #3 you can see a better, albeit abstracted, view of what New York City looked like September 15th, 2001. While the planes were grounded throughout the United States, the IKONOS satellite was floating silently by recording the space, place, time, and recent history.

Time to go to Capitol Hill to help give a briefing on Geographic Management Systems :)

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Another cool geographer…
|| 6/13/2005 || 2:30 pm || Comments Off on Another cool geographer… || ||

via Reuters UK

LONDON (Reuters) – Prince William has gone some way to restoring the royal family’s academic reputation by earning a 2:1 honours degree in geography from St Andrews University in Scotland.

The result, announced on Saturday by William’s press office, means he has overhauled his father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who managed a lower second class honours degree in history from his time at Trinity College, Cambridge.

William’s younger brother Harry decided not to study at university after leaving school with two A-levels in geography and art and is now training to be an army officer.

William is expected to join around 1,400 other students for a graduation ceremony at St Andrews later this month.

The 22-year-old prince celebrated his degree result by taking part in the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in London to mark his grandmother the Queen’s official birthday.

Its quite prince-like to study geography isn’t it now?

Jefferson Mandala
|| 6/12/2005 || 6:15 pm || Comments Off on Jefferson Mandala || ||

This rendering marks two significant pinnacles in my geographic artistry.

The biggest step is of making a complete mandala. Before my mandalas were only reflected 4 ways (north, south, east, west) , and now I am achieving reflections of over 8 ways (north-north east, east-north east, etc), which make the final products so much more intricate and in my opinion, far superior to my older maps.

Secondly, the source imagery used for this image was what I’d like to call first derivative geospatial imagery. I have coined term to signify that the source imagery is the first derivation of a previously rendered image. In the image above, I used the rendered imagery from the center of the Mall Quilt as my source imagery for this rendering.

With source imagery’s self-similar design it’s closer to the definition of a fractal. You can zoom into a fractal to infinite, and what I think I’ve created is in effect a geographic fractal where I can take derivatives of renderings and reproject them into infinity. Each derivation will be more reflected and abstract, but I will not lose the spatial resolution so long as the final rendered dimensions are not larger than the source imagery dimensions multiplied by the number of times the source imagery is completely shown.

For example, the source imagery used to make the image above was 6000X6000 pixels, however the image above was rendered at 12000X12000 pixels. I am able to reproject the imagery larger because the actual source imagery is used multiple times within the image and in essence is doubled by the way the source imagery tessellates. Notice how you see a mirror of the Jefferson Memorial (aka 2x for every reflection), the mirroring process allows for the geographic tessellation to not lose spatial resolution when the image is finally rendered. Theoretically, I could cut out the center of this rendering, and use for my next rendering, and it would technically be considered second derivative geospatial imagery…and I might just do that :)

If this is too confusing, I’m sorry. I too am still trying to get my mind around this concept. Regardless, expect some very beautiful renderings in the near future!

View the map’s close-up details using the interactive Flash application called Zoomify

View the Google Map of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC

This map was printed over a million times in newspapers around the world.

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Mall Quilt
|| 6/11/2005 || 8:47 pm || Comments Off on Mall Quilt || ||

: rendered at 12,000 X 8,000 :

love it!

…more about the first image above tomorrow…

==
So the white building near the center of rendering is the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service building. I’ve been to a few meetings there :)

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Jefferson Lenz
|| || 12:15 pm || Comments Off on Jefferson Lenz || ||

After having Bryce crash while I was setting up the scene, I was very excited to be able to replicate the exact positions of all the objects and to finally start the rendering of this image, albeit over an hour later. This is my first rendering where I’ve gone beyond the standard 4X & 8X reflection to 12X reflection. I am very excited about where this new discovery will take my next set of renderings. Next I am going to attempt to apply this technique to the “Quilt Project“.

As for the Jefferson Lenz itself, there is a slight error in the background where the two objects meet on the seam. Although you cannot see it in the scaled down version above, the two don’t line up perfectly symmetrical- which kinda sucks, but its because I rushed that part of the setup. I was too eager to get the rendering started because of the new central reflections I forgot to see if the background looked perfect or not.

Anyways, I’ll be making another rendering shortly with this imagery…which is actually the same imagery I used for the Washington Monument Lenz, but the way the reflections turned out, you can’t see the Washington Monument, except in the background. So it was going to called Washington Monument Lenz #2, but since you can only see the Jefferson Memorial, I named the rendering accordingly.

Yeah for the weekend!

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Baltimore Lenz #3
|| 6/9/2005 || 9:09 pm || Comments Off on Baltimore Lenz #3 || ||

Wow. The artifacts left in the center make this one of the most beautiful renderings yet. It almost looks like a snowflake has appeared inside of the rendering. The time which the original USGS aerial photograph was taken (probably around 3pm) makes the rendering interesting because you can see a boat speeding toward the inner harbor on a cloudless day.

I gave my last rendering, Georgetown Lenz #2, a secondary name, “circle of life,” and I’m giving this one the name, “the inner innner harbor.” It’s partly a joke on the Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and partly a more personal dimension, of your own inner mind, where one harbors the thoughts of life.

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Baltimore Lenz #2
|| 6/8/2005 || 10:04 am || Comments Off on Baltimore Lenz #2 || ||

This rendering was made for a client so it doesn’t have my normal tag on it. It uses the Baltimore Inner Harbor as the focal point which I think the client will appreciate. The next rendering will definitely be either “Baltimore Quilt” or “Baltimore Lenz #3,” the latter will get the same reflection treatment that DC Lenz #4 got. I can’t wait to see how the inner harbor looks reflected! Look at the first Baltimore Lenz….can you imagine what it will look like with 2X more reflection? I am visualizing it right now :)

DC City Council Passes OSCE Resolution
|| 6/7/2005 || 5:04 pm || Comments Off on DC City Council Passes OSCE Resolution || ||

The Parliamentarians of the OSCE are coming to DC for the first time next month, and we are going make sure they pass a resolution condeming the U.S. government for it’s denial of voting rights to the 572,000 Washington, DC residents. This 4th of July might be more fun than last year!

A RESOLUTION
_______________

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
_______________

To declare, on an emergency basis, the sense of the Council on welcoming the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly to the District of Columbia and calling on them to adopt a resolution at their assembly in support of full voting rights for citizens of the District of Columbia.

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the â€œSense of the Council in Support of Full and Equal Voting Rights for Citizens of the District of Columbia Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Emergency Resolution of 2005â€.

Sec. 2. The Council finds that:
(1) The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is made up of 55 states, including the United States, from Europe, Central Asia, and North America, and forms the largest regional security organization in the world.
(2) OSCE institutions include negotiating, decision-making, and operational bodies, which deal with a wide range of issues including human rights issues.
(3) The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will hold its first Annual Session meeting in the United States July 1 through 5, in Washington, D.C.
(4) Approximately 572,000 residents of the District of Columbia, in violation of established international human rights standards, are denied full voting rights in their national legislature.
(5) Ensuring equal voting rights for citizens of member states is a fundamental OSCE commitment.

Sec. 3. It is the sense of the Council that:
(1) The Council of the District of Columbia welcomes the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to Washington, D.C., and to the United States.
(2) The Council calls on the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to adopt a resolution at its Annual Session observing that the approximately 572,000 residents of Washington, D.C., continue to be denied equal and full voting rights in the United State House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and insisting that the government of the United States adopt such legislation as may be necessary to grant the residents of its capital city equal and full voting rights in their own national legislature.

Sec. 4. The Secretary of the Council of the District of Columbia shall transmit copies of this resolution upon its adoption to the President of the United States, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, the District of Columbia Delegate to the United States Congress, the chairpersons of the committees of the United States Congress with oversight and budgetary jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, the presiding officer of the OSCE and to the presiding officer of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly.

Sec. 5. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in the District of Columbia Registar.

Now I really need to work on the website www.osceindc.com

quote of the day
|| 6/6/2005 || 7:50 pm || Comments Off on quote of the day || ||

By Martin Luther King

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.

Georgetown Lenz #2
|| 6/5/2005 || 10:17 pm || Comments Off on Georgetown Lenz #2 || ||

The GWU Hospital makes an interesting center of the rendering. It’s a found circle of life, where the constant flux of existence lies in geometric harmony with its surroundings.

Whitehurst looks damn cool too.

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: