The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

Adams Morgan Quilt 2005
|| 6/30/2007 || 11:13 am || Comments Off on Adams Morgan Quilt 2005 || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Its been a couple years since I made a map of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, DC [wiki]. The first quilt of Adams Morgan deviated from my normal practice at the time because I modified the colors in the source imagery and the second quilt was a completely experimental map (which I have yet to revisit).

This time around I decided to go all out and make a whole series of Adams Morgan quilts using 8 different tessellations to create 8 unique maps of the area. The result shows that even when the exact same source imagery is used in each map, the nature of the tessellation creates a completely new design for the area.

Similar to the 4 maps I created for U Street in 2005, where the tessellations were labeled Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast, the tessellations for the Adams Morgan quilts use these same tiling methods, but also include the 90 degree rotation for each tile, to create a total 8 different tessellations.

Unlike the U Street Series which only featured the Dodecagon Quilt Projection, this series features 2 Hexagons, 2 Squares, 2 Diamonds, and 2 Octagons, making a great example of the types of geometry found in the Quilt Projection.

One of the reasons why I decided to make the series for Adams Morgan (of all places in DC) was that I figured that a lot of people enjoy going to and living in Adams Morgan and thus people would be interested in possibly obtaining one or more of these maps. I also was under the impression that I was going to beat Google to the map, which would make these maps slightly more unique because people would be looking at future (assuming that Google would eventually update their servers with this same imagery).

However as I started to snoop around in Google Maps I found that they had already updated their servers for much of the DC area. Moreover, there was a lot more to their update that had been covered by any bloggers or in the media. I am going to be saving this analysis for an upcoming entry because I think it’s quite interesting and even newsworthy.

View the Google Map of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, DC

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Geography & the Humanities Symposium Program Cover
|| 6/29/2007 || 6:40 pm || Comments Off on Geography & the Humanities Symposium Program Cover || ||

A couple weeks ago my former boss at the Association of American Geographers called me up asking if I would be interested in having some of my maps displayed at their Geography & the Humanities Symposium (which took place last weekend). I exitedly responded by sending him a listing of the framed maps I had available for hanging. They selected RFK Quilt and The Modern Geographer and the following day I was asked if I’d give them permission to use the The Modern Geographer for the cover of the program. Above is the final version of the program cover. Click here to view the entire program [PDF].

Queen Anne Quilt
|| 6/28/2007 || 3:43 pm || Comments Off on Queen Anne Quilt || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

I made this map for a friend of mine. I am excited to hear that it might be hung in quite a nice place.

View the Google Map of the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle, Washington

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A New And Accurate Map of the World by John Speed [2007 Remix]
|| 6/25/2007 || 6:46 pm || Comments Off on A New And Accurate Map of the World by John Speed [2007 Remix] || ||

In honor of the cartographic activities over the last three years, today I made what I feel to be one of my best historic map mashups yet. Using a map by John Speed (published in London in 1651) obtained from the Yale University Library, I overlaid two NASA Blue Marble satellite images over the known world. Aside from that, I didn’t do anything else to this map (like cryptic seventeenth century typography) except to add my name in the lower left hand corner.

Text from the top:
“A NEW AND ACCURATE MAP OF THE WORLD – Drawn according to the truest descriptions, latest discoveries, & best observations that have been made by English or Strangers. 1651”

The original engraving includes:
â€¢ the 4 basic elements: Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire
â€¢ the constellations for both the southern & northern hemisphere
â€¢ portraits 4 of the most important explorers up until 1651
â€¢ the science behind eclipses

The original map was made in 1651, the NASA Blue Marble images were released in 2002, and the two combined today; a 356 year enrichment.

If I want to sell this map I’ll need to first obtain the copyright from the Yale University Library, which is $500! Bleh. It’s too bad that the Library of Congress does not have this map available.

View the Interactive Version:

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University of Texas at Austin Quilt #3
|| 6/23/2007 || 3:19 pm || Comments Off on University of Texas at Austin Quilt #3 || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Read more about the process used to make the map here.

View the Google Map of the University of Texas at Austin

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University of Texas at Austin Quilt #2
|| 6/22/2007 || 3:14 pm || Comments Off on University of Texas at Austin Quilt #2 || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Read more about the process used to make the map here.

View the Google Map of the University of Texas at Austin

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University of Texas at Austin Quilt
|| 6/21/2007 || 3:02 pm || Comments Off on University of Texas at Austin Quilt || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

I finally got around to making the maps for the University of Texas at Austin. I’ve been sitting on this imagery for a few months and with the arrival of a guest from Austin I felt it was time to revisit Austin, Texas again.

For these three maps I used three different tessellations to create three different versions of the same geography. Unlike most of the maps in the Quilt Projection I had to reduce the source imagery to half of it’s original spatial resolution in order to create my normal sized tessellation of 6,000 x 6,000. Essentially, at 1ft per pixel the entire campus was 6,000 x 6,000 in size, so I had to reduce it to 3,000 x 3,000 to create the standard sized 6,000 x 6,000 tile I use for all the maps.

View the Google Map of the University of Texas at Austin

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LOLpoverty
|| 6/20/2007 || 6:57 pm || Comments Off on LOLpoverty || ||

While this meme is rather old, the other week I thought of a meme morph and decided to make it a reality today. Using the same php script that powers the Lost Series, I decided to take an image that represented poverty and add the LOLtext. Originally it was only going to say “I CAN HAS A CHEESEBURGER?” and when the user clicks on the kid, the background would change. This was to represent that while the mesage stays the same, the American people represented behind the kid would change, and thus the message would continue to be the elephant in the room. I decided to modify the original plan slightly and incorporate an animated gif (I am not aware of any LOLmeme that has used an animated gif) that represents the child speaking to you the viewer. Not only asking for the cheeseburger, but telling you why, and hopefully making you desire to do something about it.

View LOLpoverty

(photo from a google image search result for “poverty”)

America as a Cloverleaf
|| 6/18/2007 || 8:09 pm || Comments Off on America as a Cloverleaf || ||

America as a Cloverleaf by Nikolas Schiller

View the original, interactive version, and legend:

This historic map mashup is courtesy of Heinrich Bunting (1545-1606) by way of the Yale University Map Library.

Originally the three cloverleaves were of Africa (South/Middle) , Europe (West/Left), and Asia (East/Right) and at the center was Jerusalem. You can read more about this map at the website Strange Maps.

My rendition is San Francisco’s Financial District (West/Left), the Saint Louis Arch (South), and Lower Manhattan (East/Right) and at the center is the rowhouse in Washington, DC where I reside at.

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UC Boulder Quilt #2
|| 6/16/2007 || 10:03 am || Comments Off on UC Boulder Quilt #2 || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

View the Google Map of the University of Colorado at Boulder

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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: