The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

The art of Map Fest by Teresa Mendez – The Christian Science Monitor
|| 12/14/2007 || 12:42 pm || Comments Off on The art of Map Fest by Teresa Mendez – The Christian Science Monitor || ||

featured: NOVA ET ACCVRATISSIMA TOTIVS TERRARVM ORBIS TABVLA [2007 Remix]

Exactly 9 months to the day after David Montgomery’s article in the Washington Post was published, Teresa Mendez writes a great piece about maps and she includes section about me:

__snippet__[with links added]

They are artists such as Ms. Contro and the 11 others featured in “The Legend Altered: Maps as Method and Medium,” the Carrie Secrist Gallery exhibition. And they are artists such as Nikolas Schiller.

Except Mr. Schiller hesitates when asked to define what he does. Is the young D.C. resident, profiled earlier this year on the cover of The Washington Post Style section, an artist? Is he a mapmaker?

“I make pretty maps or artistic maps,” he says, searching for the right description, “or boutique maps.” He finally settles on “conceptual cartographer.”

Schiller takes US Geological Survey aerial photographs and plays with them.

“The Quilt Projection” which his website (www.nikolasschiller.com) calls “A Journey Through Geometric Geography” is his most prolific series. It consists of 350 images that look less like maps and more like something you might see peering through a kaleidoscope.

There are the “quilted” neighborhoods of Mount Vernon in Baltimore, Md., and Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. There is George Washington University in D.C., which Schiller attended for a time, and the University of Texas at Austin. Look close enough and you can identify familiar landmarks: streets, parks, a monument. But step back and the tessellation makes for a wonderfully abstract mosaic.

Schiller’s work is a way to see the world anew, to be an explorer when nearly every corner of the earth has previously been combed.

“With the world already charted and mapped,” he says, “geospatial art allows you to discover it all over again.”

Schiller is something of a curator of maps. He can point one to websites of antique maps, industry maps, and calendars detailing map exhibits around the world. The Internet, it would seem, abounds with cartograms. Twice, he mentions the Waldseemueller Map.

Also included on the Christian Science Monitor’s website is a 90 second audio report filed by the author. She talks about my Lenz Projection and how it was developed.

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Dupont Lenz Quilt Animation
|| 8/7/2007 || 9:46 pm || Comments Off on Dupont Lenz Quilt Animation || ||

Click on the screenshot above to watch the 30 second animation of Dupont Circle. [12 mb download]

Miami Lenz
|| 1/6/2006 || 7:20 pm || Comments Off on Miami Lenz || ||

: rendered at 8,000 by 6,000:

Thats only a half signature :-) Check the google map, but imagine you can zoom in even further into the map above than you can on google maps! And my maps do not have my name embedded in them like Google’s do….

Adams Morgan Lenz #2
|| 10/23/2005 || 8:58 am || Comments Off on Adams Morgan Lenz #2 || ||

: rendered at 10,000 X 7,500 :

rendering details:

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Adams Morgan Lenz
|| 10/20/2005 || 7:04 pm || Comments Off on Adams Morgan Lenz || ||

: rendered at 10,000 X 7,500 :

The last rendering I made for the Lenz Project was back on July 22nd, so I figured that it was about time to make another. I definitely like the way it turned out because I rotated the central plane at a 45 degree angle and it made the intersection of 18th & Columbia more pronounced.

I was going to make a second version by using the “inverse” of the source imagery, but my Mac’s internet connection (via it’s 25ft ethernet cable) was screwed up and I had to restart the computer (in hindsight, I realized I didn’t need to reboot grrr). I did save how I wanted make version two, so I might make it this weekend…..

rendering details:

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The Washington National Cathedral Lenz
|| 7/22/2005 || 7:16 pm || Comments Off on The Washington National Cathedral Lenz || ||

This rendering was made for a very special friend of mine. You can see her apartment building all over this rendering (I believe you can see it about 20 times!) and you can see the Washington National Cathedral 8 times reflected around the center (hence the name).

Although the cathedral is actually an Episcopal church, I think that the layout of the rendering, and more specifically, the way Wisconsin Ave. forms the central ridge, makes the image look very similar to the Irish Cross (below).

This is actually the second rendering because I had to scrap the first one because there was a slight defect and has been deleted. The square within the circle was too large and I had to shrink it to make it look like the rest of the renderings in the “Lenz Project.” Regardless, I look forward to seeing this one hanging on her wall shortly :-)

view rendering details:

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Ballwin Lenz #2
|| 7/6/2005 || 2:44 pm || Comments Off on Ballwin Lenz #2 || ||

My mother received her print of Ballwin Lenz a few weeks back and left a message on my phone about how much she loves it. She said she got out a map and was able to find the our old apartment building in the image. Hearing about her doing this I felt compelled to make a second rendering!

Using the same style as the “Mandala Project,” on the inside, I placed the 6 way reflection inside of the “Lenz Project” template, and I absolutely love the way it turned out. My old apartment building is all over the center of the rendering! Nothing hits home, like your old home :-) I guess you could also say that around the center is the true Star of Ballwin (or I’d like to think!).

Read my entry on the first Ballwin Lenz.

view rendering detail:

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Jefferson Lenz
|| 6/11/2005 || 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!

view rendering detail:

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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.

view rendering detail:

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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 :)

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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: