hit reload to see a different LOLMap

LOLMaps combines various historic maps & my geospatial art with popular image macro phonetics popularized by LOLcats, LOLgeeks, LOLgays, LOLpresident, LOLlibrarians etc. It also combines some of the “All of your base…” text as well as some Latin words used in old maps. As this project continues I expect the maps to get more creative and go beyond just bad grammar and combine some new elements (probably a Google Map with all the maps georeferenced) and produce a few more maps of this ilk. Read more about the different macros here.

The inspiration for LOLMaps was a comment made by a friend about creating more maps with text (“You are here!“). Since most of my maps do not contain any text and I have over a thousand map details to choose from, I figured I could highlight a few maps with some LOLtext. At first I decided to use the same random script from the Lost Series to create a randomized version of LOLMaps. After the first draft, I found that the maps needed some type of a legend to explain the location and words on the map, thus the second revision involved adding unique numbers to each map which are listed sequentially below with translated text, links to the source map, and in some cases further reading or opinions. The background for each page still pulls a random “zoom” from around America, which creates an interesting cartographic juxtaposition by mixing actually places with humor and in some cases political statements.

There are currently 51 LOLmaps with 143 different backgrounds which gives LOLmaps 7,293 different viewing combinations.

View the LOLMaps website

LEGEND OF LOLMAPS
# – Text – Source – Notes
1. In Your Google, Blown in yer maps – A reproduction from the original Ptolmy world map. The faces represent the winds blowing from different directions of the known world – Link to original
2. Right Between The Eyes – Meridian Hill Park Mask – A visual play on words
3. In Your Bay Bridge, Loving Up Your MacArthur – MacArthur Maze Quilt – Highway that connects San Francisco and Oakland was closed due to an accident.
4. In Your Harvard, Rejecting You Proper – Polar Coordinates of Harvard – 2 Roses
5. Late For Class, Again – USC Quilt – More on Leetspeak
6. Corruption Starts Here – L ‘Enfant Map of Washington, DC – Caption by taxi gang
7. In Your Hills, Stealing Your Beverly – Bevery Hills Quilt
8. In Your Head, Deconstructing Your Route – Pondering the Pearl River
9. Occidental LeCorbusier – Park La Brea Quilt – Occidental = Latin for Western – Le Corbusier is the urban planner who inspired the design of Park La Brea in Los Angeles, California.
10. At Your Wall Waiting To Go Home – Israel / Palestine 1993 – Handala wanting to go back home but blocked by an illegal wall
11. Middle Intelligence Agency – C.I.A. Quilt #2 – I am from the “mid-west” part of America
12. Merides Via Merides Occidens – Austin Quilt #2 – South by South West aka SXSW
13. All Your Clouds Are Belong To Us – Salt Lake Quilt with Clouds – All Your Base…
14. Westside Represent – Park Circle Quilt, Inglewood, California – Roni Size + Dr. Dre
15. Impeach The Booger – Ball of Destruction – White House + New Orleans (Katrina +1)
16. In Your School, Making Friends With You Enemies – Columbine Quilt – “Make friends with your enemies so you may learn to love them.”
17. In Your (Military Industrial) Complex, Waging Peace – Pentagon Quilt
18. In Your Basilica, Loving Your God – Catholic University Quilt – Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
19. East Side – Mount Pleasant Quilt – Oriens = Latin for East
20. Bowling for Earth – Blue Marble Beauty #2
21. In Your Darfur, Getting Killed by the Janjaweed – Darfur was on the map in 1858 – More on Janjaweed
22. East Side Sucks, West Side Sucks – San Anotonio Sprocket – Yelled in bleachers at baseball stadiums across America
23. In Your Stadium, Rooting for the Opposite Team – L.A. Dodgers Stadium Quilt – 2006
24. Please Meet Me in Atlanta – Atlanta Quilt #2
25. Meet Me in Saint Louis – Saint Louis Arch Quilt – Film: Meet Me In Saint Louis (1944)
26. I Paid 500 Million Dollars for a New Stadium and all I got was this lousy map – RFK Quilt #3 – Public funds should never be used to finance large projects for monopolies
27. All Your World Trade Centers Belong to George W. Bush – Lower Manhattan Quilt – Keep your coins, I want change
28. In Your Hood, Tagging Your Playground – Vermont Avenue Sprocket
29. North Side – Detroit Quilt #2 – Septentrio = Latin for North
30. Oil from Fossils is Old School – Baton Rouge Quilt – An Oil Refinery Reflection
31. North South – Polar Coordinates of GWU – 4 Roses
32. East West – Polar Coordinates of Charleston, West Virginia – 6 Roses
33. Verlan (reverse) – Portland Quilt – More about Verlan
34. Decentralize The Park – Central Park Quilt – North #2
35. East Side – Cathedral Quilt – Signed in Arabic
36. In Your Casino, Stealing Your Roulette Wheel – Las Vegas Quilt #2
37. Your Apartment Complex Sucks – Ballwin Lenz #2 – The Apartment Complex I grew up in
38. Please Get Lost – Icositetragon of Northwestern Station in Chicago
39. I Love This Place – Boise Quilt
40. Ban Cloned Maps – Abstract George W. Bush – Also see “More Bush than you ever wanted to see”
41. Free! – Special Conditions Apply – NASA’s Blue Marble
42. All Your Monuments Are Belong To Us – Washington Monument Quilt
43. At Your Border, Crossing It For a Better Life – Ciudado Paso Quilt
44. At Your Memorial, Praying For Peace – Oklahoma City Quilt
45. Laying On Your Beach, Looking at Your Lover – Waikiki Quilt
46. Finding Your House, So Easy A Caveman Can Do It! – Home Quilt #6
47. Invisible Representation – The U.S. Capitol Is Off Limits to the Public – D.C. Colonist
48. All Your Suburbs Are Belong To Us – Buena Park Quilt
49. Invisible President – The White House Is Off Limits to the Public
50. Iraq, Laughing Out Loud – Photo found on Flickr
51. WARNING: contains geography not suitable for minors – DC & NYC via Girls Gone Wild censorship – Satellite image from NASA
Fonts used: Media Gothic and Helvetica

Other Projects from the Lost Series:

• 51 Random Banners Now Greet Visitors
• 5 More Random Banners Now 'Greek' Visitors
• 40 Random Banners Now Greet You
• The Infinite E-mail - An Artistic Potential Security Flaw in Apple's Mail Application [Inbox Art]
• Postmodern Cartography: You Are Probably Not Here
• New Splash Page Graphic Added: "Come in. Don't steal anything."
• The Grand Juxtaposition
• Hello Cherubs - A New Splash Page Graphic Added
• you are not here - splash page update #2
• you are not here - splash page update
• Random Banners Now Greet You - continued
• Socio Ditata Labore - Revisited
• LOLpoverty
• LOLmaps
• 1,423 maps now greet visitors
• The White House is Off-Limits to the Public: An Exploration of Censorship's Perimeter
• The U.S. Capitol is Off-Limits to the Public: An Exploration of Censorship's Perimeter
• THE GEOCOLONIAL SLOTS - Match 3 for Statehood!
• Interactive Inequality #3
• Interactive Inequality #2
• American Stereography #3
• American Stereography #2
• American Stereography #1
• Interactive Inequality
• Lost in America's Last Colony
• The Lost Series
• random banners now greet you