In Feb 2015 I visited an exhibition in London's Somerset House entitled 'Mapping the city'. I found it inspiring, so prepared a short presentation for my colleagues at HERE.com, however this is relevant for anyone interested in design, maps and street art. Approved by Pablo invited 50 international street artists to present a series of ‘cartographic’ representations of their chosen cities. Ranging from literal to highly abstract, each map was a response to the way these artists experienced and interpreted the places that they know so well. The call for submissions consisted of three words ‘Map your space’, and this presentation shows how some of the artists responded.

1. 22 Jan - 15 Feb 2015
Somerset House, London
50 international street artists present
a series of ‘cartographic’
representations of their chosen cities.
Ranging from literal to highly abstract,
each map is a response to the way
these artists experience and interpret
the places that they know so well.
The exhibition venue until recently
belonged to HRMC (the UK tax office)
and so serves as an ironic metaphor
for how these artists engage with
urban environments by reclaiming
spaces.
#mappingthecity

2. Mapping the city
“Whereas most people go about their business
concerned with the business of getting from A to B,
the street artist studies and surveys,
carefully considering the city’s potential,
looking for dialogue opportunities,
and along the way builds up a mental map
drawn from an intriguing perspective…"

4. The call for submissions consisted of three words
‘Map your space’
and this was how the artists responded.

6. 108 ‘Mind Maps of Alessandria, during the day’108 ‘Mind Maps of Alessandria, during the night’
“The way we visualise
space is radically different
from moment to moment.
Just in 24 hours, think
about the way space looks
and feels at night time
compared to how it looks
and feels in the day. It’s a
totally different way of
understanding space, so
why should it look the
same on a map?”

7. Chu ‘Buenos Aires’ 2012
Chu’s map communicates the
kinetic nature of street life.
"I tried to create a map of Buenos
Aires marking my usual
movements around the city. I am
used to moving around it a lot,
from one side to other, and
sometimes it is really chaotic and
stressful. However it is also really
where I get a lot of inspiration."

8. Jurne 2013

9. Augustine Kofie
‘Overcast Angeles’ 2014

10. Sixe Paredes ‘Barcelona’ 2013

11. Sixe Paredes ‘Barcelona’ (detail), 2013
You can recognise the street
layout and landmarks like the
Sagrada Familia.
“It's using a style of his work he
calls circuits. He's obsessed by
numbers, numerology and the
Kabbalah, and he has his own
numeric system and cuneiform
form of writing. All of the letters
and numbers reference
moments in his life or people
that he's met. He shows these
experiences and hides them at
the same time.”

12. Egs, Finland

13. MOMO ‘Tag Manhattan’ 2013 [original project 2006]
A hand-drawn map and a
video presents the
largest tag in the world.
The 12.8km continuous
line was created using a
device attached to his
bicycle to drip his name,
MOMO, in block-long
letters across the entire
width of Manhattan.
Hidden in plain sight, the
physical line only creates
meaning when it’s
abstracted to the level of
the whole city.

14. Spok, Madrid

15. Will Sweeney ‘Cabott Square’ 2014 Brad Downey, USA

16. “I went some years ago to Vienna,
I visited one of the best museums
I’ve ever been; The Globe
Museum. There I found… a globe
from the XIV century; America
was not there… of course, the
continent was discovered by
mistake in 1492! So instead of my
country there was a big ocean…
That gave me the idea of creating
a globe of the world as I know it. I
got rid of all the maps and
references I have around and
created this globe completely from
my memories and my geography
knowledge. It is a hard memory
exercise, the results are not
always as expected and it is
interesting to compare it to a real
globe.”
Martin Tibabuzo ‘Mi mundo/ Meine Welt’ 2013

17. Swoon ‘Bangkok’ 2012
Known for creating
scenes that carefully
examine the
"relationship of people
to their built
environment”, Swoon
chose the Thai capital
Bangkok as her
inspiration. In her work,
the body and the city is
intertwined - the
experience, as she
says, "of becoming part
of the fabric of the city".

18. Shephard Fairey ‘Berlin Tower’ 2011

19. Mapping the City, 22 Jan - 15 Feb 2015, Somerset House, London

20. Presented by
Kieran McMillan
Senior UX Designer working in Berlin
at HERE.com, a global leader in mapping.