Flying Over

Flying Over, 12-10-14, Full Spring Studio

What is this? That's what I thought as I skimmed thumbnails of some photos from late last year. At first I thought it was from the plane when I took a trip out west, but it was the wrong date. Then from the pictures around it, I realized it was from the River Journey project, and the students' trip to the University of Minnesota to visit the John R. Borchert Map Library and learn about GIS story maps from U-Spatial.

Ryan Mattke, Head of the map library, had generously prepared some interactive map activities, and pulled out a suite of current and historical maps for the students to explore different views of the Mississippi River and the Twin Cities Area. In trying to photograph a sampling of what the students were viewing, I caught the map's protective film reflecting the ceiling lights. Now, this accidental image prompts a map-meditation for me to think about how hard it is to see the land directly: from the bottom up, the map maker has only traced and labeled what they want to see. And as we fly over, what of our own reflection further filters the view?